San Andres Island, Colombia 🇨🇴 

After a first day of pool lounging, today I decide to explore more of the island.  I am staying on the west side of the island with calm waters for swimming and fabulous snorkelling but no beach. My hotel rents bikes so I grab one deciding that this is a cheap means of transport but also good exercise. 

 I take the short cut across the island and emerge on the other side to a fabulous line of palms framing blue sea and white sandy beaches. Whilst I could have stayed here, I want to maximise the bike hire and see more so I ride along the road towards the main part of the island. The beaches are fabulous and in the main not crowded. I cycle past Sound bay and San Luis before making it to Rocky cay. At this point I am realising that this is a hot sun and it’s starting to feel difficult so I turn round and pull off to a restaurant for a cold drink.

This restaurant is sat on the beach and don’t charge for their loungers, so I make myself comfortable. It is actually much better sat with a sea breeze and the water is lovely and warm. I have lunch and spend a few hours here, right up until I feel like I am burning and realise I have forgotten to bring sunscreen. I am getting pink so I cover up as much as I can and hop on my bike back to the west side. This is a hot slog but I can jump into the pool when I get back and enjoy a bit of shade to cool off.

My hotel is quiet but has a few querky guests including a Canadian who is only staying a night to enable a flight to Cali and a Trade representative from Budapest that make tonight interesting over a few cold beers.

Medellin, Colombia 🇨🇴 

I am excited today for Tejo! This is a game played Colombia wide and was invented by indigenous people prior to the Spanish arriving. They used to play it with a gold ball with gold targets but the Spanish, spotting the gold, traded it for iron and gunpowder. I have roped Tom in to play and have booked a court with the only gringo that plays the circuit, Chris.

We make it to the court in a district called Envigado just as the court time starts and Chris spots us. He is American and very welcoming, patiently explaining how we throw and scoring options. We are going to throw from half the regular length to give ourselves a chance.  Essentially I just wanted to hit the gunpowder but I’ll try and explain the basics of the game;

The guy that organises the court is called a Canchero. The target area is filled with clay and a metal ring that has 4 triangle packets of gunpowder (called Mecha) around it. When you landed in the middle of the Ring it’s called a Bocin and worth 4 points, but when you land in the middle and get an explosion it’s called a Monona, winning you 6 points. You play 2 Tejos each and the closest to the ring takes a point. The hook that you use to take the tejo out of the clay ground is a Gancho.

Tom is from Holland so we made it England versus Holland, but with my fierce competitiveness I was in it to win it. The other bonus is beer is served as you play, and this seemed to loosen up the game. I was elated when I first hit the gunpowder, and feel these explosions could be introduced to make other games to make them more interesting. It was a really exhilarating game, (which I won!)

We made our way back to El Poblado and after a quick dinner I introduced Tom to the ice cream shop, where I had my last magnum before I leave.