The taxi driver who took me from the airport to the transport terminal in Monteria on the way to the wedding, called me the following four things during our half hour trip:

Mi amor = my love

Mi reina = literally my queen but more like sweetheart

Jefa = boss

Patrona = also boss, but it always sounds a bit feudal to me.

It’s as if he couldn’t quite decide on the right tone to strike with me.

Another taxi driver made my evening today. He bought some chewing gum from a young woman who was carrying her sleeping toddler over her shoulder and that prompted him to say:

I really admire these women. See these women, making a living on the street, selling their chewing gum, not prostituting themselves. She doesn’t have to pay child care, she’s got her child there, where he grows up, he can help her sell. if it were marihuana that would be different. But chewing gum… Because it’s hard you know. I have a friend who sells minutes [for mobile phones] in the centre. And she’s not pretty. And men come up to her and say “How much do you make in an hour?” and she says “$15,000″ (=£4 approx.)” and he says, “Look, I’ll pay you that, and I’ll buy you a nice lunch and then we’ll go to a hotel, and I’ll give you $30,000,” and she’s good, she knows how to handle the situation, and she’s starving but she says, “No thank you, I bring my lunch box.” No, there are some women the street doesn’t devour, and that’s admirable.