Medellin rescues Dutch tourist - Colombia Reports

Medellin rescues Dutch tourist lost in nature reserve

written by Adriaan Alsema September 6, 2016

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Authorities from Colombia’s second largest city, Medellin, rescued a foreign tourist who had gotten lost in the city’s main nature reserve, Paruqe Arvi.
The Dutchman was able to alert the authorities after having spent hours lost in Parque Arvi, a nature reserve just out of the city that is popular among tourists.
Ten hours after he initially got lost, local police and fireman were able to find the man who had alerted the authorities of his own fate calling emergency number 123.
The Dutchman called 123 just before 6PM when he realized he had gotten lost in the vast forests bordering Medellin to the east.
Police and firemen entered the area and found the lost tourist around 1AM.
The Dutchman was found in an area called El Tambo, on the eastern municipal border of Medellin, almost three miles from the city’s urban perimeter.
While not showing signs of fatigue, the Dutchman was taken to hospital for a security check-up and released.

Wednesday, September 7th, 2016

I spent 90 minutes at the health club today.

We had lunch at the garage restaurant which today was better than usual.

In the afternoon we all shared the 1st taffy apple which was a little greener than usual.

Laura and I made a trip to Exito and after we got back Teresa found that we don’t have ham or mustard.

I was a little late getting to it but I watched the last 15 minutes of the Commander-in-Chief Forum on NBC.

T-shirt of the day: Nothing.

First Starbucks in Medellin - Medellin Living

Starbucks Opens its First Store in Medellín, Five More are Planned

September 2, 2016 By Jeff

Starbucks opened its first store in Medellín on September 1. I happened to be in El Poblado on this day so I had the opportunity to visit on its opening day.
The new Starbucks is located right next to the Krispy Kreme that opened in March. Starbucks is located in a new building in El Poblado along the Milla de Oro (Golden Mile).  This is a short distance from the Papa John’s Pizza, which opened in September last year.
Starbucks reportedly worked with a range of local designers to capture the artistic, creative and modern spirit of Medellín in the new store.  The new Medellín store was designed with an open, airy and welcoming layout, which includes community tables and an outdoor patio.
There was a short line at the new store in Medellín when I went on its first day. This was nothing like the line at the company’s first store in Colombia, which I understand on its opening day in 2014, had people waiting for hours in a line that stretched outside the door and along the street.
Starbucks originally entered the Colombian market back on July 14, 2014 with its first store in Bogotá. I happened to be in Bogotá two weeks after its first store in Colombia opened and I wrote about it on this website.
Starbucks now has 10 stores in Bogotá and the new Medellín store is its 11^th in Colombia. The company plans to open five more stores in Medellín by the end of next year and 50 stores in Colombia by 2019
Starbucks’ business in Colombian market is a joint venture with Alsea and Grupo Nutresa. Alsea is a big restaurant operator in Latin America running several brands including Burger King, Domino’s Pizza and P.F Chang’s.

The menu at Starbucks in Medellín

The Menu at Starbucks

The menu at the store includes Coffee, Espresso, Teas, Hot Chocolate and Frappuccino.
Black coffee (tinto) comes in four sizes ranging in prices from 3,600 pesos to 4,900 pesos.
An American Espresso costs 4,500 pesos for a small, 5,000 pesos for a medium and 5,400 pesos for a large.
Hot Chocolate costs 7,400 pesos for a small, 7,900 pesos for a medium and 8,500 pesos for a large.
Caramel Frappuccino costs 9,300 pesos for a small, 10,200 pesos for a medium and 10,900 pesos for a large.
Like most Starbucks the new store in Medellín has free Wifi. I saw several customers with computers in the store using the Internet.

Inside the new Starbucks in Medellín

Starbucks in Latin America

Starbucks is a massive company with over 23,000 retail stores located in 65 countries. The company has been in Latin America since 2002 starting out in Mexico and Puerto Rico. The company now has 1,000 stores in 13 countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Starbucks opened its first store in Mexico 15 years ago and the company now has over 430 stores in Mexico.
Currently, Starbucks in Colombia reportedly generates 160 direct jobs.  The projection for the company is to reach up to 1,000 jobs when its goal of 50 stores is completed by 2019.
The company expects that it will likely enter another city in Colombia next year. My bet is this likely will be in Cartagena.
Starbucks buys about 400 million pounds of coffee per year and more than half of that comes from Latin America, mainly from Colombia.
Starbucks claims its stores in Colombia serve 100 percent locally sourced and roasted coffee for in-store beverages to honor the country’s coffee heritage and the company’s 45-year history of sourcing premium arabica coffee from the region.
In Colombia, Starbucks competes with Juan Valdéz with over 200 stores in the country. Juan Valdéz has stores in 16 additional countries including the United States.
Juan Valdéz’s response to Starbucks’ initial store in Bogotá, Colombia was to open a café in downtown Miami. Juan Valdéz now has six cafés in Maimi and is looking to open more in South Florida.

Outside patio tables at the new Starbucks in Medellín

Which U.S.-based Chain is Next for Medellín?

