I got up twice during the night, 2am and 5am, finally waking
at 8:05am and getting up at 9am.
As you will see today was a long busy day!
We gave the terriers the last of the dry dog food and it
wasn’t quite enough for one day so we really need to buy more tomorrow.
I finished my prescription eye drops this morning so they
lasted almost exactly a month.
I received a nice comment (just noticed today) from Paul M.
who lives in Costa Rica. He told me he just finished reading my entire
blog from start to finish and looks forward to learning more about the culture
here as my Spanish improves and I can converse more with the locals. Thanks Paul, I appreciate the comments!
I received an email from another expat I had met here
previously – Eddie. He will be visiting
here from November 24th to June 15th or 16th.
I want to make a hotel reservation for Teresa and I for next
Friday and Saturday night at Hacienda La
Extremadura in Sabaneta but we don’t have any minutes left on the cell
phone. I sent them an email but I don’t
know if anyone there speaks English. I
hope to remember to call later today.
We left the finca at 1:15 and got past the killer dogs
undetected. Malu showed up unexpectedly;
glad he wasn’t a lion, tiger, or bear, oh my because I would have been a
goner. I gave him a dog biscuit.
While we were waiting for a bus a large backhoe was
delivered for work on the highway. We
only had to wait 5 minutes for a bus to Envigado but we had to sit over the
transmission and traffic was very heavy.
A woman sitting in an aisle seat seemed to be staring a hole through
me. Maybe she’s never seen a gringo on
her bus before.
We had lunch at Carbón
de Leña for 23,500. Since it was a
new month I had the hamburger combo and a Pepsi. Most of Parque Envigado is open now and
despite what Neil told me, today (at least) there were lots of vendors selling
things on the west end of the park.
Teresa told me we wouldn’t be able to pay for my health
insurance today because the banks are closed.
They wouldn’t have been had we gotten there earlier.
Olga was supposed to meet us for lunch to give us some
paperwork that I need for my next prostate test. She called Teresa and told her that she was
in an accident in a taxi and she injured her neck and they were taking her to a
hospital.
We stopped at Bancolombia where I withdrew some cash. (Later I found I got 2,865 pesos for each
dollar. Wow!)
I added 50mil to my cell phone and Teresa called Olga again. We took a taxi a short distance to Santa Gertrudis hospital.
Teresa went inside and I waited outside.
She sat next to Olga who was wearing a neck brace. I noticed a sign outside that said that
patients can only have one visitor. I
gave Teresa 20mil for Olga and after a few minutes Teresa came out with a
manila envelope.
We started walking towards what Teresa thought was Parque
Envigado but after walking about 6 blocks it seemed like the street numbers
were going up when I thought they should be going down. It was difficult to tell because instead of
the usual Calle and Carrera cross streets they were diagonals and
transversals. Finally Teresa asked a
lady in a store and we learned we were going the wrong way.
At the pharmacy I bought 2 more packages of Isoklon, another
package of Tamsulosin, 8 Dristan tablets and Teresa ordered something called
Tutos which is an expectorant that is supposed to help alleviate my phlegm
problem. (I ordered so much extra
because I’m tired of going back to the pharmacy every couple weeks. Now I hope to buy enough the beginning of
each month so I don’t have to return during the month.) I tried to ask the guy working there if I
should take a spoonful and we all had a good laugh because I actually asked if
I should take a forkful. That would
never work! Lol. The total came to 180,700.
We walked a few stores down to Cosechas where I had another drink for my cold (ugh) and Teresa had
a normal juice for 8,400. Imagine, 2
fresh juices for $3, even if they were the small size.
We stopped at $efecty
where I paid 89,900 ($32) for Direct TV and 64,900 ($23) for une. I would have paid the epm bill too but Laura
forgot to pick it up in downtown Caldas last Thursday.
We walked down the block to Almacen Borneo where I bought the pepper spray for 42mil (about
$16). Teresa found a couple bracelets
and a pendant next door for 90 mil ($32).
I told Teresa I needed to print some pages at the internet
store. She asked someone on the street
and she led me upstairs to the 2nd floor of someplace I hadn’t been
before. The lady took my flash drive and
put into her computer and then wanted me to tell her what to print. That’s just too difficult. I need to do it myself which I’ve done before
at the internet café near the restaurant.
We walked 3 more blocks and found it was closed. Again, had we gotten there earlier… We decided to come back on Monday.
We walked a couple blocks to the hookah store again (Bazar Aladino) where Teresa found an
Indian banner and wind chime for the finca for 87,500 ($30).
We walked to Exito
where we picked up some Dove soap, cheese arepas, a dozen eggs, and a package
of mozzarella cheese for 48,570. While
Teresa was looking for things I made a trip to the restroom. There is a 600 peso charge (20 cents) to use
Exito’s restroom but the lady who usually takes the money wasn’t there so I
just went in anyway. When I came out she
was sitting there and I said “oh, there you are” in English. I counted out the 600 pesos and then said
“correct?” in Spanish and she replied “perfect” in English.
We went outside and I stopped at a tree planter to get my
things together and a guy from Claro talked to us for awhile (in Spanish and broken
English) about how we can save money by changing our Direct TV and une services
to Claro. I told him we probably have at
least a 1-year contract with the other services so we probably can’t do
anything for a few more months. He gave
me a flyer which included his name and cell phone number.
We walked about 8 blocks to the seamstress where Teresa picked
up her blouse for another 15mil ($5).
We quickly caught a taxi to the highway but on the way we
saw what looked like a concert behind the Envigado library. I understood that this is compliments of
someone running for office. I have seen
a number of political banners in Envigado lately.
After a 5 minute wait we got the last two seats, but
different rows, on a Tratam bus back to the finca. Again, the lady sitting across the aisle from
me was staring at me like she hadn’t seen a gringo before.
We got past the killer dogs undetected.
I understand I now have an August 24th
appointment for my prostate test at 2:30 in the afternoon in Itagui.
Teresa read the directions and told me the procedure is very
complicated. She also told me we have to
return to the pharmacy to purchase some medicine required for my prostate
procedure. Sigh!
Teresa called Olga and she may have a broken clavicle so she’s
having an x-ray tomorrow. But she got off
easy because I understand her taxi driver and 2 people on a motorcycle died in
the accident.
I received the
following email reply from hotel Hacienda
La Extremadura: OK Reservation,
august 7 and august 8
Thank you
aracelly
so I guess we’re good to go.
Anyway I will have Teresa call to confirm.
While Teresa was going through the documents Olga gave her
she found that they have the incorrect number for my Cedula on a form she
returned to us. Sigh!
I took my sleeping pills and Dristan at 11pm and went to
bed.
T-shirt of the day: Try hard every day.
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