Tuesday, February 14, 2017

Happy Valentine’s Day!

Teresa, Jim and I took a Metro bus down to the Envigado station.  We took that to the Acevedo station where we transferred to the metro cable to Parque Arvi.

We paid a private driver to take us directly to the Blancas Hotel. 

Jim and I had pepper steak, Teresa had trout, Jim had a bottle of wine, I had 2 strawberry juices and Teresa had a bowl of tomato soup and 2 mango juices.  Teresa and I each had a tiramisu and the total bill was 134,800 (about $45).

We took a bus back to the metro cable line where I picked up a map at the tourist office.

We back tracked on the metro cable and metro to Envigado.

We stopped and I introduced Jim to Herman where we had a glass of orange juice.

Teresa headed back to the apt and Jim and I stopped in Exito where we picked up some things to make omelets tomorrow.

Later we took a taxi to Contenedores where we had dinner at Tano Argento – a good Italian restaurant.  I had chicken lasagna, Jim had pizza, and Teresa had fish.  Teresa and I shared a minestrone soup and later a tiramisu.  Jim had a couple beers and a rum on the rocks and Teresa and I had a mango juice.  The total bill came to 132,100 pesos.

T-shirt of the day: Every day, thousands of innocent plants are killed by vegetarians.  Help end the violence.  Eat bacon.

Monday, February 13, 2017

According to my brother’s Terrain Radar app the apt is at 5,161 feet above sea level.

Teresa, Jim, and I left the apt at 9am and took a Uber car to Mall Laureles.  We were the only ones in the van on the way to Santafe.

We stopped at the usual restaurant where Jim and I had calentao and Teresa had an arepa.

At the resort Jim and I struggled to access their Wi-fi, finally connecting.

I played one game on chess.com winning an easy game and then we lost the wi-fi signal.

Because we were the only ones taking the van the driver allowed us to leave at 5:30pm.

We skipped stopping at the restaurant because we were planning on stopping at Alicate for dinner.  Instead we took an Uber car and had him drop us off at Carbon de Leña where we had dinner.

T-shirt of the day: I had friends on that Death Star!

Sunday, February 12, 2017

Jim, Teresa, Laura and I walked down to Bocados Bar where we met MT, Wilson and Martha.  We continued to the metro which we took to the Caribe station.  We bought our tickets, they had to kick some people out of our seats (wrong bus) and we were soon on our way.

I finished Michael Connelly’s The Last Coyote (#4 in the Harry Bosch series) and then downloaded Thomas Gilovich’s How We Know What Isn’t So.

It’s a 2 hour bus ride thru the town of El Peñol, past the entrance to La Piedra (the rock) and finally to Guatape.

Because it was a weekend there were a lot of vendors out and they had the ziplines working.

We had lunch at La Fogata (our traditional lunch place), bought our return tickets for 5pm and took moto taxis to La Piedra.

Jim, Wilson and I bought tickets for 18mil each to climb the rock.  When we got to the top (740 steps) we bought drinks and collapsed for a bit.  We noticed a drone (first one I’ve seen in the air) flying overhead.

Going back down was also difficult, mainly on the knees.

We were back at the bus station by 4pm for our 5pm bus.  It started raining and some people waiting in line had to temporarily duck under the umbrella of our umbrella table.

Traffic was heavy coming back into Medellin and we got back about 35 minutes later than usual.

We took the metro to Envigado station, dropped MT off at her apartment building, I stopped at the apt to renew my cash flow and we walked 12 blocks to Barbacoa in La Mesa area of Envigado.

We all had burgers and drinks and left at their closing time of 10pm.

T-shirt of the day: Haven’t we taken the idea that “Anyone Can Be President” a little too far?

Saturday, February 11, 2017

The Colombian Peso closed at 2,853 to the Dollar.

Jim and I walked down to the metro where I introduced him to Herman and we had a glass of fresh orange juice.

We took the metro to Parque Berrio and walked a block north to Botero Plaza.  Outside the Museo de Antioquia they had some nice tables for a Laboratorio de Café.  It cost 3,500 for me for an iced tea and 3,500 for bottle of water for Jim.

To enter the museum Jim paid 9,000 pesos and I just 6,000 (I think I got a senior and/or local discount).  I think we spent a couple hours there.

Outside, on the other side of the entrance, we discovered their museum restaurant.  Jim wants to come back here some day for lunch.

We walked down Carabobo (sp?) and entered an interesting building with lots of stores – almost all of them selling (the same?) shoes.  Strange.

We walked to Plaza Mayor and finally found the tourist information booth but it was closed.  It was 2:20 and there was as sign saying that they would be returning soon but we didn’t wait.

We took a taxi to Mercado del Rio and we walked around and checked out all the restaurants.

Jim decided we would eat at Happy Tomate.  We shared a personal pizza for 22,500; I ordered a Hiatsu (red) tea for 5,500 and Jim had 2 Aguila beers for 8,000. Total 38,500 pesos.

My Hiatsu tea was a 14oz (400ml) bottle which contained 10mg of sodium and 14gr sugar.  (Later I compared it to Mr. Tea and Coke and found that even though it’s more volume, it’s healthier.)

I want to come back and try a burger at Jucy Lucy’s.

We took a taxi to Laureles mall and checked for Lucas but he wasn’t there.  We found Jhon’s sister sitting there (couldn’t remember her name) and I asked about Jhon.  I was told that Jhon is sick – no surprise as he was a chain smoker when I knew him and his hands shook.

We walked to the corner store where Jim had a beer and I an iced tea.

