Monday, January 15, 2018

I slept well last night despite getting up several times.

Teresa left about 10am to work on the water tank at the finca.

I watched the first 20 minutes of the Today and left for the gym.  I did most of my exercises in an hour and 20 minutes.  I talked briefly to Jose and we shared upcoming movies we want to see.  I see a lot of new faces among the personal trainers – it appears they had a complete turnover at the beginning of the year.  I have yet to see Teresa’s trainer Jose, for example.

I received an email from my brother – he sent $100 to me as a test using World Remit.  All I have to do now is get to the bank and show my ID and the magic number for pickup.

Laura returned to the apt at 12:30 and at 1pm we left for lunch at Deli Hoy.  The park we usually cut through has new tile paving and new plants.  We found the restaurant closed and a sign out front saying they are remodeling.  Laura talked to a man sitting outside and learned they should reopen next week.

We walked over to La Bahia for lunch.  I had pork teriyaki with rice that was quite good.  Just as we started eating Teresa and Wilson showed up.  I understood there was some type of delay at Home Center so they decided to come here for lunch.  Teresa was starving so she took Laura’s food and then Laura ordered another plate.

They left and then Laura went to her grandmother’s apartment and I caught a taxi to Las Rosas Hotel Boutique in Poblado.  The driver asked me if it was near Vizcaya mall and I said “yes”.  On the way while we were sitting at a red light I finally was able to translate a billboard in Spanish that said “Are you ugly and tired of going out without any cash?  Press this button and then you’ll only be ugly.”  When the driver passed Carrera 33 I thought something was wrong but maybe he knew a back way.  He stopped at a hotel across from Vizcaya but it was the wrong one.  (It used to be the Plaza Rosa Hotel that I stayed at when I came for my test visit back in 2012.)  I finally got him to go south on Carrera 33 and from there I was able to direct him to the hotel.

Luckily, this time the guy working the desk spoke some English.  I asked him if I could make a reservation for my brother for February 20^th through the 24^th.  He checked his computer and said “yes”.  I texted and also tried calling my brother using Whatsapp but didn’t get an answer.  (I don’t know why I didn’t use my new magicJack app.)

I sat down on a couch waiting to hear from him.  I was sitting next to an attractive 30 something mother and her 4-year old daughter.  At one point I asked her if she was trying to teach her daughter English and she replied, “no, German”.  I asked why she would want to teach her German and she said her school first starts them learning German and later English.  Interesting.

After about 20 minutes I confirmed with the muchacho that everything was okay and left for the mall.  I bought a ticket for 7,500 to The Commuter (7.5) starring Liam Neeson.  I also bought a small popcorn and large soda for 15,100 ($5).  The movie was good, was kind of a “who done it”, and had a lot of action.

Afterwards, I walked back to the hotel and asked the muchacho if he had my reservation.  He said he thought I needed to talk to my brother first.  I wrote on a piece of paper: my brother’s name, the reservation dates, and his email address and asked him to send my brother a confirmation email.

When I left I walked down Calle 7 and a couple blocks later walked past Mu restaurant.  Right after that, like 100 yards, is the Exito Express – the same street that Flip Flop Sandwich Shop is on.  Now I know exactly where it is.  I continued down Calle 7 to Avenida Poblado.

Suddenly, I had to use the restroom and luckily I made it to Krispy Kreme where they have a nice modern restroom – meaning with toilet seat and toilet paper.

Across the street I waited 5 minutes for a Sabaneta bus and got one of 3 available seats in the back.  The bus drove another 100 yards to Oviedo mall and as people got on it became standing room only.

I was back at the apt by 6:45.  Teresa came back at 7:15.

Teresa tells me she will need to meet with Wilson and Guillermo’s daughter the next 4 days to install the new 2,000 liter water tank.  I gave her another 500,000 pesos for that.  Then she should be done and can relax on her trip to San Andres.

As usual we went to bed about 11pm.

T-shirt of the day: Meet me at the gym.