Tuesday, March 19th, 2013

4:15am I’m awakened by what sounds like someone yelling out in their sleep.  If I understood the language I would probably have a better idea what that’s about.  Maybe someone is having an argument?  I fall asleep again quickly.

5:10am and I’m awakened by some street traffic.  I fall asleep again with no problem.

 

6am and the phone rings.  It’s my wake up call.  I’m up and I take my shower.  15 minutes later and Reina gets up.  She doesn’t want to take a shower now.  I need to wait 30 minutes for my beard to dry before I shave so I’m taking this time to write these notes.  Martha should be picking us up at 7am.  

We hope to open the doors of our apartment and soon after go for breakfast.  Reina wants to take a short nap after breakfast and maybe I’ll join her.

7:05am and Martha shows up right on time.  On the way to the apartment I collect the 30mil from Martha for yesterday’s lunch.

We get to the apartment and are asked to open the garage door.  Apparently they are going to store the neighbor’s car in our garage.  We met the neighbor briefly although I don’t know his name.

We open the apartment windows right away.  We also want to open the doors to the bedroom and bathrooms to air the place out but after a few minutes we realize we can’t take the smell and close them all right away.  The master bedroom bathroom is the worst; it looks like new waste water has come up in the shower which is why the smell is so bad.

I took down the garbage and took the opportunity to ask the neighbor his name – it’s Lionel.  I can see he has a 2 car garage; it’s 2 deep not 2 wide as we usually see in the States.  I’ve never run into him in the hallway or seen him enter or exit the building. I think he must always use the garage.  The garage smells like our apartment so maybe they are onto the source of the problem.  They also have that 3’ x 3’ concrete slab removed.  Only problem now is it smells as bad outside as it does inside.

Reina is taking a nap now because she believes the breakfast restaurants don’t open until 9am.

Martha stopped by with a new prospective neighbor.  Her name, if I remember correctly, is Ampere and she is a retired dentist.  She should be moving in in about a month.  She also mentioned she has a relative whose job has something to do with security.  Martha also took me on a quick tour of the new apartments and the roof top.  The new apartments are both similar 2 bedroom, 1 bathroom units with no garage.  Hmmm, I wonder if she would be interested in renting ours.  All we keep in there are my 2 suitcases and our roller skates (unused).

About 9:30 Reina and I went to Laureles Mall and had a nice breakfast at Bunuelos Express for about 10mil which is exactly the amount Martha gave us just before we left.  Reina and I had the same meal I had with my brother when he was here last week.

When we came back from breakfast about 10:45 they appeared to be done with the repair work and started cleaning our bathrooms.

11:15am and they demonstrated the drains are all working again and they finished cleaning the guest bathroom.

11:30 and a light rain has started.

I need a haircut. It’s been exactly 5 weeks since my last one.  It should cost a little more than the 12mil from last time (about $7) since this time I plan to also get a shampoo afterwards.  And, since it’s Tuesday, we’ll probably take advantage of the 2 for 1 at Mimo’s.  Mimo’s, by the way, is just soft serve ice cream, not the real good stuff.

Noon and he has finished cleaning the master bathroom.  He used a little bleach to remove the smell and everything seems to be back in working order.  

He left and a few minutes later Martha appears as she left some things here and I show her the apartment and that I’m very happy with the results.

12:45 and the guy in the blue and gray uniform shows up and asks me something.  The only word I understood was “correo” (mail).  He pushed something that looks suspiciously like a utility bill through the slits in the garage door.  (Earlier Reina showed me what looks like utility bills dated for 1 week (next week) and was on the phone trying to reach them.)

About 1:30pm we left to have lunch.  (I checked the garage but there wasn’t any mail there.  He must have put it in the neighbor’s garage.)  Reina said I could pick the place so I took her to the little restaurant along Avenida 80.  Their lunch special (almuerzos menu del dia) cost 7mil (about $3.75) and included:

·        Frijoles (beans)

·        Sopa de tortilla (tortilla soup)

·        Arroz (rice)

·        Ensalada de lechuga aquacafe (lettuce salad)

·        Albundigas res, pollo-cerdo, chicharron, higado (choice of meat: chicken, pork, pork rind, or liver)

·        Mazamorra – mango maracuya (mango passion fruit drink)  

So, you see you can eat very cheaply here if you eat where the locals eat or you can eat much more expensively if you eat gringo style.

Then we went a couple of stores down to get my haircut.    The good news about my haircut – it only cost me 7mil (about $3.75) including beard, moustache and shampoo.  The bad news – Jose wasn’t there.  In fact, the young man that was there said he doesn’t work there anymore.  What's this?  I get one good haircut and the guy retires?  So I let the young guy give me a haircut and like before told him I want the #3 clipper used on my head and the #3½ on my beard and moustache.  Well, he took that #3 clipper and it was like shearing sheep.  After the first swipe I knew I was in trouble but what can I do?  I’ve never had my hair this short, even in my college flat top days.  I don’t think I’ll need another haircut for 3 months.

At the Barber's after the first swipe.  Uh-Oh!

Looks like my son's haircut!

Then we went across the street and had Mimo’s 2 for 1 ice cream.