Last day in Colombia. I start out in the hotel making sure my bags are packed up well then I meet cash for coffee at the sidewalk cafe connected to the hotel. Cash is planning a trip to Santa Marta so I give him the info of the 2 great hotels we had in the area. After coffee, I check-out of the hotel but put my bags in storage for later in the evening when I need to head to the airport.

I hop on the metro and end up getting off at a station that looked like a nice area. I pass a bunch of larger motorcycle shops for brands we don’t have in Canada and wander in looking at them. AKT, a Chinese brand, sell a 125cc bike for $980 usd ($1280 cdn). With how many thousands of AKT we saw on the road they must be reliable.

A little later on I pass a small restaurant selling empanadas and mozza sticks. I decide that this would make a good last meal and go in to order. I ask for what I want and for some reason, after no problems ordering for a month, the ladies there don’t seem to have a clue what I’m asking for. Turns out, the guy sitting at the food counter seat next to me is a Colombian living in Toronto. He helps and it turns out they did know what I was asking for but they wanted to know if which type I wanted as cheese and which was carne. I sorted out my order and then the 4 ladies working there pretty much ignored the other customers while they made sure I was offered each type of salsa, a drink, was there anything else etc. I guess gingers are celebrities on that area. (Probably not a common tourist area).

Heading back to the hotel area it is now rush hour. The metro is packed and I barely squeeze in. Luckily, my spot is right near the door and a couple stations later at my stop I’m just drawn out the door with the crowd.

Just wasting a couple hours now before my flight and Cash messages to see if I want to get together again for a bit before leaving. I meet him and Angela and we spend an hour or so chatting over a fresh maracuya juice. Saying goodbye for the final not time this trip, I head back to the hotel, collect my bags and Uber out to the airport.

The Uber ride was great. Nice young guy who spoke a tiny bit of English but for the most part we talked in Spanish. He wants to go to Canada for his schooling and is driving Uber to pay for school.

Unfortunately, I get to the airport a little too late for my plan to work. The Copa air counter has now closed and I have to wait for it’s early morning re-opening. I can’t go through to the departures lounge until after checking my bags, so the VIP lounge and beds are out. waiting 4 hours, Copa’s counter finally opens at 2am but now they can’t seem to get my bags checked. After about 20’minutes of computer problems I finally get past the counter, but also am told I need to get my air canada boarding pass in chicago because they cant do it. Seems with Copa, whom previously I had liked, everything now goes wrong. I head off to the international departures terminal thinking now I can enjoy the lounge, only to be stopped and told that customs doesn’t open until 3am. I don’t think I will even get a nap in the lounge now.

Getting through security and customs, it is now about 3:15 and boarding starts at 3:30. I just scrap the whole lounge idea and figure I will just get on the plane as early as possible and nap there. Of course this plan also fails. Seems a technical problem has occurred with the extendable walkway and boarding has been delayed while the push out manual stairs. At about 4:15 we board the plane. Not enough time to snag a Z before takeoff now.

First flight ends up leaving on time despite the issues. We arrive in Panama and I hike the entire airport once again for my connection. Weirdest part was having to go through a second mini security for boarding. Shoes off, bags into the scanner, the complete works. All set up right in front of the gate. Now on to Chicago.

The chicago flight goes smoothly. A little over 5 hours long. I was offered breakfast but had already eaten a croissant on the first flight so I passed, waiting for the lounge food instead. Now, at the airport, I have to collect my bags, go through customs, recheck my bags and then go to another terminal (by bus) for my flight to Vancouver. I also need to check in with air canada for the flight as Copa couldn’t do it. Air Canada also tells me they will retag my bags all the way to Nanaimo, since Copa could only do it to Vancouver. I do all of this and then clear security again, and finally get to a lounge. In terminal 2 here they don’t have a “priority pass” lounge but the united one is included with my airplane ticket so I head there. Just like most of what United does, it’s a nice attempt but it sucks compared to the other lounges (I don’t like United and purposefully avoid flying them).

Before my Vancouver flight I go to a restaurant for lunch. A burger and drink works out to over $30. About the same as my last 3 days combined in Colombia. Burger wasn’t to bad though. I make my way to the flight and board the plane hoping that Nanaimo flights will still be running with the apparent snowfall. Just after boarding, an air Canada dude comes on the plane and lets me know that they might have lost one of my bags. I will know more if it doesn’t show up. DUH!

