Thursday, December 12th, 2013

Last night I was at LM at 5:40 for dinner.  My plan was to order the same thing Reina had at SanJote last week.  I started to tell the owner that I wanted the same thing the woman with me ordered last week and he told me exactly what I was going to say.  The only unknown was how I wanted my steak cooked.  I said “mediano” (medium) “pero no sangria” and, of course he didn’t understand me until I changed it to “pero no sangre” (but no blood) and he told me I wanted to order it “tres quarto” (three quarters). 

What I got was amazingly similar to a skirt steak – delicious and cooked perfectly; also a small salad, small baked potato, and mango juice.  It was all delicious for 16,500 pesos ($8.68).  The only negative is that the steak was a little chewy although very flavorful.

I left right on time at 6:30 and just missed my Laureles 191 bus because I was on the other side of the street I needed to cross.  (I saw several Santra Belen 315 or 316 buses pass by with the stadium listed on their route.  The only problem is I don’t know how much more of the city it would traverse before getting there.)  I caught the next bus about 20 minutes later.  Reina called me while I was on the bus and I told her I’d be there in 5-10 minutes.  I wasn’t sure if the bus was going to take me right up to the stadium station so when I saw it not making the needed turn I got off.  I had 1 long block to go and I was there by 7:10.

There were 3 other ladies there also waiting for the same tour and at 7:30 they gave up and took a taxi back home.  There was an Atletico Nacional game being played tonight at 8:30 at the stadium and I expected the streets to be more crowded.  We gave up on the tour at 8:15.  Sigh!  I’ve heard stories about “Colombia tiempo” and the inefficiencies in their system but this is the first time I’ve experienced it myself.  

I gave Reina money for a taxi back home and I caught the next Laureles 191 bus.  I got off at Calle 35 and a short 4 block walk later I was at the corner store where I could see that the A/N game with Cali was about to begin.  I stopped at the apartment, dropped off my umbrella, changed into a long sleeved shirt and headed back to the store.  Needless to say, it was another “exciting” 0-0 result.  I understand both teams play each other again Sunday afternoon at 5:30.

I went to bed at 11pm (with earplugs), got up twice during the night, and finally woke/got up at 7am.

I walked down to the bakery across the street from the hotel but I didn’t see any churros in the display case so I walked the 3 blocks south to the bakery on Calle 35 that I noticed the last 2 nights.  They had churros but they didn’t have any seats.  I guess 8:30am is too early for me to have confidence that I’m going to get a seat.  I headed back to LM and had my usual breakfast at Bunuel Express.  While there Dario stopped by on his way to a business meeting.  I told him I am playing chess tomorrow morning with Augusto.  He asked me if he is any good and I said “no, I beat him 9 out of 10 times, but he likes to play chess”.

I headed over to Viva Mall to pay my bills.  As I was approching the building I saw a Brinks truck pulling away.  When I took money out of the Davivienda ATM I was surprised to see it was all in 10s & 20s.  I guess they ran out of 50s.  The small change is so difficult to get I’m not going to waste it on paying my bills so I went to the ATH ATM and got my usual 50s.  That’s when I realized I had forgotten to bring my bills with me. 

I made a quick stop at the apartment, dropped off all the 10s & 20s, picked up my bills and headed back to Exito.  On my way I stopped and had a large orange juice for 2mil.  At 9:30 there was no one in line in Exito and I quickly paid my bills.  While there I bought a couple packages of Trident gum.  I stopped at the Tinto store and had a cup of coffee.  Harry was there but he seldom talks while he’s doing business on his notebook computer.  Bob stopped by and told me he leaves next Tuesday, he’s going to be gone for 3 weeks exploring Colombia and Ecuador.  I asked him which of the 2 ladies is the lucky one to join him and he said “both”.  He explained he’s making separate trips with each of them.

I found a description of last night’s game accidentally on the internet.  It is a good example of being able to understand the words of a translation but not the meaning.  See the next posting.

I checked my A/N schedule and I found that last night’s game was played in Cali, Sunday’s game will be in Medellin.

I took a nap from 12:30 to 1:15.

I walked down to the bakery across from the hotel but I didn’t see any churros so I kept walking over to Calle 35.  The official name of this bakery appears to be Paisas Pan (not to be confused with Paisa Pan on Calle 44).  There was plenty of seating available and I had a café con leche oscuro and 2 churros for 3,300 pesos ($1.74).

I walked down Calle 35 until I came to the traffic circle I am very familiar with then came back up past Chef Burger Bar.  Back at LM I hung around there for a while and read my Nook book.

Coming up the escalator at Viva mall I noticed there is now a small kiosk selling cell phone accessories where the popcorn stand used to be.

Dinner was a Hamburguesa Cebollita Crispy con Queso (hamburger with crispy onions and cheese) and a small strawberry shake.  I had a coupon for the burger so the total came to 9,400 ($4.95).

It’s 8pm and something is happening outside my apartment building.  Lots of cars are parked on my street and I hear some music (church music?) coming from around the corner.

I think I’m going to stay in tonight and play around with trying to get tonight’s NFL Thursday night game of the week.