Monday, February 18, 2019

Yesterday I moved the fan from my brother’s room to our bedroom.  Last night, without my requesting it, Teresa turned it on before we went to bed.  I fell asleep quickly, woke up but didn’t get up, several times during the night finally waking/getting up at 6:30.

Per the local news this year Colombia exported 35,000 tons of flowers to the US for Valentine’s Day.

It’s 7am and Laura is already at the Boston airport for her 9am flight.  She first flies to Baltimore where she has a 3-hour layover before continuing on to Detroit.

I left the apt at 9am and took the bus to Poblado.  I stopped at Envios Market and picked up my food supplements for 7,600 pesos.  The front of the store looks like a business supplies/paper store and there is no counter space for a customer to put things or to sign a document.  I ran into Nobraskja as I was leaving.

Across the street I quickly caught another bus and got off when we passed The Habitat Store.

At the hotel they were just finishing breakfast and I got a complimentary cup of coffee while I was waiting.

Airin had forgotten some of her clothes so I brought them in my gym bag along with the SS letter for MT and the supplements I had picked up at Envios Market.  I gave her her clothes back and left the bag for when we return from El Retiro.

There was a fitness competition in Medellin over the weekend and a few of the young ladies were still at the hotel.  While sitting in the lobby I noticed one of them had a Sears bag with www.sears.com.mx on it so I guess she was from Mexico.

We left the hotel at 9:45 and took a taxi to the San Diego mall.  We waited about 20 minutes for a bus to El Retiro.  The bus fare was only 7mil and comically, the guy taking the cash made a 4,000 peso arithmetic mistake but came back later to get it.

We arrived in El Retiro at noon.  It is at an altitude of 7,173 feet.

We walked up the hill to Casa Retiro, where we had coffee last year, but found it closed.  We walked across the street to Aroma a Café and it was just as special.

We walked around town a little and then took a 1:45 bus back to Medellin.

I received an email from Laura at 3:30 that her flight landed.

I picked up my bag from the hotel and walked down to Avenida Poblado.  I crossed the street and soon was on a Sabaneta bus.  Uncharacteristically, we moved through the gold mile pretty quickly only to hit bumper to bumper traffic just after.

I stopped at the Gana store where I added 20mil to my account and then stopped at the bakery but they didn’t have any English muffins.

Back at the apt I spent some time reading emails and updating my blog notes.  About 5pm I went out on the balcony and was surprised to see the streets wet; I didn’t hear or notice any rain.

Teresa returned at 5:15.  It soon started raining again.

At 7pm Teresa called the portero and asked for a taxi.  He said it might take awhile because of the rain.  Five minutes later he called and said a taxi was on its way.  Teresa asked for the taxi to come in the garage.  We picked up our things and went downstairs.  Another portero was standing in the entrance.  She asked him about our taxi.  He said a taxi just went by.  It turned out that Teresa asked for the taxi to go to tower 4 and we are in tower 6.  Via walkie talkie the guard got the taxi redirected to us and we were on our way.

It was still raining as we arrived at the restaurant Tagliata right on schedule at 7:30.  Jim, Joan and Airin arrived 10 minutes later.

We had a nice dinner, Teresa had chicken breast and a glass of water and I had the beef medallions pasta combo with a limonada de coco.  Unfortunately, the beef was a little on the chewy side, not as delicious as the year before.

Laura finally texted me just before 8pm and said she arrived and missed my text because she was taking a bath.  She said one of the girls is very nice but the other is more serious.  Grandma is there also but I told her not worry as this is a different situation.  She also reported having a sore throat.  I told her to take pills and talk to the father as it appears he is a doctor.

Teresa got the rest of Airin’s pasta to go and I got the rest of my beef to go.  Just as we were settling the bill a homeless man was standing outside the restaurant so we gave him all of our doggie bags.

Teresa said goodbye to them for another year and I made plans to meet them at their hotel tomorrow by 12:30pm for their trip to the airport.

We took a taxi back to the apt.

Joke of the day

A blind man sits down at the bar and figures he'll break the ice with the bartender by asking "Wanna hear a blond joke?"

In a hushed voice, a man beside him says "Before you tell that joke, you should know our bartender is blonde, our bouncer is blonde, I'm a 6'4" black belt, the man sitting on the other side of me is 6'2, 250 lbs, and a rugby player. The guy sitting next to you is pushing 300lbs, 6'6, and he's a wrestler. We're ALL blonde. So you think about it mister, do you really wanna tell that joke?"

The blind man sat for a second, thinking over the odds and then replied "No, not if I have to explain it five times."