Souvenir Photo Studio, by Al Bourassa: Thursday August 25, 2022 Pereira Cedula

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Thursday August 25, 2022

The eastern sky had stars this morning, including my fave, Orion. We finished the walk and I did chores, excluding uploading my photo for sale because time was short. I cut my hair and beard, shaved and showered, and got dressed to travel. As I stepped out of the bedroom around 6am and looked in the back, I saw at least 4 Pale Spear-Nosed Bats working the yard in what looked like figure-eight swoops. I grabbed the Nikon and took this video:

https://youtu.be/ianTiGjec_g

Then I hustled to the mickey-mouse bus station here a block away as instructed by 6:20. I was a little surprised when they popped me in a taxi to the highway at 6:30. It wasn't long before a nice Mercedes bus, air-conditioned and quiet, whisked me away. It would get nice reviews from me but the suspension allowed us to feel everything on the road, and the driver stayed in the passing lane the whole way doing only 80kph. I hate those drivers.

It made a few stops for people and did a small tour of Cartago but got me to the Pereira bus station within 2 hours, as I expected. I have a photo below of the toll booth entering Pereira which is an expensive toll considering the roads are much, much better until we get there....

I really needed to get to the Bano before doing anything else... Then I caught a taxi for the short trip to the Migracion office. I was in there less than 10 minutes and walked out after signing for my new Cedula, same number as the old one, as promised. The process has only taken an agonizing 15 months...

So I caught a taxi back with a driver who spoke a little English because he had studied in London in his youth. These guys love to practice their English.

I had noticed on arrival before at the bus station that it was connected by a long green passage to the cable car that crosses most of the city. I had been told that it cost 2500 pesos to ride the whole circuit of the 4 stations ($0.57 USD today!) so I figured "Why not???" I took a few photos and decided to do a live video to Facebook with my fancy phone. My first attempt didn't take hold for some reason (I'm a neophyte) and this is the second:

https://www.facebook.com/665906995/videos/5433506056704700/

I tried to save this in other formats unsuccessfully.... I should have just taken a regular video with the Nikon in hindsight, but I had wanted to post it live to Facebook. The people who joined me in the car were all very nice. The ride goes to the very verdant south end and then goes very close to downtown and the views are wonderful from up there. One thing that struck me was the number of houses with tin roofs,... very few tile roofs here, making it all look like very poor shanties from above.

Upon return, I tried to get out of there and the dummies running it thought that I wanted to go for another ride so they had me pay again, ignoring my bewilderment... I just shook my head and ate the 2500 pesos more....

When I did finally extract myself from the big green passageway, I found the bus line and got my return ticket for 20 minutes later. I bought a bag of sour cream + onion chips and some Mora juice and found the #107 bus with another passenger. No driver, and the bus was hot, sitting in the sun, so we chatted a bit outside in the shade. The young man was from Trujillo, just past Rio Frio and he kept telling me how beautiful it was there. Once I found it on a map, I agreed with him, as we had been in that area many times.

So, roughly at 10:20am the young driver shows up, I had lost the seat I wanted to some kid who obviously didn't mind the hot bus which did not have air-conditioning this time, was old and rattled everwhere. It had remnants of old curtain hardware that poked your arms so I ended up sitting behind the driver to get the breeze from his open window.

This young driver mystified me as he drove extra slowly through Pereira, as though he was afraid to get a speeding ticket. He stopped a few times for people who wanted to get on, or give him parcels, and he stopped for snacks for himself. His phone was constantly buzzing as his daughter kept calling him and he accepted every call.

Once outside of Pereira he picked up speed and at least kept in the proper lane. In Cartago, he picked up a simple fellow he knew and they chatted the whole way, between eating and more phone calls. More than once I thought his distraction would put us into a curb and maybe flip the bus...

Further on, we picked up more passengers and one guy decided to sit next to me instead of taking an open single seat. It was quite unconfortable from there on, almost an hour, and I was very happy to disembark at the highway and walk the few blocks home.

I passed the big house with the swimming pool we wanted to buy and saw that they have now contracted a realtor, so the price would definitely be higher now.... I wish that I had the money available to buy the house and flip it. At the time I could have gotten it for about $91,000 USD but it must be priced a lot higher now.

Sofia has come to spend the afternoon and evening again, unusual for a Thursday... They just slipped out try and buy some meaty chicharon (think fatty bacon..), and see if there was a good cabbage to buy for me.. They came back with no meat but got me some veggies.

Aunt Nativa just stopped by (always when Cristina manages to be away) selling her lottery tickets. I wasn't going to buy because I have only big bills in the wallet but she again had ticket 430, Lizzie's licence number, so I scrounged up enough change for the 2000 pesos.... She wants some whiskey if we win...

I hope you enjoy the pictures (almost all out of order and I am too tired to fight with it).

That was the day’s excitement.

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