Monday, September 29th, 2014

Last night I went to bed at 11pm, got up once during the night, woke up at 4:20, fell back asleep and woke/got up at 6:30am.  

Marta showed up a few minutes before 8am.  Carlos didn’t show up until 8:45.  I couldn’t believe he would be able to get everything into his little pickup truck.  At 10am Marta told me she had to leave and I should leave the keys with the downstairs neighbor when I left.  (No, I’m not that good with my Spanish, I had to call Margarita and then Jhon.)  They finished loading the truck with everything (I couldn’t believe it) at 11am and I left the keys with the lady on the 2^nd floor in my old apartment.  Teresa had called and told Carlos she needs some sugar so first we stopped at a tienda and bought it and a large bottle of Coke that we all shared.  His truck was very slow, even on the highway.  We got to the finca just after noon and then we were presented with our next problem, getting his truck, loaded with so many heavy things, up the hill.  After several unsuccessful attempts a neighbor came down in his jeep, they hooked a chain to the truck and he helped pull him up the hill.  They stopped a little short of the finca and unloaded everything from there. 

They finished about 1pm.  I was very impressed with how careful they were with everything.  They even helped to disassemble a bed and reassemble the one I brought for the guest bedroom.  For this we paid them 150mil (about $75).

The next problem was getting the truck back up the hill.  This took multiple attempts while the neighbor’s dogs were threatening them.  I took out my pepper spray and used it for the first time.  I didn’t hit them in the face, I merely got close, but that was enough to deter them.

The neighbor finally opened a fence that allowed them to turn the truck around but they still had trouble getting traction with the rear wheel drive.  After several unsuccessful attempts to proceed up the hill, Laura came home and Teresa asked me to go with her to the finca so I’m not sure how much longer they struggled with the truck.

We spent the major part of the afternoon getting things in order in the finca. 

I wasn’t hungry so I really didn’t have any dinner.

I discovered I had 5 mosquito bites, one inside each wrist, one on my inside left elbow, and 2 on my neck.

Teresa suggested we watch a movie and I agreed.  She asked if I like horror and I said “more or less” so she went through quite a few DVDs and finally selected one named Viaje Macabre which I think in English is something like macabre travel.  It wasn’t very good.  Nothing was said for the first 10 minutes or so, so I had to wait to find out it was in English with Spanish subtitles.  There were only 6 actors in the film: the 2 ugly backwoods bad guys and 6 pretty but naïve young ladies hiking alone through what looked like the northwest woods of USA.  At one point one of the bad guys gets shot twice at close range with his rifle and 5 minutes later he recovers enough to chase the last 2 surviving ladies through the woods, get in his car, follow them down the road, etc.  A few minute later, lady #1 breaks her leg and lady #2 carries her down the road to a car.  A few minutes later, lady #2 gets shot twice and lady #1 helps her into the car and drives it away.  There was a lot of unnecessary blood which looked more like paint or strawberry preserves.

I was really tired so I went to bed at 8:30 and Teresa came to bed a little while later.

I got up once during the night about 3:45 and Teresa got up about 4:30 or 5 to help Laura off to school.  I definitely heard Laura leave at 5:30am. 

What I like a lot about the finca is the bedroom is COMPLETELY dark during the night, and quiet (at least until the dogs start barking early in the morning), and cool.  Teresa finds it cold and wraps herself in several blankets or quilts but I only need one thin blanket.

T-shirt of the day: Salt & pepper.