Sunday, August 30th, 2015

I had great difficulty getting to sleep, got up once at 6:30, finally got up at 9:45.

It was an overcast day which helped to keep the heat down.  We left the finca at 11am, got past the killer dogs undetected and were on a Fredonia bus after a 5 minute wait.

We arrived at 12:15 55 minutes after we left.  All small towns seem to have a public square (park) with a large church (usually on the east side for some reason).  (One of my readers commented that In Latin America the main church almost always is located on the east side of the plaza central in the town so that during morning mass the sun, as it rises, shines in thru the rose window above the altar.

I may be wrong, but I suspect that this has something to do with honoring the glory of the Ressurection.)  We went into the church obviously a little late and left about 25 minutes later.  When we came out Teresa informed me this wasn’t Fredonia it was Venecia.  I understand Fredonia is a little further up the hill.  I saw 5 soldiers with semi-automatic weapons standing nonchalantly in the square.  We walked around the square a little and finally settled on a small restaurant for lunch.  I had soup, chicken breast, salad, French fries, and mango juice and Teresa had something similar for a total of 28mil (about $9).  We both thought that was a little expensive for Colombia, especially for a small town.  Teresa wasn’t impressed with the town at all (should have gone to Fredonia) so we had some ice cream and decided to head back to the finca. 

The next bus was full and I didn’t want to stand for an hour so we waited about 45 minutes for the next one.  When we finally got on the bus and were waiting for it to fill so we could leave, one of the soldiers came in and gave everyone a business card.  It said “To you your freedom is paramount.  For us, it is our reason for being.  Help prevent and hijacks national hotline extension 147.  Gaula Military Antioquia.” and included 4 cell phone numbers and 2 landline numbers.  We finally left at 3:40 and were back to the sideroad an hour later.  We ran into Don Carlos’ son and Malu on the way up the hill.  I gave the latter a dog biscuit.  Going up the last portion of the sideroad Don Carlos’ granddaughter came out to see the gringo.  A very pretty but shy little girl about 6 years old.  The killer dogs came out to hassle us as we passed Guillermo’s house.  We got back to the finca at 5pm.

I finished watching Alfred Hitchcock’s 1935 The 39 Steps (7.8) and then started watching 1936’s Sabotage (7.1) and Secret Agent (6.6) but I couldn’t get into them. 1937’s Young and Innocent (7.0) had no sound so I watched 1938’s Lady Vanishes (8.0).

I took my sleeping pills at 10:15 and went to bed.