Saturday, March 11, 2017

I woke up at 4:20am and didn’t get back to sleep until after 5:40am.  I woke/got up at 8:45.

I left the apt at 9:30 and took a bus to MBE where I picked up a Chess Life magazine but they couldn’t find my package.  While waiting, a gringo came in with his Colombiana and I asked where he was from.  He said originally Minneapolis and more recently 6 years in Panama.  The office employee checked and I was told my package will arrive on Tuesday.

I took the bus up to Citibank where I withdrew some cash.  I walked up a block to Starbucks where I ordered a vanilla latte at a temperature of 160 degrees.  The clerk smiled at me; I think he remembered me from last time when I asked how hot the coffee is.  In Spanish I just asked for my latte to be hotter.  I soon had my coffee (8,400 pesos or $3) and sat outside enjoying it in the fresh air while scanning my Chess Life.

I took a bus back to Envigado, walked to BanColombia where I deposited 600,000 pesos into Laura’s account using their amazing machine.  (I remember they have deposit machines in the US but I was always afraid of using them.)  I walked to Smartfit and quickly found a very sweaty Jose to help me complete the payment.  I was told that we need Laura’s signature on some form.  Details, details!  We’ll be back with her on Monday.

The Colombian Peso closed for the week at 2,981 to the US Dollar.

I told Teresa about my plan to play in a chess tournament starting next Tuesday night.

About 6:30 Daniela, Vicky’s daughter, came over.  She obviously had lost her baby weight as she was wearing a low cut black tight dress cut at mid thigh with high heels.  The ladies left to go down to Wilson’s Bar where they were going to celebrate Vicky’s birthday.  They invited me to join them and I said yes, I would meet them there as soon as I logged out of my computer, put some things away and changed clothes.

MT was already there with some young guy named Mateo who spoke good English.  Vicky was there with the baby who is now about 1 year old.

It soon started drizzling and the temperature started dropping.

The ladies had several rum and waters, I had a rum and Coke, and Daniela had already finished some food.  We left about 11:30 and I paid the bar bill of 89,000 pesos.  I had brought my large umbrella and we used it to shuttle people to Daniela’s car.  She gave us a ride back to our apt.

T-shirt of the day: My people skills are just fine.  It’s my tolerance for idiots that needs work.