I slept through the night finally waking/getting up at 8:15.
I got an email from Jim that they would like to get a head
start on the day and meet at 11am.
Laura packed a gym bag with enough clothes for the week
because she’s going to be staying with Wilson
in Envigado.
The three of us left the finca at 10am, got past the killer
dogs undetected and were on a van after only a 5 minute wait.
Soon traffic was crawling and I sent a series of text
messages to Michael that we were running late.
I had never seen traffic into the city that bad before.
When we finally got to the highway just before La Estrella
we saw the cause – two semi trailer cabs crashed into each other blocking 2 of
the 3 lanes. I sent Michael an email
that our expected time of arrival was back to noon. The last person, other than us, got off the
bus. After that it was clear sailing but
soon, for some reason, the driver turned off the expressway and took a parallel
street that was like a frontage road.
Soon he was back on the expressway – not sure why he ever got off –
maybe he was looking to pick up other passengers.
Just before Majorca CC he turned east and finally Teresa
questioned where he was going. I still
believed he would be dropping us off at the Poblado metro station where we
would take a taxi to the hotel.
He stopped in Envigado and dropped off Laura with her gym
bag. Teresa told me he was going to take
us directly to the hotel for 15mil (the usual fare is 6mil). We were on Avenida Las Vegas and he didn’t
seem to know how to get up to Avenida Poblado where the hotel is. When he finally found it, Teresa told me to
tell Jim & Michael to come down as the driver would take us directly to the
Poblado station for another 5mil.
I texted them and 5 minutes later we arrived and they were
waiting for us. They hopped in and the
driver dropped us off in front of Monterrey CC.
He also got out of his van, went to the small trunk in back and gave
Teresa 5 large, but slightly damaged, mangos, no charge. He also gave each of us his business card –
Paseador Canino 300-817-4136 & 321-216-0275 - I understand he could take someone
to the airport.
I told Michael this is the mall with all the computer
accessories and other electronics. We
went inside, took the escalator upstairs where we found a 2 terabyte external
hard drive for 280mil (about $95).
Michael said he would give me a copy of his collection of movies and documentaries and some
of his TV series. Someday I should be
able to use it to backup my laptop.
We went outside, walked under the bridge and climbed the
stairs to the metro station. I used my
metro card which contained 10 rides. We
took the metro to Parque Berrio and got a few strange looks because we were
talking English.
I had Teresa ask and after a short walk we found Botero Plaza. Right away we found a guy selling lots of
inexpensive sunglasses. Both Jim and
Michael bought a pair for about 15-20mil each.
One was a Ray Ban knockoff with the tag still attached. We walked a little further to another
sunglass seller and I believe Jim bought another pair.
The plaza has a lot of statues that Botero donated to the
city. He is known for his statues of
oversized people and animals. Jim and
Michael showed interest in some miniature statues for sale but in the end they
didn’t buy anything. Just outside the Antioquia Museum (Carrera 52 #52-43) there was a
man selling prints of some of Botero’s paintings. We each bought one for about 20mil each. We went into the museum and the charge was
10mil per person. We took an elevator up
to the 3rd floor where we looked at lots of Botero paintings that he
had donated to the museum. (Not sure if
that means he is a fast painter or maybe they weren’t selling.) He gave them so many they had to move into a
larger building. After we worked our way
downstairs it was about 2:30 and everyone was hungry. We found a Frisby where Teresa and I each had the Frichuleta with mango juice,
Jim had chicken wings and a diet Pepsi and Michael had a 2-piece chicken combo
and a Pepsi.
They told me that tomorrow morning they will probably move
into a hostel near Calle 10. We decided
we would meet about noon tomorrow at the Poblado station and go to Parque Arvi.
At the metro station I had everyone buy their own 2mil
ticket so they would be familiar with the process. They got off at the Poblado station where
they could catch a taxi to their hotel.
We continued onto Envigado where we walked a short distance to Home Center. Teresa only has 3 bowls in the finca so we
bought 4 pretty new bowls and 2 serving plates for 99,400 ($33).
I had her ask the guard where the closest place is to catch
a taxi and he sent us downstairs. At
least we didn’t have to carry our bags to Exito. We pushed our cart onto the moving sidewalk
that took us downstairs. There were
already people there with a couple of carts so I sat down while Teresa waited for
our turn with our cart. A couple minutes
later I saw a taxi outside so I asked Teresa about it. We soon learned that the other people were
waiting for a car to pick them up. We
pushed our cart outside, a man helped us put our bags in the taxi and we were
on our way to the highway.
After a short wait we were on a Fredonia bus back to the
finca. The only problem is that this bus
always stops in Caldas for 10 minutes or so.
At the sideroad, with Teresa carrying the mangos (she carried those
heavy things all day) and me with the other 2 bags we walked up the hill, got
past the killer dogs undetected and were back at the finca at 6:30, just before
dark.
I set the alarm for 6am for Teresa and 8:30 for myself.
I took my sleeping pills at 11pm and went to bed at 11:15.
T-shirt of the day: The less I needed, the better I felt.
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