7 days remaining on my visa.
I got up once during the night, finally
waking/getting up at 7:45, having slept very well.
We left the finca at 9:15am and quickly caught
an express van to Aquacatala. We took a
Circular Sur bus to Calle 19 and walked the two blocks to the Immigration
office.
At the entrance a guard directed us to the other
side of the building. We went in to an
air conditioned space larger than the one I was in last year. Teresa talked to someone there and then we
sat down and she asked me for my documents.
I wasn’t there to submit my Pensionado Visa I just wanted an extension
on the expiration date. I tried to tell
her that if they tell me what the requirements are I would come back with the
“documents”.
We waited a while for someone to come out who
spoke English. She sat behind a
plexiglass screen with a small hole in the center. I had my ear up to the hole trying to
understand her English with a heavy Spanish accent. I understood I need to show them all the
documents I plan to take with me to Bogota. Finally, they gave me a little piece of paper
with the telephone number, fax number and website of the Ministry of Foreign
Affairs – www.Cancilleria.gov.co.
Teresa led me outside and we walked down the
block to an Internet café where I printed out the Pensionado Visa
requirements. We stopped at another
store to print out pages from my passport.
We went upstairs and I was led into a room to take my photo. I tried to tell the young lady there that I
need a CD copy because that was my lawyer’s requirement last year. Teresa and I went back out into a waiting
room where Teresa talked to a middle aged lady named Martha. I understood she was a lawyer who offered to
help us with my visa. She put me on the
phone with a young man who informed me that they would have the visa ready for
me without having to ask for an extension for about $500. He said half of that would go to Colombia for
the visa itself. I agreed and we went
outside and she took us to her car and she drove us to her main office across
the street from Unicentro CC.
First Teresa and I walked down to the Exito in
the mall where she had salmon and juice and I had ribs and a Coke for 24,800. We stopped at an ATM machine where I took out
800mil and then I bought another month’s supply of Tamsulosin for 42,600 in
their pharmacy.
We stopped at a tienda where I added 20mil to my
cell phone.
We stopped at a FotoJapon shop where they took
my picture and gave me 8 copies for 10mil.
Back at the office I signed a number of
documents and then we took two of them a block away to the notary where they
compared my picture and signature in my passport, stamped it, signed it and I
paid 6,500 for the 2 pages.
Back at the office they gave me several things I
need to take photos of and email to them in the morning.
I gave them a downpayment of 600mil with 460mil to
be paid later for a total of 1,060,000 COP (about $450). Last year I paid a total of 1,180,000 or $621.
At least now we don’t have to worry about the challenge and inconvenience of
going to Bogota.
We took a taxi from there to Exito Laureles
where we bought salad dressing, bread, Christmas cookies and more dog biscuits.
Teresa called Ramiro and he said he would be at
the finca early tomorrow morning.
We took a bus to Aquacatala where we caught an
express bus at 5:30 but traffic was the worst I’ve ever seen; most of the time
we weren’t moving at all. Finally at
7:40, at the 3rd to last traffic light leaving Medellin, we saw an accident in the right
lane (two cars tried to occupy the same space at the same time). After we got through the light there was
another accident with a bus and a truck in the left lane. Then things opened up and the driver drove
like a bat out of hell. At the first
tienda (small store) just outside of Caldas, he stopped the bus, opened the front
door, climbed out of his seat, out the door and into a side area of the
store. I’m sure he needed to take a piss
something awful. I was thinking maybe I
should have followed him. He got back
into the bus and he dropped us off across from the side road at 8:05.
There was no moon and I used the “torch” on my
cell phone to see where I was walking on the way up the hill. At the top she insisted I turn it off. I didn’t turn it off but I slipped in into my
back pocket. I held onto her sleeve with
one hand and held my pepper spray in the other.
Just as we got even with the neighbor’s house we heard the killer
dogs. One came out and when I heard him
close to me I sprayed in that general direction and then took out my cell phone
and pointed the light into his eyes. He
backed off after that.
I took my sleeping pill at 10pm and we went to
bed at 10:15.
T-shirt of the day: Chill out.
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