Rest of the flight goes well and arrives in Vancouver on time. Then I head off for the Nanaimo flight, but all sorts of delays and cancellations are going on. My flight ends up boarding about an hour late and after de-icing takes off an hour and a half behind, but at least it flew!

Finally arriving in Nanaimo, I am exhausted but happy to be home. Carolyn is there to meet me at the airport and welcome me home. Before we can leave though, I have to go to the Air Canada desk and start the process for my one missing bag.

After breakfast and checking out, I headed off to the airport. About halfway along the 20 minute ride a batch of motorcycle cops with their lights on pass me, and them moments later about 6 SUVs, blacked out windows, no license plates, also with lights flashing pass as well. My Uber driver tells me it is the president heading to the airport. I guess every country is a bit excessive with the leadership travel plans. One would think, for security reasons, it would be smarter to go in a lone Hyundai.

At the airport, since I had done the self checkin, I go visit the lounge and await my flight. I only have one carry on, with the rest of my luggage waiting for me back at the Medellin hotel, but my one bag is overweight (and a half inch oversize). Seems rules aren’t really followed though and I make it on board without a hassle. This flight is my economy class one, but it seems I somehow booked premium economy when picking my seat and didn’t pay more. A bit of a bonus.

The flight is quick and I arrive in Medellin around 11. Leaving the airport for the city, I decide I dont want to pay for a cab or an Uber for the long drive and instead take the group bus. It holds about 20 people and charges $3.75 for the ride into town, stopping at one of the major malls where you can easily take an inexpensive cab to anywhere in the city.

I arrive back at the hotel Chris and I had been at and what a difference a few days makes. The hotel (and area in general) had been absolutely swamped with Colombian tourists the previous week but now was totally quiet. From Christmas until about Jan 10 is the busiest holiday season for Colombians. Even though I am early for checkin my room is already available and I find myself relaxing in it a few minutes later. I spend a little time walking around seeing if any additional souvenirs suit me before catching the metro to another area of town. At about 6 in the evening I head back to the hotel and meet up with Cash and his lady friend Angela. Cash has an apartment for the next month just down the road from my hotel. We watch the Seattle football game and catch up with what we have been doing, while poor Angela has to listen to two people talking mostly in a language she doesn’t understand (which is kinda rude of us), but we tried bits here and there in Spanish to include her. Cash, when switching to Spanish, seems to be a fair bit further along, a result of the amount of time he has spent in Colombia.

After Seattle loses, we say goodbye and I wander back to the hotel. A nice evening and great to see a good friend.

Note: uploaded the missing day 36. Amazon area had bad wifi and data.

With a day to waste in Bogota, I head downtown to the really good souvenir area Chris and I had spotted previously. I didn’t buy anything then because I didn’t want to travel all over with anything. Plus, I only wanted authentic Colombian made things. Not some made in China crap with a Colombia label on it.

In the end, with a little bartering (but not wanting to do too much, as these are handmade items), I buy a handmade bag (mochila). These take days and sometimes weeks to be made, and most of the money goes to the artisan if you buy right., which I hope I did. I also bought a hammock, hand weaved from the Santa Marta area. So far, everything I have bought is artisan of some kind and true to the area.

I spend a bit more time wandering the city. It was nice to see the street Chris and I had seen previously almost completely finished. It was being converted from a normal road to a pedestrian and bike only boulevard, right in the heart of the city. With just a few finishing touches to go, it looks great.

I spend most of the day just walking around, seeing a few different areas and stopping for a couple of coffees. Later on in the evening, I watch the football games in the hotel bar, before heading out to dinner at a carnecera near by.

I awake with the sun and after showering I make my way to the tour company office just down the way. I dress intelligently. Although it is hot out, both the sun and the bugs are not your friends, so I wear my convertible pants and my lightweight long sleeve. I also bring my backpack with sunscreen, repellant, cameras and a few snacks.

The tour group is almost full, a group of about 30, we head off to our boat. Not a lot of English in this town (as should be expected), and everyone on the tour is from Colombia except for me and a Mexican lady. Our host doesn’t speak English as well, but I seem to understand about half of what he is saying so life is good!

We head out on the river shortly after 8am. About 20 km upriver we stop in some reed areas and shut off the engine. Shortly afterwards some grey river dolphins appear to our left. Moments later, pink river dolphins show up on the right (my side). We watch as they surface and then vanish again for about 15 minutes. Amazing to see, especially since the pink dolphins are becoming so rare. It seems that local indigenous groups, whom make their living often from fishing and supplying canneries with their fish, discovered that Amazon catfish are drawn to the dolphins blood and flesh. All you need to do is catch one, cut it open in a river pen and the catfish will swarm to it until the pen is full. Close the door and you have a huge haul. There used to be millions of these dolphins just a few years ago. Now they are endangered.

