Thursday, March 9, 2017

I woke up at 7am and got up at 8am feeling pretty refreshed so I guess I must have slept well last night.

It’s a mostly overcast morning.  It will be interesting to see if it clears up or stays overcast or starts raining.

I emailed Eddie asking if he wanted to meet me for lunch today.  

He called me (Eddie 311 308 xxxx) and we made arrangements to meet at Aguacatala station at 11pm and then he’s going with me to EnCiclo and then El Viejo y El Pancake.

I left the apt at 10:30, walked down to Herman’s juice stand where I had a glass of orange juice for 2,000 pesos, and took the metro to Aguacatala station.  As soon as I got off I saw Eddie and we both jumped onto the same car but through different doors. 

We got off at Estacion Alpujarra, walked a block south and 2 blocks west to Area Metropolitana del Valle de Aburra where, after a 5 minute wait, I got my Civica card updated for EnCicla.  Eddie helped me with some questions I had and I learned: I can check out a bicycle for a maximum of 1 hour, I can return it to any station, and their hours are M-F 5:30am-9pm and Sat 6:30am-3pm.

We walked back to the metro where we took it to the San Antonio station, transferred to the west line and got off at Estacion Estadio.  We walked a block south to the new El Viejo y El Pancake location.  It looks like the indoor area takes up approximately the space of a garage and the outdoor has enough room for 4 tables.  All tables were taken so we took seats at the counter inside.

They have a small chalkboard with their specials of the day.  Eddie ordered a small bowl of vegetable soup and their ham sandwich.  I ordered a small bowl of vegetable soup, their cole slaw, and their BLT.

While waiting for our food we learned: they are open Wednesday-Sunday from 8am-2pm.  They switch over from breakfast to lunch at 11:30.  In our conversation with David & Lexxi it was mentioned that sometimes Exito sells a bottle of limonada de coco that’s delicious.  I’ll have to look for that.  David talked about their difficulties getting product they need for their restaurant.  He mentioned they went to a bakery with specific requirements for how their bread is made and cut.  For example, I understand the bakery bakes bread using sugar and David wanted them to use salt.  The baker said “why would you want to use salt?  We always use sugar.”  David replied that that’s what they need and if they couldn’t make it they would take their business elsewhere.  The baker replied, “that’s okay, then I have less work to do”.   That’s the Colombian mentality you have to deal with here.  (They work to live they don’t live to work.)  David said he finally found a “foundation” in Bello that is teaching women how to bake bread and they will be his supplier.

Lunch was very good especially the home made vegetable soup.  I paid 20,000 pesos for my meal including a glass of lemonade.

We walked over to the chess league office where I saw they have an upcoming tournament.  Seven rounds at night starting at 6:30pm on March 14, 16, 17, 21, 22, 27, and 29^th.  The fee is 25mil, the time limit is 60 minutes plus 30 seconds per move and it’s only for ELO ratings 1601-1800.  My strength should fall in that range but I don’t know what my current rating is; it might fall short of that.  (Back at the apt I sent an email to Jaime Colorado asking if he could tell me how to find out what it is.) 

Eddie wanted to walk some more so we walked back to the station and from there to Viva Laureles where he had 3 Colombia Negras (local beer) and I had a Te Hatsu (yellow bottle).

We walked across the street where we caught a Circular Sur 302 bus.  (There was a little rain as we passed through the Belen neighborhood.)  Eddie got off at the La Moto mall and I continued on to Aguacatala station.  I took the metro to Envigado and a bus to Parque Envigado.  Today I saw 6 different chess games in progress but most weren’t using the built in concrete chess boards.

Tonight Teresa was again asking me questions about Chicago.  Like, is Lake Michigan as large as Medellin?  I told her it’s probably closer to the size of Antioquia (their state).  She can’t seem to imagine it.

About 7:30 it started raining.  It stopped about 90 minutes later.

I’m not sure what’s going to happen at the gym tomorrow as I’m afraid our payment didn’t work.  If they won’t take cash, and they won’t take my US debit cards, then maybe I can put cash into MT’s BanColombia account and Smartfit can withdraw it from there.

T-shirt of the day: I’m only responsible for what I say.  Not for what you understand.