Monday, March 7, 2016

Sunday, March 6th, 2016



I got up at 5:45 for a trip to the bathroom and noticed it was raining pretty hard.  After a few minutes back in bed it was no longer raining, or raining hard enough for me to hear it any longer.

This morning we weren’t awakened by the dogs, the alarm went off at 7am, Teresa got up about 8:30 and I about 9:30.

It’s a completely overcast day without any sun so we’ll be going to Puente Iglesia another day.  Instead we’re going to Envigado to pick up some things at Home Center and Exito.  The humidity level is about 90% so we’re going to wait until about 2pm to decide if it’s safe to go out without getting rained on.

Teresa was concerned that the Envigado Exito would be too crowded for lunch so I suggested we go to the newly remodeled Mayorca mall.  She thought that was a great idea.

We left the finca at 12:40, I gave the black dog 2 dog biscuits and we were on a bus after only a couple minutes wait.

At the first stop all of a sudden I see these bare legs walk past me.  A young girl in short shorts and VERY nice legs had walked past.  (If you got it, flaunt it!)  

We got off at Mayorca and headed straight for the new part of the mall.  Teresa went into a number of stores and declared that everything in that part of the mall is expensive.  

At 2:15 we went into the 2nd floor food court for lunch where there were a lot of fast food restaurants.  I found my Quiznos restaurant but all tables in the area seemed to be taken.  We ended up going up to the 4th floor where we found the Il Forno restaurant and we got a table right away.  I knew that this restaurant was going to be more expensive than your typical restaurant with its 12,000 peso specials.

Il Forno has a large menu and I was attracted to the Caesar salad and lasagna but decided to try their Tomates Rellenos de Solomito for 13,900 pesos.  Teresa ordered their lasagna with chicken, ground beef, and mushrooms for 17,900.  I also ordered the minestrone soup for 10,200 for us to share.  They brought the soup first but my request for a 2nd spoon was ignored so they lost a point there.  The soup was hot, it didn’t contain any beans and was very tasty (Teresa loved it) so they gained a point there.  (In Medellin soup is often served barely warm).  It came with a couple small rolls that Teresa liked so much she ordered more that I later saw I was charged another 1,200 pesos for.  They didn’t bring our entrees until we had finished our soup so they gained a point there.  (In Medellin all food is usually brought at the same time.)  Admittedly it could have been accidental.  We each had a mango juice for 4,500 each.  Teresa’s lasagna was very tasty although I thought it was a little salty.  I didn’t expect my stuffed tomatoes to be as good as my ex-wife’s and I thought the tomatoes could have been cooked more.  At least the beef wasn’t chewy like you usually find in Colombia.  I helped Teresa eat her large pan of lasagna.  Even though we were both pretty full I ordered the pecan pie with vanilla ice cream for dessert for 8,200.  Instead of a slice it was its own little pie with ice cream on top and was very tasty; not as sweet as I’ve usually experienced in the States.  The total bill including tax and tip came to 65,987 (about $21).

Most of the 4th floor was taken up by a dinosaur exhibit.  I recognized 2 brontosaurus, a triceratops and a tyrannosaurus rex.  (Not recognized like they are old friends or anything.  Lol.)  At one point I saw one of the different types of dinosaur walk pass our window.  Yikes, they’re on the lose!

Did I mention I hate shopping?  Back in the old section of the mall I finally found a pair of deck shoes for 90,000 pesos that were acceptable to both myself and Teresa at Confort.  I wore them and put my old holy shoes in a bag.  I also bought 2 pairs of jeans for 69,900 at American Brands.

Outside the mall we saw the same man we had seen in Sabaneta last month sitting on the sidewalk making black & white paintings using mainly toilet paper as his brush.  Teresa gave his partner 2,000 pesos and he gave her a number and I understood there was going to be a raffle as soon as they collected 20,000 pesos.  After a few minutes a young girl drew Teresa’s number and she had the painting.

Before we left we rested and shared a large mandarine juice for 6,900.  Teresa inquired as to whether my shoes still felt good – they did.  She told me I could only wear my old shoes in the finca but I told her I only wear my flip flops and moccasins around the finca so we should just throw them away.  She rightly asked then why carry them back to the finca.  I took them out of the bag, one at a time, and hid them under a planter next to our table.  We both had a good laugh about that – someone finding them there someday.

We took a taxi to the highway, were soon on a bus back, and we got past the killer dogs undetected arriving at the finca by 7pm.

I saw on the news that Colombia is playing the USA in soccer on Tuesday, March 29th.  I don’t know for sure if it’s mens soccer and I don’t know what channel it will be on but it should be easy to find on Direct TV.

I wrote a review for Il Forno and submitted it to Trip Advisor.

T-shirt of the day: The money cannot buy happiness.  Sometimes?

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