Cali
For once we departed having had an excellent cup pf coffee and a proper breakfact. Chris was responsible for quality control regarding the coffee and bumble the same for the scrambled egg. Maria, left to her own devices, would have scrambled the eggs into oblivion but Bumble took control and we all enjoyed delicious scrambled eggs, toast, fruit and fresh orange juice. A perfect start to what should be a short day, 140km into Cali, previously the Cartel capital of Colombia.
The road to Cali was very straight forward, unlike Cali itself! The Boulevard del Rio Hotel proved challenging to find, to say the least. All three cars separated with their respective mapping software all leading them on different routes. Chis and Barbara had the toughest time since they had inadvertently shut the phone charger lead in the door and had no charging ability in the car and no battery in either of their phones. They battled on relentlessly knowing that the hotel was near a park, and somewhere in the north. To this day I have no idea how they found the Hotel, but found it they did. Ham and Didier found themselves in a tunnel with Google maps telling them that they had arrived! Clearly the hotel was above them! Round they went, through a particularly unprepossessing part of Cali where the usual exuberance was replaced by a consistent surliness. Didier’s comment that he thought “we are in a part of town which we shouldn’t be” didn’t help matters, neither did our arrival at the tunnel entrance for a second time with no idea where to go next, only ham’s utter commitment not to go back down the tunnel. They were parked outside the Intercontinental which seemed an attractive option at that moment. They were saved by Waze taking them straight to the door of the hotel to find Nigel and Bumble reversing into the underground carpark. Chris and Barbara arrived minutes later. The flock was back together.
Chris, Ham and Didier went to change dollars. Unfortunately it is never as simple as going to a bank since banks in Colombia don’t seem to change foreign currency. A taxi drive later got them to a Western Union and at last we had local currency! Not all petrol stations take a card so having some currency is imperative.
In the meantime Bumble was arranging a lady to do the teams washing. You’d think that this was a relatively simple task but as usual in South America proved a seriously non-trivial task. We did all eventually get our washing done and it was delivered back the following morning in time for our departure.
The afternoon was spent tinkering. Chris had no front brakes and after a couple of hours of fruitless investigation, despite the able help of Ham, he phoned the Rolls Royce Silver Ghost guru, Mr Glew who immediately identified the servo. A couple of tweeks to the adjusting nut and everything was working. At last 3 tioms of car had all four brakes workimg. Meanwhile Nigel was having a go at his magneto which didnt seem tio be producing a constant spark. Now all I know about a magneto is that they are nortoriuosly fickle little bleeders and if at all possible should be left alone to do their thing. Nigel , after consultation with david Ayres, decided upon a service and to his immense credit appears to have improved the performance. So all i all a good afternoons work.
We went out for dinner in downtown Cali in an excellent Italian restaurant only let down by exceptionally poor service. Didier and Chris’ shared starter wasn’t available and neither replacement appeared when the other starters did. Something entirely different appeared for Chris and Didier’s starter appeared with his main course. Considering that this was on the posh end of the restaurant spectrum, it simply wasn’t good enough and tempers began to get a bit frayed. A pity really because actually Cali is a pretty cool and interesting City.
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