Saturday, October 5th, 2013

Will surprises never cease!  Last night just before I left the house about 5:50 it started raining hard.  (I think it’s rained at least a little almost every day so far this month.)

I had a ham sandwich from Subway and a small strawberry shake from Burger King.  I spent a long time waiting in line at Subway but I’m getting much better at what I say when I order.  

I exited Exito, walked behind LM and headed north.  By this time it was about 6:35, it was dark, raining, and I was taking a different route.  Beatriz called me right at 7pm and I told her I would be there in 5 minutes or less.

When I got there she told me there wasn’t going to be a party tonight, she didn’t know why, but she showed me what she got from her secret person: pajamas, a sexy negligee (?), a large Jumbo chocolate bar and a regular sized Snickers and Milky Way.  Whoever the person was, they know what she likes.  :)

We walked across the street to an Exito Express (like a 7-Eleven) and she introduced me to a young man working there and then we relaxed outside under an umbrella and enjoyed a cappuccino for 2,400 pesos each.  

We took a taxi to Exito for about 5mil and she picked out some birthday paraphernalia (confetti, balloons, etc.) while I checked out the refrigerators.  There are about 4 the size I need but they are all up high where you can’t reach them without some type of assistance.  I think they are all in the neighborhood of $300.  Then she picked up some medicine from the pharmacy.  We went to Burger King and I bought her a small vanilla milkshake.  The young ladies working there always seem to be happy to see me; we have a lot of fun with my attempts to order something.  This time when Beatriz and I were sitting at a table a short distance away she waved to me when the order was ready but at first I just waved back and smiled.  She laughed and then I went and picked up the milkshake.  Beatriz shared a little with me but I still prefer strawberry.  While she was enjoying her milkshake I made a visit to the restroom and took my medicine using water from the tap.

We walked back to my apartment and I showed her an article in the Gente newspaper: something about Los Molinos, this month, Alaska, and very cold.  I cut out the article and I’ll ask one of her kids to translate for me tomorrow.  She also reminded me what I need to bring to the finca tomorrow.

At 10:10pm about 100 people from the church paraded down my street carrying candles.  At the head was a priest and he would say something into a speaker and the people would chant something.  I waved to the priest and he gave me a little wave back.

I went to bed at 11:30, got up once during the night and finally woke/got up at 7:05.

Breakfast was a café con leche and croissant for $1 at the bakery on Calle 35.

This morning I got an email from Gregg Opelka, someone I met through my now ex-wife, and haven’t heard from for awhile.  He writes music and is currently working on turning The Beverly Hillbillies into a musical.  It opens July 10, 2014 and continues through August 10^th at Theatre in the Center in Munster, Indiana.  He also mentioned he has another show Monky Business currently playing in an open-ended run in Mexico City.

There are a lot of cottage industries here.  People turn their homes and/or garages into workshops.  My best guess about the Milord Producciones across the street is it’s an acting studio.

I went to an Internet café and had the 2 pages printed of Spanish Vowels for 800 pesos (about 40 cents).

I’ve noticed the last few days that I always seem to have a hole in the toe of my left sock at night when I take them off.  After further exploration I found a whole in the left gym shoe where the seam had come apart.  Now is a good time to get it repaired since I’m going to be wearing sandals the next couple days.  I put it in a plastic bag and took it to be repaired.

About 11:30 I stopped at Jhon’s office and he told me he saw Bob across the street from the corner store (hereafter to be known as the Tinto store) about 30 minutes before.  I spent about 90 minutes at the Tinto store talking to Bob then I stopped at what I thought was a shoe repair shop in the lower level of Viva mall.  She asked for my Cedula from which I’m sure she got my name in addition to my Id number.  She also took down my cellular number.  If I understand correctly it will cost a little more than 8mil ($5) and will be ready in 8 days.  So, I guess I’ll check on it on Monday, October 14^th.

Lunch was the Hamburger Combo #3 at Gordog’s for 10,500 while I read some more from my Nook.  

Now, back at my apartment I’m packing for the trip.  I’m supposed to meet her at her house at 3pm so I guess I’ll try to catch up with my blog Sunday night or on Monday.  But who knows, I’ve been surprised before.  :)

I was at Beatriz’ house at 2:55.  Everyone was just sitting around.  Since I’m not sure exactly who is going, I don’t know exactly who should be doing what.  First Beatriz and I went to the corner store where she bought a few things.  Later I went with her, her daughter Maria and her boyfriend to Consomo, I think it was called, and they bought a sandwich for 5mil each because they were hungry. 

We finally left exactly at 6pm.  There was her Uncle William and his wife, her daughter Maria and her boyfriend Alejandro, her son Felipe (sp?), Beatriz, myself, and their dogs Luna and I forget the other one.

I noticed we drove through Robledo (Communa 7) and because I saw Venus I know we were driving primarily west over the mountains.  Traffic was pretty slow while we were in Medellin.  About 30 minutes later we went through a long tunnel through the mountains.  I noticed we were going just over 15km/hour and it took 6 minutes to get through the tunnel so you do the math.  We stopped at one point and William got a small cup of coffee (Tinto?) and put it in a small cup holder between the steering wheel and the door.

We got there about 7:30.  Their finca itself is in a gated community of 50 fincas adjacent to each other separated basically by tall hedges.  I would estimate their finca is on about a ¼ acre lot.  There is a huge door that has to be opened at the end of the driveway for them to bring in their car.  I took pictures with my iPad so I’ll add them as a separate posting to my blog.  We unpacked the car and our things.  They gave me a private bedroom with a bathroom next door.  It has a little dining room with a nice table, living room with large screen TV and a full kitchen.  There are 3 other bedrooms, 2 of them with 2 separate full sized beds.

Outside there is a porch with couches, hammocks and fans.  Separately there is a gazebo setup as an eating area.  There is also a nice swimming pool with adjacent steam room.  All in all it was quite impressive.

We all got back in the car and drove to San Jeronimo.  The town square only has 6 parking spots and they were all in use so we drove to Santa Fe.  There we walked around the town square a little, looking at the wares and food for sale.  We stopped and had ice cream cones (William’s treat) at an inside town square where they had live music.

When we got back to the finca, Beatriz and I took a little walk and when we came back they surprised me with a birthday party complete with balloons and streamers and a birthday cake (strawberry cheesecake) at the gazebo.  Beatriz gave me a very nice handmade card and a golf shirt but it’s a size too small so she’s going to exchange it for me.

After the cake they lit the grill in the gazebo and cooked ribs, steak, and sausage and we had dinner at midnight.  They gave me a glass of white wine and I finished most of it.  At one point they did shots of tequilla and forced me (peer pressure!) to join them.  I chugged the tequilla like they did but I coughed so much on it I couldn’t get to the lime that is supposed to follow.  William and I shared our tastes in music – me with my iPad and him with his smart phone.  They plugged my iPad into the speakers in the gazebo and we listened to some American music to see if out tastes are similar.  (Like me, he likes Simon & Garfunkle & ABBA.)

We finally went to bed at 2am but we could still hear music from other fincas!  I had no trouble at all falling asleep.  I guess I had a good buzz going on.