The highlight today for me was the pool and rooftop. But I won’t get carried away with waxing eloquent about how lovely sitting in the breeze up there was before I do some chronological reporting.
The beginning of the day found me making breakfast at our new place. I scrambled eggs with cheese and we had coffee and tea. Do you really care? Just because I am away in another country do I have the right to bore you with my mundane comings and goings? Whether I have the right or not, that is exactly what I am doing.
After this stupendous breakfast I left all the cleanup to someone who cares about that (Rudy Nikkel) and went for a walking adventure. My route was determined by how much shade I could find. I basically followed those shady sides of the street and wandered around the historical district and somewhat beyond. I do not quite feel at home here yet and am not sure which areas are more shady (the other shady, as in ‘not quite safe’) so I had to keep my eyes open. Every so often I encountered police on the corner and so felt okay, although at one point I found myself walking down a street that was lined with men and I soon began to feel somewhat uncomfortable. They were calling out to me so I picked up my pace and turned at the next corner. I found myself very near the shipyards where all the cargo comes in. Santa Marta is one of the deepest harbours in the world so it has a huge shipping industry. Perhaps this is not a very savoury area so I quickly made my way back to an area that was a little less seedy and continued my walk.
On returning to our apartment I spent a chunk of the rest of the morning trying to do some art. I had brought along some watercolour markers and experimented with these (not a lot of success). I then worked on some line drawings and finally some blind drawings (some even with my left hand). They are hilarious and wonderful at the same time. Not to mention a lot of fun to do because the stakes are not very high and the quality and strange placement of lines on the page result in objects that are somewhat recognizable but also look abstract and like a kind of modern art.
Then it was time to ascend the steps to the rooftop. Ah, the glorious cool refreshing water. There is nothing like a tub of cool water on a hot day. I alternated between immersing myself in the pool and reading, drawing, and doing sudoko.
At one point Rudy came up to check in. He had been traipsing up and down the streets trying to find a bank to get money. But he was not content to get money at any cost. He wanted a good rate of exchange and not too high a fee, and so far none of the ATMs he’d tried had a ‘reasonable’ exchange rate. And even when he ‘accepted’ the exchange rate at a few of the banks, his transaction was declined. Now what? No cash? We may have to use our credit card until we figure this out.
Rudy went back to the room and asked ChatGPT for help. He learned that recently Canada’s Scotiabank had purchased Copatria, a Colombian bank, and they didn’t charge Canadian ATM cards a premium. Okay. Google maps showed a branch was not too far away. You would think his troubles were over. Not so. No matter how many times he put his card into the slot and answered all the prompts, the machine spit out his card — transaction declined. He even had number of bank workers as well as friendly patrons offering their help. What was the problem? He was about to give up when one of the ‘helpers’ suggested he go to one of the tellers and see if he could withdraw money that way. Rudy wasn’t optimistic, but got in line. And as he thought about it and looked at his credit union phone app, it dawned on him! He remembered that after his last cash withdrawal he had put a hold on his card using the app. He logged in and clicked the ‘lock’ off. He left the lineup and went back to the ATM and tried again. Chug, chug, chug — out came MILLIONS of Colombian pesos. He took stuffed the wad of bills into his pocket, wiped the egg off his face, and headed back to the apartment.
Was that enough excitement for the day? Nope, I guess not, because Rudy managed to get the Jets game streaming and we are happy to announce that they won again. (I guess all you folks know that already because you were right close to Winnipeg where it all was happening.)