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Last night, Cristina's Uncle Raimundo finally made an appearance with his sister, Aunt Nativa and her paraplegic grandson Victor in tow. I gave them each a beer and watched in amazement as Victor guzzled his in 10 seconds, then had this huge goofy grin on his face... He also made short work of the platter of chips we offered, so we had a few laughs and made it to bed by 10pm.
We didn't get much sleep as the city's Fiesta starts with fireworks throughout the night and motorcycles roaring by in packs as noisily as possible. We had decided against subjecting the poor dogs to these shenanigans but I still got up at 4:40am, quickly did my chores and came back to nap for an hour.
Then it was time to shower, etc to go to the dentist again. We stopped at Bancolombia to pay 1/2 the bill for the stay in Cartagena, in cash. I sent a photo of the receipt to them but have yet to hear back from them.
I was expecting the dentist to complete all the work I had discussed on Tuesday, to repair the teeth as I directed. I take back my glowing report on this guy, as all I got today was tooth cleaning, ineffective whitening, and that nightime mouthguard.... And they expect me to go to Tulua to get x-rays to do more repairs, at more cost.... I really fought to just keep my mouth shut and just get out of there without punching someone when it was obvious that my wishes were not going to be met as promised.... Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr
We came home and napped again before catching a Pirata taxi (which again happened to be with Cristina's cousin) to LA14 in Tulua to meet Wolf and Fabiola at 1pm. We had a nice meeting, and the girls did a little window shopping while Wolf and I had an ice cream. Then we decided to meet again in Andaulcia later at 5pm at their Italian friend Gianni's pizza joint.
So we went home and napped a third time, and I had another quick shower, before meeting Wolf and Fabiola with the gregarious couple of Gianni and his lovely wife Lucy. Wolf bought the pizzas. Gianni offers slices, or a medium pizza which has to be 18" round! We took most of ours home.
Wolf and Gianni are not young (Wolf is 76) and still go on extended bike trips. In fact, Wolf is leaving next week, probably alone, through the uncertainty of Ecuador to do a 2-month trip further south to Patagonia and more. He is very experienced and knows how to avoid trouble. We wish him well.
Gianni took our contact details so they could offer us a sojourn to their finca (acreage) in the mountains above Roldanillo, where Cristina is from. That is also the world-famous paragliding center... This may happen when we get back from Cartagena.
I also ran into another gringo couple there who actually live here in Andalucia!
I must relate that I got 4 emails from my old acquaintance Tony in Medellin that we could stay with him for free..... I wish he had mentioned that before I waited a day and booked a non-cancellable suite for us in his area.
So we can hear a lot of music from outside as we finish this but have no interest in investigating the Fiesta further tonight. We will save our energies for the adult Paso Fino Cabalgata tomorrow. For me, that really is the icing on the cake for this trip to be able to enjoy another horse parade.
I hope you enjoy the pictures. That was the day’s excitement.
Al
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Candid at LA14 
Wolf, Cristina & Fabiola 
Right out of Romancing The Stone 
Motorbikes rule here 
At Gianni's Pizza 
Wolf, Gianni, Lucy, Fabiola, Cristina 
Nice pizza murals 
Big pizza oven 
Wolf, Lucy and Gianni 
Busy at our central park 
I just missed a great sunset?
