Sunday, December 3, 2023

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, got up twice during the night, woke up at 6:15, fell back asleep, finally getting up at 7:15.

I met Glenn with Bianca at Olivenza at 9am.

His hernia surgery was cancelled and he’s waiting on the doctor to give him a new date. He has a hearing aid out of order and we discussed how he could get it sent to the US for repair. He mentioned he cancelled his cellphone service with Tigo/Une and switched to Claro.

I told him about the strange email I received from USPS and wondered if it’s real or a scam:

I had the calentao with scrambled eggs and a (stale) dinner roll with butter. I also had 2 lattes and a glass of ice water for 33,324 pesos.

I drew a losing game against Troyclough dropping my rating 2 points to 1577.

I returned to the apt noting that the Otra Parte patio appeared to be open. I just don’t know how hot it is in the morning sun even with umbrella tables.

Teresa and I left the apt at 12:20 and took a Didi to Museo de Castillo (Castle Museum) in Poblado. There was a short but slow line that took us about 30 minutes to get to the ticket booth. It cost us 34mil ($8.50) for the entry for the 2 of us. The main attraction was a dozen different pasebres (mangers) in a low-lit room. That was interesting but only took about 5 minutes to view.

Outside there were a lot fewer tents with food options than last time we were here. They did have a tent selling Belgium waffles with ice cream but of course that was “demasiado dulce” for Teresa.

I led her to the restaurant in back where I took a seat at a table for 2 while she checked out the food options. In the meantime, I noticed a young girl bring a sandwich to her table so I knew that had at least that. When Teresa returned, she recommended the apple pie. I asked about the sandwich and she said something about it being reserved or preordered. I went to the cashier and asked about the sandwich and was told it was ham and cheese so I bought one with a bottle of water. She had brought a container of broccoli and carrots for herself. For dessert we shared a slice of apple pie with café con leches.

I was walking to the restroom when this red squirrel came towards me on a railing. By the time I got my cellphone out, turned it on, entered my pin, and found the camera app he was already leaving.

That would have been a beautiful photo had I been ready. We walked around a little bit and sat on the side of a hill for a few minutes. Teresa was hungry and wanted to go to the mall nearby where we had the great chicken sandwich.

We left at 3:45pm and took a Didi up the hill to Complex Los Balsos where we took a table on Valentina’s patio. I think the café was running out of things so she ordered a tort with blueberries and lattes for each of us. We both agreed the tort was nothing special and we left most of it.

We left at 4:30 and returned to the apt by Didi.

Teresa still hadn’t had much to eat and even though I still had ribs in the fridge, we left at 6:45 and took a Didi to the patacones place which was a little busy for a Sunday night.

I wasn’t really hungry so after Teresa finished her patacon she helped me with a few bites of mine. She then had a couple empanadas and something else. As usual we stopped at the bakery (they were officially closed but the girl was sitting there) and bought 2 pastries for the porteros. We have to cross a fairly busy 1-way street to wait for a taxi on the other side. I saw the cars 100 yards away waiting for the light to change. I started crossing the street and the next thing I know I have a car barreling down on me honking his horn. Best I can figure is he didn’t have his headlights on until he saw me. I backed up and Teresa read me my rights, “this is Colombia not the United States”.

We had an unusually long (15-minute) wait to catch a taxi to return us to our apt.

 

CHOOSING A CHILD FREE LIFE