Saturday, September 26th, 2015

I barely slept because I was so worried that the alarm wouldn’t work.  It did go off and I got up took my shower, shaved and finished packing.  I finished exactly at 5:15 right on time to wake my son.  He took me to the blue line train.  I saw a sign that said “To O’Hare” and I walked around the corner.  Luckily I questioned a pilot who was walking towards me because I wasn’t even at the right station.  I walked a block in the other direction, he showed me how to purchase my ticket and then I went with him to O’Hare.  I walked into Terminal 2 and then had to catch a people mover to the International Terminal.  I got there right at 6am – 3 hours before my flight.  I checked my suitcase.  I was a little afraid it would be over the weight limit because of all the things I was bringing back with me but it weighed in as 14.7kg (32 pounds) and the limit is 23kg (50 pounds) so I wasn’t even close.

I bought a Reader’s Digest for $3.99 at one of the local gift shops.  (The magazine has changed so much I didn’t really enjoy it.)

We left on time on another Boeing 737-800 that was between 1/3 and ½ full and arrived at Panama City on time at 2:15.

I had another coffee and muffin for $8 and waited for my flight to leave at 4pm.  This was a small jet - a MBE or something - that was again about ½ full.  We had a beautiful view flying over the Aburra valley where Medellin is and I could identify Caldas because of the 2 soccer fields across the street from each other.

When we landed at 5pm (30 minutes early) I walked to the Customs booth and after that I waited a couple minutes for my suitcase.  I noticed my fancy luggage tag got knocked off.  I saw a golden lab walking around sniffing suitcases, probably looking for drugs.  Again I was singled out to have my suitcase scanned.  I had to fill out one of those custom forms and while I was doing that the dog sniffed my leg pretty good.  Maybe he smelled Murray; he may be looking for drugs but he is after all still a dog.  Teresa was waiting for me outside.  I took some pesos out of the ATM and we took a bus to San Diego CC for 18mil.

At San Diego we took a taxi to the top of the hill leading to the finca for 35mil.  From there we carried the suitcase by hand the rest of the way.  Luckily, there was a full moon and the killer dogs didn’t detect us.

It was about 7:30pm by the time we got back.

I gave them their presents.  The three of us shared one of the taffy apples.  Teresa loved them and told she could probably make them in the finca and sell them.

T-shirt of the day: Pilates?  I thought you said pie and lattes.