With so much time on my hands, I took the lead on organising our trip to Rio Claro, and I managed fairly well, with some help from Sandra. I emailed the Refuge and arranged for a room, providing all the required documentation. It was better than I had imagined. The room only had three walls, the missing wall looking over the river below. The water was cool enough to take the edge off the tropical heat without being so cold that you couldn’t stay in. The Refuge put on a number of activities and we had a go at both the white water rafting and the caving. The river at this time was very tame, which Sandra was very happy with, not being a confident swimmer, and guide resorted to spinning the boat as we traversed the rapids to give the rest of us a kick. The cave turned out have it’s own stream so that we were knee-deep most of the time, and on two occasions had to jump down into a pool below, no mean feat when your only light is a headlamp. Sandra kindly gave me the opportunity to be her protector on these occasions, and I’d go again just to have her jump into my arms again.

Who doesn’t want a girlfriend who plays Pool? Sandra was keen to have a go, but in a ‘safe’ place. We found a hall near San Jose, which has the added benefit of being close to some of our favourite restaurants, and booked a table. We started with Billiards since that’s the game played most here. Sandra was the only woman at the tables, so all the men around took an interest, with many of the old men coming over to comment and offer advice. Perhaps that’s why she almost beat me that first day. We play Pool more than Billiards these days, which gives me an advantage, but she’s still beaten me a few times. Not that she counts those times because I’ve sunk the white off the black, and she wants a clean win.

Sandra hadn’t travelled outside of Medellin since she arrived, and we wanted to a whole weekend to ourselves, so we booked a nice hotel in Santa Fe de Antioquia,and enjoyed exploring this ancient capital. It has the feel of a Spanish colonial town, with plenty of white buildings and splashes of colour. Colombia was playing in the World Cup while we were having lunch after arriving and I saw her competitive spirit for the first time as she screamed at the screen. Later, lazing in and by the hotel pool, we got deeper into life stories and I learnt of her time teaching some of the poorest people in Bogota in her earliest days after uni, and how much of an impact their stories had on her. In turn, I told her of my easy life as an international bum. I also told her of my preference for living in a town where I could get more involved with the local community. Sandra said that she could cope with that as long as we were close enough to a city that she could see a movie every now and then. I think there’s plenty of room for a compromise there.

One of Sandra’s students, who had become a friend wanted to walk in Parque Arvi, a large national park in the mountains above Medellin, and invited us along. Unfortunately, she pulled out at the last moment after a big night of salsa. Sandra, Julian and I decided to go anyway, and caught the cable car up to the park only to find that we had to pay for a guided tour, which turned out to be less than one kilometre long. We later learned that the idea is to walk from the edge of Medellin up the hill to the park rather than taking the cable car. This walk is still on our list to do properly.

I joined the school’s language exchange evening on Friday, and went with the group to Social Club for some salsa dancing. Sandra met us there, looking wild with her long black curls flying free, and to my delight spent the whole night dancing with me only. That was motivation enough for me to ask her to dinner the next evening, after which we joined the group from the school at Victoria Regia. Again, she danced only with me. Apparently she was impressed that I had some sense of the beat and could do at least the basic steps. I’ve been trying to improve ever since, but I’m not sure I’ll ever be as good as the way she sees me.