Bill and I just got back from dinner at a tiny little restaurant we happened to come across. They were out of coconut lemonade, which was disappointing, but I had a fried fish fillet and Bill had something that tasted like a Mongolian meat dish with several different kinds of meats. The food was pretty good, but my legs started to feel really itchy while I waited for our food. I had been a little itchy all day so I though maybe I got bit by something at the aviary yesterday. It kept getting worse so Bill and I had a conversation about whether we might have bedbugs in our apartment. By the end of that conversation, I was itching all over and wondering if mom would let me come back to stay at her house! I considered leaving all of my possessions here and buying some new clothes at the airport or coming home naked if the airport didn’t have clothes. Part way through our meal, Bill noticed that women sitting at the table behind us were also itching their legs. He looked down and mine were covered in tiny mosquitoes. They were swarming everywhere. Normally, mosquitoes go for Bill, and he gets bit much more than me, but they chose me tonight. We both came back to the apartment, took a shower and smeared hydracortisone all over our legs. I’m still itchy. On the bright side, Bill checked our beds for bedbugs and found no sign of any!
Our vacation is winding down, so we had a fairly uneventful day. We swam in the ocean this morning, fixed ham sandwiches, then I went to class. I’ve been working on some very difficult verb forms and not really succeeding. I think I should have mastered a few other skills before moving on to this, but at least I’ll be familiar with this part of the language, and everything is good practice.
We did a little bit of shopping before dinner. I got my friend’s baby a couple of adorable headbands. She will probably hate them, but maybe she’ll wear them long enough for a picture. I got a headband with a flower for myself too. Afro-Colombian women make them and sell them on the street. I posted pictures below.
When we got back to the apartment, there was a gecko outside our door eating bugs around the lights. It was a cute yellow one. When we came in, there was also a gecko on the wall in the kitchen. We were excited because it was a pretty, colorful one and we are hoping it will eat the ants that have taken over the kitchen counter, which we use as our table! Bill thinks it just ran across the top of the sofa while he was writing his update. If so, it’s going the wrong direction. We thought about catching some outside and letting them go in the kitchen.
Tracy fouund a recipe for coconut lemonade that looks like what I’ve been eating. Here it is: http://katieatthekitchendoor.com/2015/06/18/colombian-limonada-de-coco/
Since we both have relatively short posts, I’m including Bill’s below rather than making a new one for him. Here it is:
25 July 2019 19:25
Our trip to Cartagena, Colombia is winding down. We have had a great time here and have seen what we wanted to and gotten to relax. We got to try out SCUBA! Even though I was frustrated with the experience I still am glad I got to do it. In reading our pamphlet from the dive shop if they would have filled out the dive information we could have used the dive towards getting certified and would been helpful to the next place we go in knowing what we did. Long term it won’t matter as we will be a ways off before we do free diving on our own, it would have been nice to have though.
I’m not wishing I was home yet, but just feeling satisfied with my time here and home is always nice to go back to.
We didn’t do a lot of noteworthy stuff today so updates will be shorter.
After breakfast settled we went to the beach. This morning the sand was dry by the rocks along the wall separating the beach from the sidewalk. It was very soft and powdery, once you get to where it is wet, it’s hard with very little give, sometimes it doesn’t leave footprints.
The water feels soft when you are in it and it is calm but then a wave will come and hit you and as it breaks around you you can feel the force and sometimes for a brief second it almost feels solid.
While swimming today I discovered a flaw in men’s swimsuits, no tops! A fish bit me on the nipple, it still feels sore.
There were some children out this morning that appeared unsupervised that borrowed my goggles. I wasn’t sure if I would get them back or mot but I did. They did have some supervision but we are guessing it was a sitter or older sister that wasn’t very interested in her job.
I met Emily after class and we went to see about some hair bands and dinner.
The place we picked for dinner was a bit sketchy but the food was good and not too high priced. It had mosquitoes though that seemed to like Emily more than me which is a switch.
Traveling with Emily! 