I fell asleep quickly, woke up, but didn’t get
up, when Teresa got up to help Laura in the morning, and I woke/got up at
6:50am. Teresa got up 30 minutes later
after I had showered.
By 8:30 I was ready to go I just needed to wait
for Teresa to finish getting ready. We
left the finca at 9:15 and caught a minivan after a 20 minute wait. For the first time, the minivan stopped at
the Caldas turnoff and a man walked over from across the street with a
clipboard and talked to everyone on the bus.
I had given Teresa 6 mil for the trip and she gave 4 mil to the man with
the clipboard.
We were at Los Molinos by 10:40. I took some money out of the first ATM I
found – an ATH.
Just around the corner was the salon but Juan
Rojas was busy and said to come back at 11am.
We went next door to Studio F
where Teresa found a blouse she really liked for 149,900 so I bought it for her
birthday present.
At 11:05 we were back at the salon where Teresa
got a pedicure for 18mil while I got a haircut for 22 mil.
While I was waiting for Teresa to finish I went
upstairs and checked on the movies playing in their theater. Unfortunately I didn’t recognize anything and
nothing was starting earlier than 2pm anyway.
On the way back I noticed a large store selling stuff for Halloween.
After her pedicure I took her upstairs and we
had fun looking at all the Halloween costumes and especially the displays. Afterwards we went next door where we had a
nice little lunch – the lunch of the day - at El Rancherito.
I had Teresa call Marta and we found out she
would be at the store between 1pm and 2pm.
We killed some time by going downstairs to Home Center
where we bought some AAA batteries and a part for Teresa’s pressure cooker. She talked to someone there and after about
20 minutes it seemed like she had signed up for their points award card or
something.
We took a taxi to Colorama – Jamie & Marta’s store at Carrera 76 #29-68. (It was only about a 6 block walk from Los
Molinos but I wasn’t going to ask Teresa to do that in heels.) The taxi driver kind of got lost on the way
and didn’t seem to understand how to read the store numbers even though I told
him to turn around and go the other way.
When we got to the store there were 3 old ladies
in the entrance eating ice cream from little cups. Even though Marta was there it seemed like
she was waiting for them to finish before helping us. At one point a dwarf came in and bought a
package of cigarettes for 1,500 pesos.
That’s only about 75 cents but then again I’m sure they weren’t a good
brand like Marlboros. It turned out the
ladies were having their Cedulas laminated and they were having ice cream while
they waited.
Finally Marta took us in the back and showed us
a letter she had written showing my original deposit amount of 2,100,000 pesos
and then a deduction of 291,000 pesos which sounded about right to me. While Teresa was reading the letter
attentively I told them she’s my lawyer.
After we all were in agreement and Jamie and I each signed it and a
copy, Marta took out an envelope and counted out 1,809,000 pesos for us.
After that Teresa seemed to be telling them her
life story as I recognized some familiar words and we didn’t leave the stuffy
back room for another 20 minutes.
We took a taxi to Viva CC. We stopped at the Direct TV booth but Elizabeth wasn’t
there. While Teresa worked with the man
who was there I went to the bathroom and then stopped at BK where I bought a medium
Pepsi with lots of ice for myself and picked up a small cup of cold water for her.
After she met me in the food court we went into
Exito where, after a short wait, she talked to a man who gave her the final
balance on her credit card – 1,986,300 pesos.
We went to a cashier where we counted out that amount in cash and she
gave us a receipt. Teresa then led me down one
of the aisles and around and finally we got back to our original location. I asked her if she got lost because she took
the long way back and we had a good laugh over that because we could have
walked just one side instead of a complete rectangle. She gave the receipt to the man and he gave
her a receipt for paying off her credit card.
Then I reminded her she wanted to talk to
someone in Exito about her stovetop so she talked to a lady working in that
area that gave her a telephone number of someone to call.
We left about 5pm and took a car, con effectivo,
to Aguacatala station. We didn’t exactly
get there due to very heavy traffic and the driver kept taking side
streets. Eventually we got out at a bus
stop on the highway. After a 20 minute
wait for an express bus (they skip Caldas) we settled on a Caldas bus and
didn’t get back to the side street until 6:40.
I turned the torch on on my cell phone and we walked up in semi
darkness. At the top Teresa made me turn
off my torch completely for the walk past the killer dogs. I was quite worried about doing that. We were very quiet in the dark until we got
just even with the house with the killer dogs and my cell phone started
ringing. Luckily, the dogs didn’t come
out – maybe it was too late for them – but I was ready with my pepper spray if
I could see them. We got back to the
finca at 7pm.
I checked my shoes before I entered the finca
and sure enough there was dog shit on one of my shoes. Of course I took them off right away.
Teresa made me a toasted ham & cheese
sandwich and coffee for dinner.
I looked more carefully at the letter that Jamie
and I had signed and realized that they didn’t include my internet bill which
should be the usual 72,964 monthly charge plus 130mil for cancelling early. I’ll bet it’s at the 2nd floor
apartment. Even though it’s a lot of
money I told Teresa I am an honest man and I would contact Margarita about it
at the first opportunity.
When Teresa went through our Exito purchases she
found a quite a few folded plastic bags that somehow got into our bag so now we
have some free garbage bags.
At 8:45 we heard thunder so we unplugged all the
electronics for a few minutes before continuing our TV viewing.
Being very tired we went to bed at 10pm.
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