Monday, April 25th, 2016

3 days and counting! 

We didn’t get to bed until 12:30am but I fell asleep quickly and didn’t wake up until the dogs woke me up at 5:30.  I finally got up at 8:15.

We left the finca at 12:15, I gave each of the G-dogs a dog biscuit and we were on a bus after a 5 minute wait.  We had lunch at Carbón de Leña – 2 specials of the day for 26,500 (about $9).  Teresa went to have her nails done for 5,000 pesos but came back a few minutes later and informed me that the girl was too busy.  Laura arrived a few minutes later.

Wilson arrived just after 2pm and we all went to the agency where Teresa filled out a 2-sided form.  At one point she put my first and middle name down where the last name goes and then she had to start over with a new form.  I went upstairs and paid 20,000 pesos then I gave 65,000 pesos to the lady who was helping us.

We walked to the apartment – I was pretty sure I could find it without having the address but I got lost.  I don’t know why Teresa didn’t ask for the address. 

 

I measured the rooms and one thing I discovered is that because of a railing and something out that juts out from the side there is only 58 centimeters of clearance on the stairs leading up to the 3^rd floor.  Anything brought up would have to be lifted about 4 feet off the floor to clear those obstacles or have to be lifted up via the balcony.  We considered that a deal breaker and went back to the agency to check on other apartments.  Teresa told me later she also didn’t like that the kitchen could be seen from the front door.

At the agency it started raining about 5pm and it finally let up about 5:45 but we decided to come back tomorrow.  I understand the guy who was showing us apartments is interested in seeing the finca to rent or buy so he’s stopping by tomorrow morning and then we’re leaving with him for Envigado.

We went back to Carbón de Leña where Laura had the special of the day for “lunch”, Teresa had a chicken pastry and hot chocolate and I had a slice of carrot cake (it was delicious) and café con leche for a total of only 16,000 pesos (about $5.50).

We took a taxi to the highway and right away caught a Tratam bus back to the finca.

Walking up the sideroad in the dark we were nervous when we saw a man walking very slowly ahead of us.  When we finally got up to the top where the floodlight is Teresa recognized a man who lives in a finca higher up the mountain.

I gave the black dog my last dog biscuit and we got back to the finca by 7:15.

I finished Carl Sagan’s Pale Blue Dot and downloaded Harlan Coben’s 274 page Fool me Once.

I received an email from my bank, effective June 2^nd, that “Transactions at ATMs located outside of the United States may not be eligible for ATM usage fee refunds.”  I guess I’ll have to wait and see if this really changes.

Now we return to our previous programming of boring t-shirts.

T-shirt of the day: Fabulous memories.  Kiss me right now.