Stopping on an island about 30 kilometres from Leticia, we are no on Isla de los Micos. Yep…. Monkey Island. This is a reserve for monkeys with over 12000 of them on the island. As we walk down the path, a teenage girl screams and I see a cute little monkey has just jumped smack on top of her head. Just sitting there proudly while she panics. All I can say is that I am glad the first head jumped on wasnt mine because I would have seriously embarrassed myself with my man screams. Within seconds, monkeys are on almost everyone. Jumping on them and then just hanging out. Some monkeys had little monkeys on their back…. literally. Some people ended up with a pack of monkeys, maybe 10, all on them at the same time. I settled for one. I named him Cornelius (Im sure he already has a name but for the time he was my monkey). Cornelius hung out for a few minutes with me then took of to greener pastures when he saw someone with a banana.

Next we cruised further up river to a small restaurant/garden for lunch. The place was beautiful and safe, with raised piers running out to the boat so you could be safe from the Anacondas and crocs. During lunch a small sloth made her way into the patio area and then just did what sloths do, nothing. I have to say, sloths are right up there with penguins in my mind for how cool they are. Sloths define cool. They don’t have to even try hard to do anything, they are just naturally cool.

We re-board the vessel and head another 10km up river to a small puebla named Macedonia. The small village had kids swimming in the river as we pulled up (don’t really know if they were having fun or they are the unwanted children being used as bait. Who lets their kids swim in the amazon! I guess the Amazonians do). The people give us a traditional indiginous dance show, involving most of the visitors too (I managed to get my way out of this one). I buy a souvenir since it was actually made in the village. By this time I am starting to really enjoy the company of the people on the boat. I have a gay man from Pasto, Colombia (Ormand) who is either hitting on me or just extremely nice, or perhaps both. The lady from Mexico, who left her husband back at the hotel because he didn’t want to go on a boat. A lady with her daughter, whom I nicknamed Colombian Christine and Ryse. Mostly because of the lashes and lifts on the lady, but also because the interaction between the two was identical to Christine and Ryse, just in a totally different language. The people I ended up befriending the most though was Rafael and Angelica. Rafael was originally from Venezuela and has lived in a few countries, including spending time in Canada 30 years ago. He had some English, which was helpful and we communicated quite well. Angelica was totally awesome. She just seemed to love everything to do with animals. She probably had 8 monkeys on her at one time, and was about the only person who could pet them, grab their hands etc. They were a lot of fun to spend time with. We exchanged contacts so hopefully I will run into them again. The tour host, Yur, was also very good to me. Trying to make sure I was enjoying myself as the only non latino there.

Our last stop was Puerto Narino, 75 km up river from Leticia with a population of 1040 (give or take any children who may be swimming in the river since I left). This town is beautiful. Mostly an indigenous village, it has become popular with eco tourists. The town has no cars or motorcycles, and is accessible only by boat. They have a soccer field right next to the river. If you kicked too far to the side, ball gone (and that river has quite a current). Apparently once a week a town across the river in Peru and Puerto Narino have a match. Serious shit to the people here, and supposed to be something to watch. International football at it’s best.

Leaving Puerto Narino we see more dolphins. Bonus!! Then we make the 90 minute voyage back to Leticia. On the return, the skys darken and then let loose, Another Amazon rain storm. For some reason, the storm is quite beautiful, and even finishes off with a full 180 rainbow (other side of the boat, so no photo op).

Back in Leticia, it is just getting dark. I say goodbye to my new friends and to the guide, while tipping generously as he certainly provided a spectacular day. At the hotel, I realize that 50 SPF may not be good enough for gingers in the amazon, but since my cold seems to be gone, why not replace it with burning flesh.

After only 2 days in the Amazon I realize that I would love to spend a fair bit more time here. It truly is an amazing place, very different from what we are used to. It was cool to have been able to be in 3 countries in a day (without flying). Although I suppose I have done that before back when I only gave Nicaragua 8 hours of my time while going from Costa Rica to Honduras.

Ants reign here. Sure, I saw some other amazing creatures, but if you look close enough, you are always surrounded by ants. Usually it’s just the little tiny ones marching around you, but they are there. At dinner and I look at the floor. Scout team out on patrol. Back in my hotel I look at the wall and sure enough, a group are looking back at me. In the middle of the jungle on the pier, marching processions going on. I even saw a few adventurous explorers clinging desperately to the boat while the wind tried to turn them into the flying variety.

