Sunday, January 27th, 2013

For some reason there was no one around to serve us breakfast this morning at the hotel.  As we were leaving Lucas (the owner) told us the person who serves breakfast called in sick.  We took a taxi and had breakfast at a small bakery/restaurant downtown named Versailles.  We then drove around until we found a bank open on Sunday.  The ATM there only allowed me to take out 1,000,000 pesos ($500).  I think it’s going to take time to get all my money out.  In America I could probably just walk into a bank and get a cashier’s check or money order to make a large payment for something.  Maybe I could do that here if I wasn’t a foreigner.  Who knows?  We took a taxi to Laureles where we were supposed to meet someone at the same mall where we met Walter a couple of days ago.  It turned out to be the same kiosk couple we met with the day before.  We walked with them about 3 blocks to our apartment where we had an apartment walkthrough.  Reina wasn’t feeling well (headache and upset stomach) so it mainly fell to me.  The woman, Martha, had a checklist and went through each item (in Spanish only), pointed it out, and wrote down a number.  For example, the living room has 3 electric outlets, 2 ceiling light fixtures, concrete ceilings, ceramic floors, etc.  Everything seemed to be in order except there was no water pressure in either shower and the on/off switch in the master bathroom wasn’t firmly attached to the wall.  We then hurried back to the hotel and checked out at 2:30pm when we were supposed to be out at 11am.  Reina’s Aunt Helen came and helped her pack and using 2 taxis we moved everything to her aunt’s house.  She made us lunch that included chicken soup (broth only), rice, scrambled eggs, and French fries. 

BTW, our apartment is in Laureles on the 2^nd floor of a 3 story building plus whatever you call a flat roof you can walk out on.  I think Laureles is a desireable area because it is nearly flat.  (Medellin is in the Aburra valley surrounded by mountains and most homes are built on the side of the surrounding hills.)  It appears to be on a quiet street.   The apartment buildings all appear to be about 3-4 stories high.  Our apartment is 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms on the 2^nd floor.  The master bedroom has a master bath.  The guest bedrooms are virtually identical and are approximately 12’ x 10’.  There is a small balcony facing the south (with an overhang to keep out most of the sun) that is about 30” wide and 12 ½ feet long.  It includes a garage with an additional storage area where we will keep our bicycles once we get them.  My brother is coming for a visit on Friday, March 8^th and on Saturday, March 9^th we plan on having a housewarming party so all of Reina’s family and friends are invited.  I gave Reina a hard time about having LOTS of food that she will be in charge of.  That gives us about a month to fly to Bogota to get my Cedula (national ID), and buy beds, refrigerator, washer/dryer, pots/pans, dishes, etc. 

In the meantime, we’ll just hang out at her Aunt Helen’s apartment.