Medellín has several U.S.-based chain restaurants and fast food places including Burger King, Dunkin’ Donuts, Hard Rock Café, Hooters, McDonalds, Subway, KFC, Domino’s, Papa John’s, Krispy Kreme and now Starbucks.
Bogotá has many more U.S.-based chain restaurants that aren’t available yet in Medellín, including Pizza Hut, Chili’s, TGI Fridays, P.F. Changs and Taco Bell.
I suspect that we may see at least a couple more U.S.-based chains open locations in Medellín over the next few years, with these most likely being U.S.-based chains that are already operating in Bogotá.

Joke

In a small town, an elderly couple had been dating each other for a long time. At the urging of their friends, they decided it was finally time for marriage. Before the wedding, they went out to dinner and had a long conversation regarding how their marriage might work. They discussed finances, living arrangements and so on. Finally, the old gentleman decided it was time to broach the subject of their physical relationship. "How do you feel about sex?" he asked, rather trustingly.

"Well," she said, responding very carefully, "I'd have to say... I would like it infrequently."

 The old gentleman sat quietly for a moment, then over his glasses, he looked her in the eye and casually asked...  "Is that one word or two words?”

Tuesday, September 6th, 2016

I guess Teresa wants to serve dessert after lunch because she sent me to Home Center to buy 6 small dessert plates.  I was back 45 minutes later.

I received an email from MBE that I have a document waiting for pickup.  It’s probably my new USAA debit card with a chip.

My son and his buddies, Sean and Jeff arrived about 1:20pm.  We had a nice lunch of frijoles, ribs, and salad with fresh juice.  Then we sat around and chatted about how they liked Medellin, what they’ve done thus far and their plans for the upcoming days.  We made tentative plans to go to Parque Arvi on Thursday or Friday.

Tonight they are going to watch the Colombia vs Brazil match somewhere.  I watched it and Brazil won 2-1.

It started raining again.

T-shirt of the day: Today has been cancelled.

Monday, September 5th, 2016

I stopped at the ATM for some cash and then went to $efecty where I paid this month’s Direct TV and epm bills.  The cashier told me I have to wait until next week for the Une bill.

When we were at the Villero restaurant in Contenedores Food Place on August 31^st we had a picture taken.  I just added it to that day’s posting if you want to go back and take a look at it.  Someone asked for a photo of the ear cleaner I mentioned on September 1^st and I added a photo of it on that day.

I left the apt at 11:25, caught a bus to the metro and took the metro to Parque Berrio.  At the park I walked a block north to the entrance to Plaza Botero where I met my son and his 2 friends Sean and Jeff right at noon.

We paid our entrance fee to the Museum de Antioquia.  Mine was 75% less expensive because I’m over 60 and a local.  Not that it was very expensive anyway.

After going through the 3 floors we walked towards downtown and stopped at a Brosty chicken place for lunch.  For less than 9,000 pesos I got 2 pieces of chicken, cole slaw, an arepa (hockey puck style) and a cup of juice.

We made plans to get together for lunch tomorrow at the apt and they took a taxi back to the hostel where they are moving to Hotel Charlee.  I took the metro and a bus back to Envigado.  Tonight they have a 7:30pm reservation at a fancy restaurant named El Cielo.

Late in the afternoon it started raining.

T-shirt of the day: Work of art.

Sunday, September 4th, 2016

Today is Laura’s 19^th birthday.  Last night Laura couldn’t decide where she wanted to go for dinner to celebrate her birthday.  I understood we were going to go tonight but Teresa talked to her and convinced her to have a birthday lunch instead.

I signed up for Chess.com’s Gold plan for $5/month.

We left the apt about 2pm, walked up to a busier street and quickly caught a taxi.  As soon as I stepped inside I realized it had that new car smell.

In Santafe mall we walked to the restaurant Parmessano in the food court.  I understood there would be a wait so Teresa decided we would go to J&C Delicias instead.  

Just my luck a few minutes later they sat a very attractive woman at the table next to us facing me.  Whenever Laura and the woman’s 10ish year old boy moved their heads, which was surprisingly often, I got a real good look at her.  I had the fettucine alfredo with chicken and broccoli and a coconut lemonade.  Teresa and Laura each ordered the Peruvian surf & turf and a juice.  The total came to 144,100 (about $48.25).

The mall was advertising that this is pet weekend and there were lots of dogs walking around with their owners.  The mall even had a large play area set up in the middle of the mall.

While the ladies were window shopping I stopped in Liberia Nacional and asked if they had a map of Envigado.  Nope, just Medellin.  I stopped in Fedco and bought a jar of gingko biloba tablets for 68mil (about $23) to try to improve my memory.

The ladies didn’t find anything suitable at the right price in the stores but we stopped in Jumbo and picked up eggs, cheese, pickles, vanilla extract and milk before we headed back to the apt.

I googled gingko beloba and found it’s supposed to give your memory a boost and reduce tinnitus.

It started raining about 7:30 and it continued for most of the evening.

T-shirt of the day: Kiss me.