Quitter

No, not smoking - working. It was only earning me a few hundred quid a month and then I found out that my boss was taxing me by ten percent, even though I'm being paid under the table. I might get some private work at some point, but for the while I'm going to go back to lazing and sight-seeing. And then there's the world cup. German has installed a television in the common room for the duration and, particularly as there are people from every nation here, it's a great place to follow the tournament. It doesn't stop life as normal though; just now there was an Irish bloke playing the trumpet, several people on laptops and a Polish bloke bellowing his way through a Spanish lesson.

The hostel is a great deal more pleasant at the moment because the balance of sexes has reasserted itself. For the past few weeks it has been a totally male-dominated atmosphere here. Like a fraternity house at an American university or one of those places that scientists live in when they are analysing penguin droppings. Even though this is a nice place to be, I'm still hoping that the pimp's palace in the sky is sorted out before too long. There has been a great deal of paper work to do, but the home stretch seems to be in view.

One of the disadvantages of living in a place like the Platypus is that you so often have to say goodbye to people you've got to know quite well. One recent farewell was to Danny, who has been in and out of the hostel since I arrived. He's a photo journalist who was born in Colombia and adopted to a family in Sweden. His last job here involved going down to the 'Red Zone', which is often known as Little Iraq. This is the not-insubstantial portion of the country being fought over by guerillas, coca lords, paramilitaries and the army. He was a guest of the governor, or something, and one night was invited to a party in a village hall. It's just as well he couldn't make it; just as the night was getting going somebody lobbing a spinning grenade into the hall. Five were killed (including two children), 27 people lost limbs and the others were just horribly mutilated. He also go caught up in an aerial bombing raid on some town. This came about when the army went in to pull up some coca plants - to the annoyance of a guerilla contingent, who started firing on them. The army called in support, the guerillas arrived in greater numbers and battle was joined. The government's next step, of course, was to call in the bombers. You should be able to see some of the pictures on his website at www.opurey.com. I'm not sure, but I think he also managed to track down his birth family.

This side of Colobmian life is obviously the most well-known in the outside world and it's rare to hear about the good things (like being able to drink the water). I'm not sure if this will be successful, but this should be a link to a more positive vision of Colombia: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MZQ8gY3WU (Edit: I think I failed; but you should be able to follow links on the youtube website to a video clip called Esto Es Colombia, or something)