Sunday, June 7th, 2015

I slept well despite getting up twice during the night.

I don’t know if I mentioned this in one of my early posts, but before I left the US I had my vision corrected.  I didn’t qualify for the common Lasik surgery due to: my advanced age, thin corneas, and my high myopia so I went to, arguably, the best ophthalmologist in Chicago and had my lenses replaced.  The last couple weeks I’ve noticed my right eye doesn’t see clearly which might be contributing to my getting headaches.  I’m hoping it’s something easily curable like an eye infection and not a problem with my artificial lens.  

The last few weeks there has been an ongoing discussion among expats on Expat Exchange titled Visa Transpaso.  Friday I received an email from the US embassy entitled U.S. Citizens Need to Replace Indefinite Cedulas de Extranjeria with new Cedula by July 23, 2015.

The text of the email states The U.S. Embassy Bogota would like to inform all U.S. citizens residing in Colombia on an indefinite residence permit, the so-called “cedula de extranjeria (C.E.),” that they need to apply at Colombian Immigration (Migracion Colombia) for a new residence permit prior to July 23, 2015.  Migracion Colombia will issue a new cedula valid for five (5) years.  The requirement to replace indefinite cedulas is part of the measures stipulated in Decree 0834 dated April 24, 2013.  For more information, including supporting documentation to present and fees, please visit the website of Colombian Immigration at: http://migracioncolombia.gov.co/index.php/tramites/cedula-de-extranjeria. 

I took a quick look at the website and of course it is in Spanish but the gist of it is that we have to provide the usual “cedula renewal” documents (passport photo copies, 3x4 cm. photo) and pay a fee of 162,000 pesos (about $65) but I understand the cedula is good for 5 years.  (Nowhere is “visa” mentioned so I assume that still needs to be renewed annually.)

We left the finca at noon and the rottweiler came out a little late, after we had already passed.

We walked across the road and quickly caught a Caldas bus going in the opposite direction.  This time it went into a small town to drop people off before heading to Caldas.

In Caldas Teresa said she was hungry so we stopped at a small restaurant where she ordered a half rotisserie chicken for me and a bowl of fish soup for herself for 23mil.  I only ate a couple pieces and a couple small potatoes with my soda.  Later we gave a piece of chicken, a potato and small arepa to Walter for lunch.  The rest of the chicken Laura had for lunch.

Merkepaisa is less than a block away and we bought most of our food for the month.  

While waiting for Walter to pick us up in his taxi an old lady came by and talked to Teresa.  I understood she was asking for money but I waited for Teresa to tell me what to give her.  At one point she lowered her blouse and bra and you could see she had her breast removed.  I only had 200 pesos on me so that’s what I gave her.

Walter picked us up and took us back to the finca.  On the way down the hill in the taxi the other killer dog followed the taxi and I got a good squirt at him with my pepper spray and he ran off.  Hopefully he’ll remember that when we come by again.

The other day in the Carulla grocery store, Teresa spent some time talking to the young lady who made our turkey sandwich.  Tonight Teresa made an almost identical sandwich for each of us.  I don’t remember if I mentioned that the sandwich includes a thin slice of green apple; sounds a little strange but it is tasty.

Teresa asked Laura to find a movie on Yaske.net.  First she found Gravity but it wasn’t very good and it certainly wasn’t the movie with Sandra Bullock and George Clooney.  After that she found Careful What You Wish For (5.4) which was much better.

Tomorrow is a holiday and I understand also are the next 2 Mondays.

I took my prostate pill at 10pm, my sleeping pill at 11pm and went to bed.