Wednesday, January 4, 2023

Saturday, December 31, 2022

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, fell asleep quickly, got up once during the night, finally waking/getting up at 6am.

Now we’re going to be picked up at 8:45 instead of 8am.

I’m not really looking forward to this trip. At least 2 hours (expecting many more) in a car going there, a late night (3am? 4am?), and at least 2 hours returning.

I’m a little concerned if this is a long trip. I’m okay for 3-4 hours without going #1 but I’m concerned if I have to go #2 and we have to find a spot with restrooms and I’m constipated and they don’t have a toilet seat.

We left just before 9am and took a Didi to their apt complex near Estadio. I was in front with Daniela driving with Teresa, MT, and Adriana in back. About halfway there we stopped at a Colombian outdoor bar & grill El Alto del Chocho where we had pan de queso with coffee and/or hot chocolate. There was one 100-yard stretch where traffic was one way so it took a few minutes for it to be our turn.

We arrived by noon so the trip was about 2 ½ hours, not too bad.



Ricardo has a cabana that he bought with his 4 brothers on the far side of town and across the bridge.



We walked about 5 blocks to our hotel and checked in then walked back to the cabana. These geese live in a farm/finca across the road. (They made quite a racket the first time we stopped by. This time they were quieter.)



Ricardo had bought 8 Tiki torches but it didn’t include the torch fuel. The instructions were in French and English so he asked me to translate.



I mentioned that instead of torch fuel some type of oil might work but I had used all my cellphone plan data and I couldn’t get a wifi connection there.

Later, Daniela found something to put in the torches. During the evening she ended up burning the wicks down but it didn’t seem to be burning whatever fuel she used.

Gladis was there looking fit so I guess she recovered from whatever problem she had when we visited her in her bedroom last August.

At dusk they moved the plastic chairs outside and put them in a circle.


We each took a seat and a lady came by and you picked a strip of paper out of a paper bag. Mine said “13 Daniela”. Then it appeared they went in order and each person gave a little speech. I noticed a couple of times it ending with “amen” so I’m not exactly sure what was going on. After half a dozen or so it started to rain and we all moved back inside to at least the porch.

They put on music and a couple of people took turns dancing on the little space that was available.



At one point they told me to go out and talk to someone that spoke English. There were two couples consisting of 2 Colombian men and 2 American? Women. One of the men spoke English, French, Polish besides Spanish.

Teresa and I finally left at 3am and someone gave us a ride to our hotel. No one was in the streets so I guess they don’t all celebrate the whole night unless they do it in their houses. We finally got to bed at 3:30.

Today I got in 3,508 steps today.

 

Fun pix






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