Annie & Safe Go West

Day 52.  We’ve lived in Cartegena for the best part of two weeks and have developed a bit of a morning routine.  At 8am we have our Spanish lesson then from 10am-12am we “do the rounds”.  First, we head to our juice shop for a couple of fresh juices (a different juice every day).  Then we head to our coconut man for a couple of fresh coconuts.  Finally we head to the Torre del Reloj for a couple of tintos, always from the same lady, and have a natter with her using the Spanish we learnt earlier that day.  She seems to “know a man who can” in town and helped Safe find someone to fix his glasses.

This morning while sipping on our juices (today’s offerings were Guanabana and Borojó) we happened to sit next to a smiley old Columbian lady called Helene who’d lived in Germany for 30 years but now lives alone in a district of Cartagena just outside the centre.  We talked about life and politics in an interesting spaghetti of German and Spanish words in the same sentence.  It turns out that she doesn’t quite live alone … she has 18 cats and three dogs to keep her company!  We’re invited round for dinner tomorrow to say hello to them!

Here are some interesting items we saw for sale today whilst doing the rounds:

Why buy popcorn loose when you can have it in balls?

Rat poison seller - direct and to the point

Sometimes you need a letter typing or a form filling in.  These guys are happy to oblige:

Professional form fillers

And the fruit of the day is … Caimito!  A strange fruit which looks like a large passion fruit from the outside but on the inside has a squidgy blancmange like purple flesh which oozes pearls of white liquid when you press on it.  If you scrape your spoon too close to the skin, however, you end up eating a mouthful of glue!

Caimito

P.S. Isn’t it strange how you learn a new word in a foreign language then all of a sudden everyone you speak to uses that very word in every other sentence?