Luckily for me, it seems my sunburn that I saw in the mirror was gone by the morning. As I have had in the past, it was probably more wind burn than anything and I can trust in the SPF50 again.

It rained pretty hard most of the night. By morning, as the rain subsided, most of the roads in the town were partially flooded. I went looking for coffee but struggled to find anywhere decent. I also skipped breakfast again as I’m a little over scrambled eggs for now. I spent a fair bit of time wandering around the town but since I fly out in a few hours, another tour is not on the books.

I pack up and head to the airport. I went quite early in the end. This is because my phone ended up an hour ahead. Colombia in it’s entirety only has one time zone, but when I went in to Brazil my phone switched to “Amazon Standard Time” and never switched back. Data signal was very bad in Leticia so my guess is that it couldn’t correct. I sit down in the waiting room and end up meeting a lady from Malta. She spoke English (native language French) and virtually no spanish. She was on a 3 week trip around Colombia by herself and had just finished 5 days on the Amazon. Unlike me, she had been very good apparently at participating in the Amazon food chain. She claimed to have hundreds of mosquito bites all over her legs. At least they had mostly only happened the day before and she should be around some good medical clinics if malaria kicks in. She was off to Medellin for a day or so then to the Coffee Region. One of my favourite “European” things is how so many people there backpack places well past their teens and 20’s. She was about 35ish and had multiple other backpack trips planned for the coming years too.

Just before boarding, my friends from the previous day, Rafael and Angelica show up. They are on the same flight home. He has a couple from Alberta shadowing him, as he had helped them with arranging seating for the plane and now they weren’t letting him out of their sight until they boarded. Nice people, but also a touch grating. She seemed to find it quite ridiculous that the tours she took on the Amazon weren’t in English, especially for how much they charge! (Seriously? My 12 hour tour was $45Cdn and included lunch and a sloth).

I get to Bogota and catch an Uber to the hotel I booked. When I get there they don’t seem to have my reservation. While they are seeming most apologetic, I am secretly trying to remember if I ever completed the booking, which I kinda think I may not have. They are now fully booked on the regular rooms but they offer me a suite for about $7 more a night. Not really wanting to go looking for something else, and the hotel seems nice, I agree. When the bellhop takes me up to show me the room I’m at first a little confused, it seems like only a typical room. Then he hits a switch on the wall and the blinds raise. Behind the glass door is a private patio with a jacuzzi, gas fireplace and a pretty decent 7th floor view of the city.

The hotel seems to have a theme of artwork made from obsolete and broken things. Outside is a bunch of figures made from broken plates. Inside, hanging from the ceiling, are figures made from records, VHS tapes, cassettes and more. Kinda funky place.

It’s a little late for much cruising around town, so I go across the road for dinner to a steak house. Not a perfect steak but still decent, total dinner cost of $16.

I awake at about 6am and get myself checked out of the hotel. After so many hotel breakfasts, I decide to pass on this one and just catch the shuttle directly to the airport. The domestic section of Bogota airport is huge, and even though boarding is only an hour away, my gate still doesn’t show so I am not sure which end to head to. I decide to go to the lounge for breakfast and coffee, which turns out to be the right direction too.

I board the flight and settle in to watching Netflix on my ipad. The flight is about 2 hours and goes over the jungle before landing in Leticia, on the banks of the Amazon. This is where Peru, Brazil and Colombia all meet, and the only way here is by river boat or plane. No roads go this way at all.

Arriving at my hotel at about 11am, the room wont be ready for another hour, so I drop my bag and go to explore. Leaving the hotel, I try to follow google maps to the river, but each time I think I am close either a large building blocks me or a chunk of jungle. The humidity and heat are intense but the cloud cover seems to be saving me. Unfortunately, after a couple of kilometres of walking, the cloud clears away, and things change instantly from feeling like 35 to feeling like 45. I walk back to the hotel, slowly melting away, looking for a tuk tuk to take but seeing none all of a sudden. Finally, back at the hotel and set up in a room, I cool off in the shower.

For round 2 of the exploration, I change into shorts and put on a cap. Walking towards the Brazil border the town is super quiet. It turns out all the stores close between 12 and 2. Already starting to feel a second melting coming on, I find a Tuk-Tuk and hire him to tour me around the city.

