colombia
Pool Request
Uploaded on 30th September 2025
Colombia was a country full of colour, culture and adorable creatures, but one aspect that really made my trip was the people I met, the time spent with them, and the variety of games we were always playing together!
In addition to classic card games and the national sport of Tejo, there always seemed to be a pool table in a beach bar, at a sociable hostel, or on a countryside town's main square.
Tejo, Colombia's national sport, was a great way to warm up before pool (and was often just next door to the billiards bar)
A well-loved pool table at a hostel in Palomino, where I made many a friend
Yet another traditional Colombian pin ball game
Card games were always at the ready if a pool table wasn't close by
Beginning in Bogota to enjoy the vibrant street art and city vibes, I soon moved into the blissful coffee regions full of tall trees and rolling hills - the perfect place to sit with a hot drink and code. In Salento, the colourful town even had a billiards bar that was frequented by us many times, as well as the traditional Tejo taverns!
In the north of the country, I enjoyed beautiful beaches, stunning national parks, and Minca's mountainous region. Almost every hostel I visited boasted a pool table, and many a fun night was had playing non-traditional team games with the cues... or sometimes without!
The beautiful Salento was the perfect, laid back place to code
Lap cats cosied up for a coding session
One of the most beautiful hostels I've been to in the mountains - lounging and linting!
A hammock and a laptop, a tale as old as time on this trip
La Ponderosa was an incredible co-working space that made it so easy to lock in and enjoy the nature at the same time
Every time we played our secretive take on Cutthroat Pool, we'd have to find a napkin and pen and tear up tiny fragile number pieces to pass around the players. Pool Request solves this issue in a very simple way, providing each participant with their ball numbers, as well as giving the organiser the option to discard or distribute any remainder balls if the number of players doesn't divide evenly into 15.
The app itself is very basic, as for this country code I really wanted to focus on testing all of my components and ensuring my code base was clean. With this in mind, I used React Testing Library and Jest for reliability, and ESlint, Stylelint and PostCSS to ensure consistency.
Pool Request app's start screen
If the 15 pool balls cannot be evenly distributed between the players, the organiser has the option to distribute or discard the remainder
Player 1's ball numbers are revealed
A fun and simple app, Pool Request delivers what it sets out to do, with room for further expansion to include other games, pool or not.
I'm really happy with how structured and well-tested this repository is, as I was keen to showcase these skills with this project.
As always, drop me a message if you spot any bugs, have any improvement ideas, or have any suggestions for future country projects!