Wednesday, January 15th, 2014

Last night I watched Wrecked a 2010 movie starring Adrian Brody.

A man wakes up trapped in a crashed automobile, with no hope of rescue. As he struggles to survive, he slowly remembers the events that put him there.

Even though IMDB only rated it 5.2 I guess I enjoyed it because I like survival type movies.

I went to bed at 10:45, had great difficulty getting to sleep (Note to self: don’t drink coffee at night before you go to bed!), got up once during the night and finally woke/got up at 7:10.

I took my laptop and my bills to Exito where I waited in line for 10 minutes to pay them.  I also made an unsuccessful attempt at finding a replacement for the Craftsman garage door opener that Dylan lost last year.  

I had my usual breakfast at Bunuelo Express and after 15 minutes of trying I couldn’t get the laptop to work right.  The cursor didn’t move smoothly over the screen and when I clicked on something I got no, or a very delayed, response.  I finally gave up and took everything back to the apartment.

Later on the way to the bus stop I saw Jhon’s office is open again.  He told me my brother and I don’t need a reservation if we’re going to Santafe because it’s the slow season now.

I took a Laureles 191 bus to the Paul Keres chess club at the stadium.  Its obvious now that the Chess League is now located here and not downtown.  With the aid of a note I asked the cute receptionist if they sell wood chessboards here and she said no!  A man came out that spoke English and he told me I could try either the Coltejer building (been there, tried that) or El Hueco.  (His name is Oscar and his cell phone number is 310 391 36 46.)  When I asked for details for the latter he said to tell the bus driver and he’ll drop me off there.

While there I signed up for a chess tournament they are having next week.  Oscar said they are expecting a turnout of about 300.  Here are the details:

It’s 7 rounds and cost 30mil which, luckily, I had on me.  There is 1 game on each day Wednesday through Friday and 2 games on Saturday and 2 games on Sunday.  When I was getting on the Laureles 191 bus back to the apartment I told the driver I wanted to get off at El Hueco but he told me (I think) the bus doesn’t go there.  But as we were approaching Avenida 80 the driver pointed south and told me I should get off here.  I got off and I was right in front of the store that sells some American products so I asked him where El Hueco is.  He, with the help of another young man in the store, told me it’s near Parque Berrio downtown.  As I was walking back to the apartment the young man appeared again and told me its 3 blocks from Parque Berrio.  I googled it when I got home and I saw an address of Calle 48 Carrera 53-53, Office 204, which, if Parque Berrio is approximately Calle 50 & Carrera 50, is about 2 blocks south and 3 blocks west.

I stopped at the fruit stand and had a slab of pineapple.  I was back at the apartment for only a few minutes and I caught a Circular 302 bus at 1:30.  

There wasn’t much traffic and I got off by Monterey at 2pm.

I was ahead of schedule so I stopped at MBE and they had 2 packages for me.   One was my January issue of Chess Life and the other contained extra copies of the December Chess Life and their 2014 Buying Guide.  I’ll probably give the extras to Dario.

I was at the Flip Flop Sandwich Shop by 2:25 and had a hamburger, chips, and a Coke.  That may be the best hamburger in Medellin with the lettuce, tomato, onions, and sliced cucumber (instead of pickle).  I didn’t see Chris at all and I left about 3pm and was at Vizcaya CC, which is still under major construction, by 3:15.   I bought a general admission ticket to Kon-Tiki for 3,250 pesos ($1.71).  I was surprised you still pick out your seat – you just can’t sit in the top few rows.  I still had 45 minutes until show time so I read some more from my Nook book until 20 minutes before showtime when I made a quick trip to the restroom then bought a medium popcorn and large Pepsi for 14mil ($7.37).  I was still in my seat 12 minutes before the movie started and there were maybe a dozen people in the theater.  One of the coming attractions was for Enders Game (IMDB 7.2) starring Harrison Ford.

I had read the book Kon-Tiki many years ago and enjoyed the movie.  It was over at 6pm and I was on a bus back to the apartment by 6:30.  Unfortunately, it was rush hour and it was packed – I had to stand up most of the way.  

The bus stopped at Exito at 7:15 and I headed right for LM and had a mango juice.

On the way back to the apartment I saw Bob sitting with Margarita so I stopped for a minute.  One thing I learned is that Chris from FFSS was at Jardin with his new bride.

Back at the apartment I texted Beatriz that I would like her to meet me at the store tomorrow to pick up my laundry and even though I don’t have any shirts that need to be ironed I would still pay her 20mil.  She texted me back she’s going to be working in Envigado tomorrow but would meet me on Friday morning.