Thursday, December 21, 2017

I woke/got up at 7:30.  This melatonin procedure has been working great.  I fall asleep quickly even when I get up several times during the night.  In time I’ll experiment with reducing the amount of melatonin and/or sleeping pills.

I made a quick trip to Exito for eggs and SPF 50 cream for my bicycle ride later.

I watched the first 20 minutes of the Today show and then left for my bike ride and to pick up my passport with its new visa.

After waiting on the corner for 10 minutes for a bus I gave up and walked down to the metro station.  Again Herman wasn’t working his orange juice stand.  Maybe next time I should ask whoever is working there if he’s okay.

I took the metro to San Antonio and transferred to the Stadium Station.  They didn’t have any bikes available so I walked over to San Juan where I found one.  I rode over to the airport and on my way back I stopped at the bike station at Carrera 65 & Calle 33.  From there I walked west to Carrera 66B, turned left, and walked 2 blocks to Calle 32C to Inter-Col’s new office at Calle 32C #66C-8.

I picked up my passport with the new visa which expires on November 29, 2018.  I understand next year I will be able to get a resident visa that is good for 5 years.  I asked how much it would cost if I had Inter-Col help me get a resident visa today and was told 1,900,000 COP (about $630).  By this time next year it will probably be closer to 2,000,000 COP (about $670).  I intend to set aside $50 every month to save up for it.

Back at Carrera 65 & Calle 33 I checked out another bike and rode it back to San Juan (Calle 44).  I was looking forward to having lunch again at El Chaparral.  Last (my first) time I had their delicious pepper steak and today I wanted to try their filet.  The waiter handed me the menu and it was all different.  Instead of the previous items I mentioned it listed more Colombian meats like Churrasco and Solomito.  They didn’t even have limonada de coco like last time.  I had the Churrasco and a couple Cokes.  The meat was slightly chewy, pretty tasty and it came with a slice of avocado, salad, and baked potato.

The total bill came to 39mil ($13) including tax and tip.

I took the metro and bus back to Envigado.

I stopped at Bartolos where I had a limonada de coco for 6mil.

Surprisingly I couldn’t find Thursday Night Football on Direct TV.  Maybe it was bumped because of a basketball game I found.

T-shirt of the day: Thing 87.