Friday, February 1st, 2013

I checked my USAA account this morning and the money appears to still be unavailable.  I guess I never paid attention to that before because I never needed to get at my money so quickly.  So I guess we’ll have to wait at least 1 more day before we can buy mattresses and a refrigerator.  Also, I didn’t see any confirmation the wire transfer was even submitted. So that means another call to Citibank to see what’s going on.

We didn’t get out of the house until about 10:30 as Reina got up late and her aunt gave her a trim.

First we took a taxi downtown and exchanged $200 for pesos.  (My money better become available quickly as I’m running out of cash.)

Then we stopped at the Internet café with the phone booth and tried to call Citibank.  I kept getting a message like “the number you are trying to call is unavailable, try again later” with both numbers I was trying to call.

We then took a taxi out of town to pick up my package with the chess pieces and chess books.  First we had to pay a 23,000 peso (about $13) customs fee.  That was on top of the original $45 I spent to ship it from Glenview. Then we presented the receipt to get the package.  Interestingly, there is a guard outside the “post office” who has to use his id badge to buzz us into the building.

Then we had lunch at what I would call a Subway restaurant.  I had the chicken sandwich which was pretty similar to Subway except the bread was a little crunchy.  

Then we went to a Carrefour (like a Walmart) and bought cleaning supplies and a couple of those new fluorescent light bulbs. 

We then went back to the Internet Café and this time I was successful in getting through and they said they saw the wire transfer I made and would release it.

We then went to the apartment.  I dusted all of the up-high places and Reina mopped and cleaned the rest while I took pictures of the apartment and then measured the rooms.  While we were doing that a locksmith changed the locks on the apartment door.

Our apartment on 2nd floor - all 3 sets of windows.

Reina talking to Locksmith

View down hallway from front door.

Bottom of stairwell

Small courtyard near bottom of stairs.

Starting up the stairs

Entrance to our apartment from stairs.

Living & Dining Room from doorway.

Balcony

View from balcony - left.

View from balcony - cener

View from balcony - right.

Kitchen from Living Room.

Kitchen

Laundry room

Guest Bathroom

Hallway to bedrooms

Doorway to Master Bedroom, Guest Bedrooms on right.

Master Bedroom

View from back of Master Bedroom.

Master Bedroom closet & bathroom.

Master Bathroom

Guest Bedrooms

1st view from back of Guest Bedroom.

2nd view from back of Guest Bedroom.

3rd view from back of Guest

I just checked my emails and Mrs. Montes confirmed she received the rent money.