Great day. Moved on from the paradise in El Peñón 15 minutes further south to the town of "Guatape".
I checked into a nice looking hotel (but very much a step down from the luxuries of the last place @ £35/night) on the waterfront.
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I spent the day exploring, wandering around the gorgeous cobbled streets and nosing into shops. It's lovely here, a really friendly feel to the place, and just a sleepy relaxed sort of town.
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Towards the end of my wander I'm just walking down a side street on my way to the waterfront and I'm greeted by a man in his 50s who extends his hand to me and greets me very warmly. He asks me where I'm from and when I say "Inglaterra" he goes nuts and goes inside his house to get his son. He insists I come in.
Not completely at ease, but my instincts (which are pretty good in these sort of situations) where that his intentions were good and he and his son seemed over the moon to meet me. I stepped into the house. They showed me around and gave me a beer. They seemed to love England and the English (surprised me a bit!). The son (who was 20) had a picture of London Bridge as his background on his phone. He spoke quite good english, his father didn't speak much at all. He introduced me to his younger brothers and insisted I stayed for some food and more beer. They seemed to love beer, their fridge was full of it. The son said they drank it all day and night. The father wore pretty filthy clothes and I don't know whether he was on drugs, but something didn't look quite right with him.
Father, me, son
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The son (Domanin, I think) told me how everybody in England and America won't come to Colombia because they think it's all about cocaine and whores when really it's a beautiful country and there's no more danger than in anywhere else. This is the overwhelming impression I've got from speaking to locals. They LOVE their country, they are very very proud of it, and wish that they had more visitors, because once they come, they realise what it's really like.
I for one couldn't agree more, not a single bad experience to report on yet!
Three of them sleep in this room
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Younger brothers playing videogames
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Kitchen
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The son introduced the master bedroom to me as "the bed for sex" lol!
Anyway, I stuck around in this house for a bit, I spotted a chess set and challenged Domanin to a game. I hadn't played in over 10 years probably, have never been any good, but I've been reading the chess thread a bit so thought I'd see just how useless I was. I did manage to win, but only because Domanin was useless too!
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They really didn't want me to leave, they offered me more food, beer, even a bed for the night! I politely declined and left with a huge smile on my face. What a nice experience.
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