I visited el Unicentro yesterday in north Bogota, only because everyone has recommended that I go there and not because I am especially fond of malls. Think of Metrotown on steriods. One of the escalators is flanked by scale replicas of the Statue of Liberty and Big Ben. It did put me in an unfamiliar neighbourhood and that´s usually a good thing because it gets me exploring, so I found a couple of decent looking coffee shops in the area that I would like to visit sometime, and I also found an enjoyable walking route through a network of parks that took me back to my hostel. A bit earlier I was sitting inside the Oma on Carrera 19 and Calle 116 with my sketchbook. It´s quite a big place and the security guard kept standing behind me looking at what I was drawing. The first couple of times that I caught him and looked up to say ´´Hola´´ he gave me a poker face and walked away and I have to admit that I did feel a bit creeped out. The third time he became friendly and chatted for a while and guessed correctly and to my surprise that I´m from Canada. He mentioned he has several Canadian frineds living now in Colombia. It was quite a warm exchange and he shook my hand afterward.
In the morning I visited over coffee with a friend who lives here, Jorge. He is facing surgery next week and would appreciate prayer so those of my Gentle Readers who pray could you please include Jorge in your prayers, and those of you who don´t pray, would you be so kind as to send positive and gentle thoughts his way? We were again in the Peruvian coffee shop. I arrived early for some time to draw and he gave me such crappy service that I called him on it, mentioning that the people he served ahead of me had arrived after I had placed and paid for my order. He didn´t seem happy about being confronted but he will have to get over it or he has lost a customer. Besides, his cafe doesn´t have a washroom. I mean, come on you guys! If you´re going to open a coffee shop put in a goddam bathroom for your customers. You know what caffeine does to the human bladder.
I´m sleeping a bit better though still nothing perfect. At six thirty this morning as I was getting up I heard a loud conversation coming from the adjoining kitchen. I went there afterward to get my breakfast stuff and there was Andres the owner having a cosy kitchen table chat with a friend of his (I think a colleague at the university) At 6:30 in the morning. So I told them both tactfully that they were kind of loud and to their surprise sound does travel in the house. I also asked if I could take care of my own cleaning needs from now on. The woman who comes in once a week does not appear to be trustworthy. I had left a quarter on my night table, not to test her honesty but as a reminder of Canada and when I came back in after she cleaned the place the quarter was gone. I tore up the place looking for it and couldn´t find it. Now it´s only a quarter and there remains the possibility that she didn´t take it and it still might be lying around somewhere. Also it can´t be any use to her here in Colombia unless she wants a memento of her Canadian guest, in which case she is welcome to it. But, all my money and my passport are in my room, well-hidden of course but you can understand that this must make me a bit...er...nervous? So I have said nothing to her about the quarter and I´m not mentioning it to her employers in case she might be innocent and I don´t want to feel implicated in an already underpaid worker losing her job and maybe having to face hunger over a lousy quarter!
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