Saturday, November 30, 2024

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, got up once at 12:15am, finally waking/getting up at 6:45.

Yesterday I showed Teresa the Avianca emails and I understand we’ll be going to the airport tomorrow to see what’s up. Then we’ll continue on to El Retiro for lunch and coffee.

Teresa explained that the husband of her friend has died from his pulmonary fibrosis so this afternoon we’ll be stopping by some sort of service.

I left the apt just after 8:30 and walked to the mall. I arrived at my bank 10 minutes before opening. I got in a short line outside Bancolombia to use one of their consignacion machines. I deposited cash into accounts to pay for our gym fees and my health insurance. I withdrew 2,000,000 pesos (all 100s) from a Davivienda ATM. Banco Av Villas was now open and I paid for our apt rent without waiting in line.

By 9:15 I was downstairs having a latte in Urbania. I left at 10:15 and walked back to the apt (walked because I wasn’t carrying anything heavy or delicate).

Yesterday I tried to log into my Capital One account but was rejected because I had my VPN set to another country (it was defaulting to Peru but I’ve since changed it to Colombia). Answering their email didn’t work so I called them with my MagicJack. The login asked for my case number and by the time I found it, it was asking for my account number. By the time I located that it had put me in line to speak to their fraud dept. After their lengthy identity check I explained everything was okay. For some reason she transferred me to customer service and after I explained everything again I got disconnected. ☹

Teresa informed me that the memorial service is over and we’ll just go directly to the restaurant.

We left the apt at 1pm and took a Didi to Donde Albeiro (Calle 36D Sur #9-250) for 29,300 pesos.

It’s a little over 30 minutes high up in the mountains and we passed several interesting restaurants on the way.

This is what the entrance looks like:

We took a seat and within 5 minutes I had 3 bites from no-see-ums. Next time I’ll wear long pants and a t-shirt with sleeves and put on insect repellant.

This is their menu:

Teresa had sancocho

And I had their ribs with a coke

With the plentiful sauce they were the best ribs I’ve had in Medellin. Teresa then ordered mazamorra and I had a café con leche. The total check came to 126,500 pesos ($29), including tip.

By the time we left I had 6-7 bites on my arms and torso. I ordered a Didi and kept raising the fare to finally 29,300 pesos before we had a ride. Our driver was Jose from the Dominican Republic and he and Teresa had a nice conversation about DR and Medellin.

I got out across from the Bancolombia kiosk so I could print a couple pages of my chess notes. I caught them just as they were closing.

In the evening the occasional firecrackers started.

 

JUST FUNNY