Tuesday, April 19th, 2016

9 days and counting!

The sky was overcast so I put on my Colombian “uniform” of jeans, t-shirt and deck shoes.  We left the finca at 11am, I gave the male black dog 2 dog biscuits and the mother black dog 1 dog biscuit.  We waited 10 minutes for a bus.

We got off at La Estrella.  I had some amount less than 1 ride left on one of my plastic transit cards.  When it was my turn I had a little conversation with the cashier, asking for him to put 2 rides on that card.  Instead he brought it up to 1 ride and gave me another card for 2 rides.  I noticed as we went through the turnstiles that the current fare is now 2,150 pesos.

I noticed cars on the new bridge by Sabaneta so I guess it’s officially open.

We took the metro to the San Antonio station, transferred to the west line and got off at Floresta station.  I started walking north but Teresa didn’t trust I was going in the right direction so she asked a vendor who confirmed we were going the right way.  At the traffic circle I turned right at the first turn and 2-3 blocks later we were at the barber shop – The Town.

I wasn’t very happy when I found that Teresa told him to use a number 1 clipper on me.  Now I have almost no beard left.  The haircut cost me 16mil.  I understand we came all this way just to get me a cheap haircut.

It was getting a little late so we took a taxi to El Tesoro mall.  We got there 50 minutes before showtime so we had lunch at Frisby.  Teresa ordered soup and potato salad for us to share and a Frischuleta and juice for her and I ordered a FriSnack with Pepsi and helped Teresa with her food.  She tried and really liked my chicken strips dipped in BBQ sauce.  The total came to 36,900 (about $12).

The 2 tickets to the Cinemark theatre cost 15,700 (about $5), and the large popcorn, large Coke and a package of peanuts cost 25,100 (about $8.75).  Btw, Cinemark’s large popcorns and sodas are the smallest of all the movie theatres.  There were only 2 other couples in the theatre with us.  The movie - 10 Cloverfield Lane starring John Goodman - was very good – with a number of surprises.

Teresa did some window shopping, didn’t find anything and we made a stop at Carulla.  I didn’t find my dill pickles but we each picked out a pastry and shared a large carton of milk for 15,640 (about $5.20).  We picked up a dozen eggs, arepas, premade hamburgers, buns, and bread for 44,670 (about $15).

We took a taxi to the highway and after a short wait were on a Tratam bus back to the finca.  There was nearly a full moon which was nice but Teresa always tells me to turn off my flashlight.  I gave each of the black dogs a dog biscuit as we passed by Guillermo’s and we were back at the finca by 7:45.

Still wi-fi but no internet.

We were watching a new episode of El Socio (The Partner) where Marcus Leonidis (sp?) was parternering with a man who owned a tiny cupcake store (both the store and cupcakes were tiny).  I told Teresa I don’t care much for cupcakes but I love muffins.  After we got past the problem of what a muffin is in Spanish (at least for her) she mentioned she used to make cupcakes and muffins in her mother’s apartment and sold them to stores in Envigado.  I asked her to make a muffin for me and of course she mentioned first we have to buy an oven.  We decided we would do that on Sunday because the workmen won’t be here then.  She asked me what flavor muffins I like and I said blueberry, banana nut, and apple spice – the first and last were difficult to translate to Spanish.  In guessing she mentioned some flavors I’ve never heard of.

T-shirt of the day: I don’t drink alcohol.  I drink distilled spirits.  So I’m not an alcoholic…I’m spiritual.