We’ve got a box of activity ideas that we use as a lucky dip, and this weekend Sandra drew ‘ten pin bowling’ from the box. She didn’t have a strong history, but really wanted to learn how to bowl well, so I drew on my lessons from 30 years ago to try to teach her. I wasn’t in very good form and was distracted by having to score manually, because Colombian bowling alleys don’t have automated scoring, but I did my best. At the end of the second game, I was tired and ready to finish up, but Sandra felt she was on the verge of mastering her form, so we kept playing. My third game was terrible. Sandra, however, got strikes on her last two bowls, and came away with tears of joy.

Unfortunately, I didn’t get either of those on video. Thankfully, I also failed to capture her thrashing me at air hockey after bowling.

Sandra decided to dig out the selfie stick this morning and take a pic of us getting ready for the last day before the weekend. We’re off to a concert tonight and rock climbing tomorrow afternoon.

Sandra took me to lunch to celebrate our first anniversary – counted from our first kiss. She gave me three options and a deadline to make my choice. We ended up having an Indian banquet at a restaurant in Mercado del Rio, an upmarket food court we’d been to during the week after we met. The food was great and the company spectacular, and we followed it up with an hour in a park watching clouds get darker, and listening to a nearby group singing harmonies.

We decided to spend our anniversary weekend away, and Sandra had heard of a town to the west surrounded by waterfalls. We arrived at our B&B late on Friday night, lucky to have found a tuktuk when we got off the bus, because they normally stop running at 10pm. The driver, as everyone we met, was very friendly and helpful, making sure we reached our home despite poor directions from the host and despite our road being closed. Ernesto, the host’s husband, was waiting for us and delighted in recommending which waterfalls to spend our time on. Top of the list was El Chispero, which is the fall you can see me swimming under. The water was cold, but we needed the refreshing dunk as a respite from the tropical heat.

Surprisingly, the weather wasn’t much hotter than Medellin and the nights significantly cooler. One of the locals told us that this was because of the four hydro-electric systems constantly spraying water into the atmosphere, which evaporates after dark. The company running these dams, which produce 20% of Colombia’s power needs, created a path along the river, facilitating access to another beautiful waterfall, but unfortunately, that makes it very crowded, so we chose to swim in a waterhole further downstream.

We also spent some time at a restaurant just below our B&B, which ran a roaring trade for people who came to swim in the river or just lie on the grass bank. The meat fell off the bone and the flavours pleased even Sandra’s discerning pallet. We spent our last afternoon trying unsuccessfully to get a hummingbird out of the house, eventually giving up and lying on the grass outside reading together.

After almost daily rain since I returned at the beginning of February kept the ground wet, we were finally able to put down a cloth in the Botanical Gardens last weekend. While we lay there reading together, a battered, but beautiful butterfly landed on my leg, then on Sandra’s finger. We were marvelling at that small contact with nature when Sandra spotted a crocodile in a tree. Well, it was an iguana, but as big as a baby crocodile. Rather than lying along a branch as I expected a lizard to do, it was planking across a fork. At one point it came down to ground level, possibly in search of food, but a crowd quickly gathered and I saw it look around, think ‘bugger this’ and scamper back up the tree.

Today, Sandra decided to cook a lunch inspired by a recent meal at a Korean BBQ place, and rather than eat at our kitchen bench, I suggested we eat on the balcony. This quickly became a picnic shared with her lifelong teddy dog friend, Nicolas. We’re both looking forward to the day when we have a yard to properly enjoy, but for now, a balcony picnic is pretty cool.