Thursday, September 21, 2017

Last night I took 2 sleeping pills and we went to bed at 10:30.  At 1am, still awake, I got up and took a 3^rd sleeping pill.  I was soon asleep, got up once or twice during the night, finally waking at 6:45 am.  I took a single full Excedrin to clear my brain and tired eyes, went back to bed and got up at 7:15 feeling much better.

I emailed Chuck telling him that I would probably be available for coffee at the usual place about 2 or 3pm.

I watched the first 30 minutes of the Today show and then left the apt in my shorts, t-shirt, and baseball cap at 9:45.

I walked down to the metro where I talked to Herman.  I mentioned that we’re selling the finca and he gave me a business card of someone in the real estate business that helps gringos find rooms, apartments, houses, etc.  Medellin 4 Less; 311 711-6361 & 511 9310. Info@MedellinGuestRooms.com; info@Medellin4Less.com.

I took the metro to San Antonio, transferred to the west line and got off at the Stadium station.

I was fortunate to get to the Encicla station just as someone was returning a bicycle.  I rode to the airport on the other side of Calle 30 and back again.

I returned the bicycle and walked over to El Viejo y El Pancake where I had orange juice, coffee, a vegetarian omelet and a small stack of blueberry pancakes for 15,500 (about $5.50).

At one point a young couple took the table off to my side.  The waitress asked where they were from and I heard “Chicago”.  The waitress said she’s met lots of people from Chicago and I said “yes, like me”.  She was from West Rogers Park and he was from Belgium.  They both spoke English but he had a heavy accent.  I didn’t have time to find out where they met but they had just come back from touring Peru and were now checking out Medellin.

When I left I walked over to Obispo mall and inquired at local 243 about the cost of a container of Bi-Pro protein powder.  (Last time I asked it was quoted at 80mil.)  I got a quote of 90mil but at the neighbor store it was only 85mil so I bought it there.  She asked me what flavor I wanted “vanilla, chocolate, or coconut lemonade” so I decided to try the latter.

I walked back to the station and took the metro back to Envigado.  It started raining lightly while I was on the train and was still raining lightly when I exited the Envigado station.  I decided to skip buying strawberries this time since I had my large protein powder container in one hand and umbrella in the other.

At Parque Envigado I stopped at Bartolos Bar and Chuck was sitting just inside at a table with 2 other gringos.  He introduced me to Tom from Texas who is living in an apartment in Santa Lucia and Bryan, a trucker based out of Iowa, who is visiting but has to fly back tomorrow.  He said he liked it so much he plans to return every couple months.

The usual guys came by trying to sell lottery tickets, chewing gum, candy etc.  A man came by selling strawberries and I bought a kilo for 14,000 pesos.  Then Chuck recognized a woman named Emma (Emily?) a friend of Chuck’s wife and called her over.  She was selling a local “marshmallow” like product called gelatina (gelatin?).  She was an attractive black woman aged 36 with a slim figure.  He introduced her to each of us and she started asking Chuck, in Spanish, questions about Bryan, who is a tall athletic looking African American of maybe mid 40s.  Does he have money?  Is he married?  She and Bryan seemed to hit it off and they soon were taking photos and exchanging telephone numbers.  That was cute!  That wouldn’t happen so easily back in the States.  I’m sure he’ll be back.

I received a text message from Laura asking me to buy linaza, whatever that is.  I googled it and found it’s linseed oil.  When we left I stopped at the pharmacy in Exito and she sent me to the natural store on the other side of the store.  There I found it but had to decide if I wanted it in powdered or granulated form.  Why didn’t Laura tell me which one?  I bought the powdered.

When I got back to the apt Teresa was napping and told me she had diarrhea and vomiting all afternoon.  She told me the linaza was for the diarrhea but I guess she’s much better as it hasn’t been touched.

She told me that MT is now in her apartment and they've hired a woman to care for her for awhile for 350,000 pesos to be shared by me, Wilson and Vicky.

Teresa spent most of the evening in bed and I watched some TV.

I took 2 sleeping pills at 10:30 and went to bed.

Before I return to the regular t-shirts I’m going to share a few funny veterinarian signs: My alarm doesn’t have a snooze button.  It has Paws.