My Tuk-Tuk driver, Armando, and his co-pilot grandson Gregor drove me around all the key places. This included a trip across the border (no border guards here) to Tabatinga, Brazil and the dock area of the river there. They were fun to hang around with. Armando constantly singing away while pointing things out to me. He seemed to enjoy showing his grandson the “tour guide” he could be. Apparently, he sometimes watches the kid, but still has to go to work so he just brings him along. I am driven past Parque Santander (there is a Parque Bolivar and Parque Santander in every town virtually. Look them up. Important people in history we never got taught in Canada). In the park, every night at about 5:30 a million or more birds return for the night from their day in the jungle.

Armando drops me off at the hotel and I say goodbye. Was well over an hour with the two of them and they were great hosts. I spend a little time booking a river trip for tomorrow and then go grab a drink. As I am doing this, the clouds let loose and the rains came down. Temperature seemed to drop in half within minutes. About an hour of rain and thunder, then everything cleared up again, just as it is about time to head to the park and watch the bird show.

Apparently parrots, parakeets and black birds all call the park their night time home and they do put on a show. Starting at about 5:15 the early birds start to show up. Then, for the next 45 minutes flock after flock fly over, swarm around and settle in the trees. Over a million, but the trees still dont even look full. The volume of all the chirps is deafening and they almost fly into you at times. Never got pooped on though, and that is amazing with that many birds overhead.

Heading back from the park, I stop and eat a street burger. Very good, insanely cheap. After the late dinner I slowly make my way back to the hotel and call it a night.

We met at breakfast and arranged to go to the mall for Chris to change over more money. We have to be at the airport by 2 pm for our 4pm flights and checkout is 1pm, so it works out well.

At about 1pm we call an Uber and pay the $6 extra for the large car. When the car arrives it is a nice sport utility (by Renault). We also finally get to go through the 20km tunnel that goes to the airport, which was really just a straight road through a mountain but we have done in now.

At the airport, Chris and I are supposed to be on the same flight, but I had done my entire check-in online and his didn’t complete so he ends up at the counter checking bags and checking in. They end up switching his flight to an hour earlier, so we both go to the lounge and then Chris leaves a little later while I stay there (watching Netflix on my Ipad). I board my flight at 4 pm, takeoff 4:45 and arrive in Bogota at 5:45. I now wait in Bogota until early morning for my flight to Leticia in the Amazon. Chris stays at the airport for his 11pm flight out.

I have somehow acquired a cold, which is a little bit of a downer. Hoping it doesn’t get worse or mix with some weird amazonian virus and take out humanity. I don’t want to be patient zero. So, in Bogota I get myself a cheap hotel to spend the night, which also has an airport shuttle so I can get rest and get to the flight on time. The hotel turns out to be pretty high end but for a good price (hotels.com), I have dinner at about 8pm at the hotel in a nice restaurant where I am certainly the poorest dressed until another North American shows up. After diner I crash out in the room.

On the plus side, I bid $35 for an upgrade of my flight to the amazon and it was accepted, so the flight will be a little more comfortable than peasant class, which I had to fly today (yes…the voice in my head said it with a touch of snobbery).

After breakfast we waited in the lobby for our city tour to pick us up. At about 9am we boarded a small bus with 11 other people and went took off around the city. Our host, Mai, was an adorable woman, 42 years old, with a little English (but the tour was in Spanish), from a small town near the coast. She has been living in Medellin for quite some time and was most familiar with it. Most importantly, she was a happy, bubbly person. A perfect host who you could tell loved her job.

First, we drove past the government buildings. Being as it is a holiday in Colombia (Epiphany – which is still important here), the area was closed off to the public with security, but we did see it from afar. Next, we went to a large plaza that had more government offices as well as a aquarium and a few other things. One building had a bamboo forest in front of it, and all the piers in the building were made to look like bamboo. Another building had massive gardens growing down the side to help with pollution in the city.

Next, we went back to Plaza Botero, where Chris and I had been the previous day. With a tour guide we learned a little more than previous before heading off to the metro and our entire group caught the metro and then cable cars to the communes Chris and I had visited at the beginning of the trip. Being a holiday, the cable car was so backed up with people trying to go to Parque Arvi that we ended up about an hour behind on the tour. Next we visited the area of the university and Imax, which was a nice looking area. Finally, back in the van, we toured the city while each person got dropped off. Being as we had fallen behind, the botanical gardens and escalators were out. Since we had seen the escalators previously, the botanical gardens are the only thing I would have liked to see but didn’t. Although much of the tour was a repeat, it was a very pleasant way to spend most of the day.