Back at the apt Teresa sent us to the corner store for milk.

As we were walking past about a dozen neighbors sitting outside their building Jim started talking to them.  He told them his brother (me) has been in Colombia for 4 years and I still don’t speak Spanish.

At the corner store we ran into Laura coming back from work.

Back to the neighbors Jim told them he went for a cold beer and came back with a Colombian fiancee and he got a good laugh over that.

We all walked down to Bocados Bar where we had a delicious chicken breast dinner with drinks.

T-shirt of the day: I was deplorable before it was cool.

Friday, February 10, 2017

Among new US movie releases I would like to see John Wick: Chapter 2 (8.5) and Split (7.5).  Locally, I don’t have time to see any movies.

Chuck came over about 11:30 and the 3 of us went to Sabaneta where we had drinks in the park and chatted.

We met a few other gringos from Costa Rica and chatted with them.  One of them recommended something called MackTV.

We had a typical lunch at a local Colombian restaurant.

We found the building with the chess club of Sabaneta upstairs in a billiard parlor.  No one was there playing but I asked a man there and learned that the players arrive after 4pm.

Back at the apt we picked up Teresa and took a taxi to La Bodequita Havanera (Cuban restaurant) near Laureles Park #2.  My brother likes it because they have live music.

From there we walked down to Avenida Nutibara where Jim called for an Uber car to take us back to the apt.  (He had set up an account where the fee was charged to his credit card.)

T-shirt of the day: Proud member of the basket of deplorables.

Thursday, February 9, 2017

Today’s my son’s 30^th birthday – Happy Birthday Jim!

I received an email from my brother that he will be coming in tonight on the earlier flight.  Yay!

About 1:45 it started raining lightly but it only lasted 45 minutes.  Unfortunately I left the apt at 2:22 and was standing in the rain (with my umbrella) waiting for a bus.  It came 13 minutes later.

On the metro it stopped at the Industriales Station, didn’t move for several minutes, someone made an announcement on the loudspeaker, everyone groaned, the doors opened and everyone started getting off.   What the #%*%?

I was in the back of a very long line getting off.  I was concerned that all these people ahead of me were going to be in line for a taxi.  Going down the stairs I found I could walk around most of them.  They seemed to be in line leading to the ticket booth – are they waiting to get a refund?

Out of the station I walked across the street and only had to wait a couple minutes for another couple ahead of me before getting on a taxi.  He dropped me right across the street from the airport bus station (the “station” is just a small bakery called Nutripan.

I got on the bus and saw that the charge has gone up to 9,500 pesos.  After 15 minutes the bus was nearly full and we were off.  A young woman sat down next to me with what I thought might be her mother and son sitting in the seats behind us.  After talking to them in Spanish she occasionally switched to English.  I asked her where she was from – she’s from Canada.  Her mother is Colombian and her father is Canadian and they are heading back home.

At the airport I checked the arrivals and Jim’s flight was on schedule for 5:21.  I had 30 minutes so I went upstairs to J & C Delicias.  I looked at their menu and at 4:55 I asked how long it would take to make a half-order of spaghetti.  I was told 20 minutes so I figured I had enough time before he got through customs and baggage claim.

I gulped down the spaghetti and a juice and outside the restaurant checked the arrivals once again.  The time was 5:25 and it indicated that his flight landed at 5pm.  Drat!  I hustled downstairs where I found him buying a beer at a kiosk.

Jim’s driver from Medellin Airport Transfer was waiting for us.  We went outside and waited while he got the car.  It was a nice comfortable car that Jim had already paid $32 for using Paypal.  

(That’s about $95,000 pesos compared to the going rate of 75,000 for taxis but this car was newer, larger and more comfortable.  You can find more information on Medellin Living.)

We got Jim checked into his room and soon we were at Bocados Bar where we all had a nice chicken dinner and juice and lots of rum and waters for 149,000.

We finally got to bed at 11pm.

T-shirt of the day: If you’re offended I’ll help you pack.

Wednesday, February 8, 2017

Last night I slept well getting up at 7am.

I forwarded the status request of MT’s SS direct deposit to the new email address I was given by the US Embassy – SJRegion@SSA.gov.

MT came over at 9am and she and Teresa went to the gym for a yoga lesson.  They came back at 10am, I watched the Today show until 10:30 then Teresa and I went to our gym.

Whenever I was working out on the leg machines there was a pretty 20ish young lady in green and black shorts and a green top working out right in front of me.  About 30 minutes later while waiting to use the water fountain Jose stopped and told me there’s going to be a birthday party for the girl in green in the activities room.  He was holding a box that’s about 1 foot high and 2 feet square that shorter people use for foot support for the chest exercise machine.  He told me that this is the table and he laughed.  I told him it must be Japanese style because there aren’t any chairs and he laughed at that.

A few minutes later Oscar invited me to the activities room where they had a small cake sitting on the box with a regular candle and a “roman candle” stuck on top.  I looked at the single candle and it was a “question mark” instead of a number representing her age.  The girl came in a minute later, they lit both candles, and then sang “Happy Birthday to Andrea”.

I finished my hour and then returned to the apt.

About 3:30 Teresa directed my attention outside where there were 2 policemen stopping motorcyclists and checking their papers.

I made waffles for dinner.

I finally realized that the DVD I bought named El Espia is the movie Snowden that I saw in the movie theatre last December.

Just a heads up; I’ll probably be busy with my brother over the next 10 days so my upcoming posts will most likely be much more “bare bones”.

T-shirt of the day: World’s Greatest Farter.  I mean Father.