Sunday, June 5th, 2016

At 9am someone stopped by for the quart of paint and I also gave them 23,000 pesos.  We left the finca at 10am and first we stopped at a nearby little store (tienda) for something for lunch later but it was closed.  We took a metro bus for the first time.  I actually got a little lost (turned around) as it approached the metro area.  Teresa stopped at a stand and for 500 pesos bought a cup of fruit.  A large dog came by with no apparent owner.  I forget what you call the type – you know – the ones that traditionally carry a keg under their neck in the Alps.  It was huge.

After a 5 minute wait for a bus we got into a private car (con effectivo).  Traffic was heavy as they had the express lanes closed for Sunday exercisers.  The driver took us through the back streets of Itagui and we ended up getting ahead of the logjam.

Between the Caldas turnoff and the sideroad to the finca there have always been 3 restaurants.  The 2^nd one closed because the highway will soon run right through its front parking lot.  I saw they have a sign up on top of the hill – Parilla – so maybe they’ve opened a location up there.

Teresa announced that the driver and his wife are her friends and they exchanged phone numbers.  I got a little nervous when we passed the sideroad and more nervous when we passed the spot where we would cross over to the other side of the highway.  They ended up taking us to the El Rancherito just south of the sideroad.  Teresa went inside and bought some food then they drove us all the way to the top of the hill.  They left their car there and walked down the hill with us.  I gave the black dog 6 small dog biscuits – he’s getting better at catching them.

At the finca, the renters have moved a lot of the plants from their crowded place in front to inside and around the outside of the finca.  They’ve moved some of their own furniture inside.

They moved the Direct TV satellite dish from the side of the finca to the roof and in its place put up one of those tents and has 2 motorcycles under it.  (The book I’m currently reading referred to them as open-sided tents.)  They have a small dog that after a little early aggressiveness got to like me after giving him several of the small dog biscuits.  They also have a kitten that can’t be more than a few weeks old.  Miguel, whose name I thought was Andres, was painting more of the outside of the finca.

In the chicken coop out back I saw Luna, Tony and Peluche.

I ate some frijoles that Teresa brought from the restaurant with a small bottle of Coke.  At 2pm it started raining and the woman ran in back and brought in the laundry but it stopped 2 minutes later.  I took a nap from about 2:30 to 3:30 in a nice Lay-Z-Boy (sp?) chair the man had.

At 4pm the man hooked up an old TV in the living room and just then they started showing another America Cup match – this time between Jamaica and Venezuela that was held in Soldier Field in Chicago.  It looked like they had beautiful weather today.

I gave Miguel 200,000 pesos for work he’s done thus far – painting and finishing the sideroad down to the finca.

We left the finca just before dark, Miguel carrying a box of something with Luna tied to a rope, and it was dark by the time we got down to the highway.  I don’t know how Teresa could tell the difference between car lights and bus lights but after 5 minutes she flagged one down.  We said goodbye to Miguel.

The bus was basically full so Teresa sat on the transmission and I sat on the stairs until some people finally got off at the La Estrella station and we got seats.

At the apartment Teresa had some sausage and arepas she brought from the finca and I headed to Carbón de Leña.  I noticed the side street leading to the park was barricaded closed and I thought there might be some doings going on at the park.  On the street was a huge crane and what looked like a couple lampposts lying in the street.  At Carbón de Leña I had a hamburger and strawberry juice with milk which was kind of like a milkshake.  Back at the side street I observed the crane lifting the 2^nd object all the way onto the top of a building and I thought I heard a woman say “antenna”.

T-shirt of the day: If you have something to say, raise your hand, and put it over your mouth.