I spend the afternoon relaxing, while Chris returned to the mall to try to exchange more of his money. The mall was open, but the exchanges all were closed. Later in the afternoon I went and had a massage, very good and nothing “extra” was offered. Perfect place, which I may go back to when I return to Medellin for a day or so at the end of the trip.

Chris and I meed up a little later in the evening for dinner, grabbing an Uber to go to Poblado and dinner in Parque Lleras. Leaving the Uber, Chris stops him just as he is ready to leave, and Chris grabs his cell phone from the back seat. Chris and Uber doesn’t work well! We find a nice patio spot and have dinner while watching all the activity in the park. Such a busy place, and filled with tourists. Apparently the area is nicknames Gringolandia.

Later in the evening, we Uber back to the hotel and call it a night.

After breakfast we head out to explore more of the city. We catch the metro to San Javier, and then from there get on a cable car that goes for about 25 minutes over the comuna 13 part of the city. On our one ride we shared the cable car with a family, a couple with a boy about 10 and a girl about 6. The adults may have been parents or perhaps grandparents even. They seemed intrigued by us and were very friendly on the ride. The man was pointing out things to us. He pointed to a very poor area and mentioned how it was poor but how happy the people still were. An interesting take. On the return trip we shared with a group of young ladies from eastern Europe and their tour guide. Interestingly, the tour guide made the exact same comment about the one area. Very poor yet the people are very happy. He added “ you always hear music… and the roosters”

Later on, we went downtown to Parque Botero. A park in the center of the city with many statues by a famous Medellin artist. Lots of people there, although being a Sunday the street market seemed quite quiet.

One of the things that is very noticeable in Colombia is their cultural differences for courtesy. On the subway during a busy time with standing room only an older lady gets on, limping a little as she shuffles on. As the subway starts to move a younger, almost punk ass looking guy standing near the door leans over to another younger guy and tells him to get out of his seat now. The other guy realizes the woman is there (he was intense on his phone) and immediately jumps up. Another young lady helps the woman over to the seat and all is now well on the train. This is a common sight in the Country. Women with small children or pregnant are treated much the same.Back in our hotel, we book the bus tour for the next morning. Then we head out for dinner, tonight we go with the basic fried chicken, and go to a place a couple blocks from the hotel. As we are finishing and with some leftovers, a guy comes along and asks if he can have what remains. We say sure and he asks the restaurant for a big, which they seem happy to supple and he leaves with the food. Another thing that seems to be somewhat normal.

For those of you who have been following because of the motorcycle adventure, with the bike segment now done, we turn in to the typical tourist.

After our hotel breakfast we both bring our clothes to the lavanderia around the corner. Then we agree to meet in the lobby at 10am. Meeting back up, we catch an uber tp the Uno Centro Commercial (shopping mall). Cruising around here for a while we find a wack of Casa de Cambios where we can change our money. I check out the rates and then we settle in for a coffee and to figure out what way is best. It turns out that if we changes the pesos directly into Canadian dollars we would do worse than if we changed into US dollars now and then changed the USD again in Canada. I return to the cambio and exchange 2 million for 600 USD. Since I didnt want to walk around with all the money, I will need to return and change more. Chris didn’t bring any of his so we will need a return trip anyways.

The mall overall is quite dull, not unlike any north american mall, except perhaps a little more upscale. Not hugely busy either. Since we aren’t really there to shop anyways, we don’t spend long there before returning to the hotel and stashing our money away.

Next, we walk a block or two to the metro. Buying a pass, jump on the metro and ride around to a couple of different areas while enjoying the ride and crowd. A little later, by the time we headed back to Laureles and our area, the metro was packed and we felt like little fish in a can (except the fish are dead and we aren’t, so I guess that is a shitty metaphor).

Back at the hotel, both of us this time bring more of our pesos, and we head back to the mall. Strangely, even with all the other businesses open, the cambios are mostly closed. We end up finding a couple that are still open and both of us change another 2 million. The money is changing fast. It took me over 50 years to finally become a millionaire and required a trip to Colombia to happen. Now my 6 million is rapidly turning into very little. I didn’t even spread it out and roll around in it and now it is almost gone (I don’t know who all the little faces are on the bills so that would feel dirty).

Once again back at the hotel, we collect our laundry. An hour or so later we meet and head out to dinner just down the road. Nice place, live musicians, fantastic street scene, unspectacular food. Cant win them all. After dinner, we spend a couple hours wandering the streets and watching everything before returning to the hotel. I watch a playoff football game before going to sleep. A nice city and an entertaining day.