Monday, January 13th, 2014

Last night at 7:30pm I was promoted to Earl.  At 8:19 I was promoted to Guardian.  At 9:07 I was promoted to Herald.  At 10:12 I was promoted to Jouster.  What I want to know is how many more promotions until I’m King?  As I was exiting I saw I was rated 1051 after solving 701 puzzles in 6 hours and 7 minutes!

I went to bed at 10:45, had a little difficulty getting to sleep, got up once during the night, woke up at 6:30 and finally got up at 7am.

At 7:10, while getting ready for my morning workout, I observed the young lady from upstairs (most likely the daughter of the mother/daughter pair) leave the building and head up the street.  From what I could see from behind she’s on the tallish side (relatively speaking), slim, with long black hair.

I bought a small bag of milk for my granola for breakfast.

At 10am I took a Simon Bolivar bus and got off in the usual spot downtown.  Reina arrived 10 minutes later (her watch is behind) and the first order of business was to find where the bus to the airport leaves behind Hotel Nutibara.  We walked 3 blocks north then 1 block west and we were behind this huge hotel.  There were 6 identical looking buses there that said Aeropuerto on them.  Reina found the correct one right away.  It sits in front of the Notipan bakery and costs 8,600 pesos ($4.53).

Next we went to the Coltejer building to look for the chess table.  It’s at Avenida La Playa & Junin – appr. Calle 52 & Carrera 49.  It’s the tallest building downtown, is shaped like a needle, and has 2 flags flying from the top.  It turns out it’s the building where I had been getting my money out of the ATM when I was downtown and it’s right around the corner (maybe the same building?) from where you exchange USD for COP.  But once there I couldn’t see anything in the directory that looked right.  I called Augusto and gave the phone to Reina and were were soon across the street at a small sporting goods store called Almacen El Deportista at Carrera 49 (Junin) # 52-17.  They had one chess table for 299,700 ($157.74) but I didn’t like it.  It was a large wood box with a chess board printed on top and metal legs you screw on somehow - very cheap loooking.

We stopped in an office building and Reina talked briefly to someone.  She also talked to one of those ladies on the street with all the cell phones in their pocket.  Later she explained she doesn’t have any food at her house so she’s looking for a job.

We stopped at another of those hidden malls and at Crepes & Grille we each had chicken with salad, beans, baked potato and mango juice for a total of 35mil ($18.42).

We walked a few blocks to the metro at the Parque Berrio station and took it 3 stops north to University station.  There we got off, walked across the street and we were at Parque Explora.  While waiting in line to buy our ticket I noticed a man wearing a gray t-shirt that said “PEPPERS” on the back.  I turned him around and saw the Chicago Bears logo on the front.  I told him I’m from Chicago but then it was time to purchase our tickets – 36mil total.  We walked around the area, saw the aquarium exhibit and then saw a movie in Spanish that Reina said I fell asleep in.  I guess I did because I don’t remember much – something about exploring caves.  We walked across the street to Jardin Botanico and walked around the park.  We wanted to get ice cream but couldn’t find a decent place and finally ended up back at Parque Explora where I had a single dip cone and Reina had a dish of fruits with 2 scoops of ice cream for a total of 9mil ($4.74).

We walked across the street in the other direction and were at the Planetarium.  That cost 22mil ($11.58) and we walked around looking at the exhibits until their Imax movie started.  A young man there gave me a set of headphones with a receiver whereby I was supposed to hear it in English.  For the first movie Comet Collisions I didn’t hear anything in the headphones and it was supposedly narrated by Robert Redford.  For the second movie Astronauts I heard Ewan McGregor narrate it in – Real English.  Lol.  

Reina walked me back to the metro station where I purchased my ticket and at 5pm I was on the metro.  At 5:05 I was back at Parque Berrio.  At 5:10 I was in line waiting for my Simon Bolivar bus.  I got in line just in time because I got the last seat on the first bus that arrived.  By 5:13 we were off but due to the heavy rush hour traffic I wasn’t back to the apartment until 6pm.  

At 7:30 I had the Chili and mango juice again at El Comedor de Chava in LM.