Last
night I slept on the hardest bed I think I’ve ever slept on in my life but that
didn’t prevent me from sleeping through the night. I no longer set an alarm for 6am like I used
to. This morning I got up about 7:30.
Another first, a suicide shower. Before I say more, read this first:
This shower head comes out about 12” from the wall
so you have to get very close to the wall.
Then there is a shower caddy hanging from it that is easy to bump into. My head comes to a level at the top of the
suicide shower (I’m 6 feet tall) so I have to bend over to get under it. Of course there are exposed (though
insulated) wires coming from the wall to the shower itself.
Reina wasn’t feeling well. She had a sore throat so first thing we took
a taxi to a clinic and waited about an hour to see the doctor. She paid 23,000
pesos (about $13). After he examined
her, he told me (in English) she has tonsillitis and her tonsils should be
removed. She then went into another room
and she says they gave her 3 shots. She
paid a little bit more for the medicine.
Then over about the next 45 minutes they had her hooked up to an
IV. At least the clinic was air
conditioned. She told me we were going
to go for lunch and then come back for her to get an injection in her
butt. (I have no idea what the
difference was between her shots and her injection.)
At 11:30 we had a nice lunch across the street at Asados
su Rancho.
I had a small salad, an arepa, French fries and
chicken served like sizzling fajitas back in the states. She had some type of steak and beans and
something that looked like a slice of pineapple that she didn’t want so I ate
it. I’m pretty sure it’s some type of
vegetable.
Then we went back to the clinic where she got her
shot.
It was 1pm and we were supposed to get another
2,000,000 pesos and then meet Walter with the notary to sign papers at
2:30.
First we took a taxi downtown and exchanged $200 for
pesos.
Then we took a taxi to a Citibank and tried again to
get money out of the ATM. Again it told
me the money I was asking for was above the limit for my card. We talked to one of the officers at the bank
and he told me (in English) I need to contact my bank in the states to find out
what the problem is.
We stopped by a sports bar called The Lion’s Den near
Parque Lleras to see how it looks and ensure they will be showing the Super
bowl next Sunday night. The
“receptionist” spoke a little English but she gave me a look like a deer in the
headlights when I asked about the Super bowl.
She did give me a number for a man to contact Saturday night about it.
Since we didn’t have the deposit money for the
apartment, we headed back to Aunt Helen’s.
I looked on the internet and finally found a place
where I could chat with someone from CitiBank who told me I have to call the
states to inquire about my problem. He
gave me a couple of numbers I could use.
Because Reina’s cell phone can only call other cell
phones, we went across the street to a little “internet café” where there were
about 3 guys playing games on the computer.
We used the phone attached to a fax machine to call the states. She started the call and when she heard
English she gave the phone to me. The
customer support rep couldn’t tell me anything until he verified my
identification. It took about 30 minutes
for that. (Reina had to go across the
street to retrieve my laptop so I could verify some purchases.) Finally the rep told me he would reset my
account and from then on I could only withdraw a maximum of $1000 each
weekday. (If I made withdrawals over the
weekend, then they would count towards my Monday maximum.) So I guess we will withdraw $1000 Tuesday,
Wednesday, and Thursday and we should have the entire amount required for the
apartment.
A little later we walked down to a couple of local
grocery stores and picked up a few things.
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