Sunday, March 9, 2025

Last night I went to bed at 10pm, got up once at 3:15, finally waking/getting up at 7:45am.

This morning the US went through their semi-annual ritual of messing with the clocks so now Colombia is the same time as Chicago.

My little finger is a slightly better today, at least it works well enough for typing.

I ordered a new chess book, The Trompowsky & London System.

We left the apt at 11am by Didi and picked up MT and arrived at Terminal Sur by 11:20. I bought 3 tickets to El Retiro for 10,200 pesos each. The small bus left on time at 11:40 and we arrived in El Retiro on schedule at 1pm.

There was only another couple ahead of us at Lomo Fino, near the park, so we soon had the end of a large table. The ladies had chicken breast (I tasted it and it was delicious) and I the solomito (steak) which I only had to send back once because it was medium rare instead of medium well. It came with a baked potato and it was all delicious. The check came to 158,000 pesos ($38.50) including tip.

The ladies checked out a couple stores and MT bought a long heavy jacket for 180mil similar to the one Teresa recently bought. (She didn’t have the cash with her so I paid for it and she’ll pay me back.)

Two blocks back down the hill, in Café El Retiro we all had lattes and switched tables a couple times ultimately ending up where we started.

I lost a game to Dancatpro lowering my rating to 1547. I asked for a rematch but I got the reply, “Dancatpro only accepts challenges from members with a rating higher than 1623”.

I noticed one of the waitresses had a $5 bill in her cellphone case. Later I called her over and asked if she wanted to exchange it for 25,000 pesos. She declined saying it was a gift from a friend. I even tried exchanging it for a $2 bill, not that I have one, but she wasn’t interested.

About 10 minutes to four I asked Teresa if she was going to mass and she replied, “no”. (Later she said we went to mass yesterday so we don’t have to go again (I guess this week)).

We each had another latte and shared a slice of apple cake with nuts.

We left at 4:45, walked down the hill to the bus station and soon were on a bus back to Medellin. We got off at the Exposiciones station, walked across the street and took the next taxi in line.

I noticed this sign on the inside of the car door.

He explained that some people, probably means gringos, slam the door. I told him the problem isn’t gringos, it’s that taxis are made of aluminum instead of strong metal.

I was looking around the dashboard of his car and couldn’t see the meter. When we finished our ride Teresa explained he forgot the meter so I could give him whatever I thought was fair and I gave him 20mil.

As we walked through the porteria, John handed me our epm bill which was 679,307 pesos. Teresa questioned why it was so high. The previous months were 370,389pesos, 362,358 pesos, and 337,785pesos. Only difference was we had 2 young ladies staying here, one for a week and the other for 2 weeks. Well, they did consume more water, electricity, gas and probably whatever Alcantarillado means.

Teresa talked to someone, probably Vicky, and her ex-husband, Alvaro’s (sp?) brother died of esophageal cancer so we have another mass to go to tomorrow afternoon.

I finished reading Lee Child’s Gone Tomorrow (Jack Reacher #13) on my Kindle.

 

EL ARROYO