Day 42 - New phone (kinda)

On Tuesday July 21, after trying to get in contact with different dive schools and not being able to do so effectively due to not having the means to contact the schools with my own phone, and after realizing that I really needed to get a move on with my plans in Cartagena (where I will be by myself), I decided that I really needed to buy a phone. Although iphones are cheaper (somewhat, moreso if you pay with a credit card and file to get the IVA tax returned to you) they're still pretty expensive. For me, it would be cheaper to buy a refurbished phone in the US. Refurbished phones here, though they'd be cheap, they're just not safe considering how often phones get stolen here. So, we went to a nearby mall so that I could get a new SIM card from Tigo. They didn't have any cheap phones, so we went to one of the cheaper shops outside the mall. I opted for a $20 phone. Fortunately, I was able to get a new SIM card and carry over the service that I had already paid for on my iphone moved over to my new phone. Of course, there's no way for me to use the internet with my phone, but at least I can make calls!

There are so many malls here! The mall we went to this time was a lot more simple. The majority of it was without a roof, which would'nt have been such a problem except for is started to rain a good amount. There were at least 4 different places to exchange money, however, there were still giant lines. I was absolutely out of Colombian money and I really needed to exchange money. However, after waiting lots of time (proably a little over an hour) with waiting tickets for 3 different places, I found that many places require you to exchange at least $100 and that most places require a passport to do an exchange (which I don't remember ever having to have when I previously exchanged money). So I ended up leaving without any Colombian money, however, I did find a blood donation place where I asked if I could get my hemoglobin levels checked. I offered to pay, but surprisingly they let me due for free with no strings attached. They told me that my level is now at 14.4! Before coming here, I was at 9.7, I believe. I can't believe how much it jumped! That level is higher than I've been in a very long time! I guess I'm always tired in Bogotá due to the altitude? Or perhaps I just go to bed too late haha.

On the way back from the mall we stopped at the store so that I could get ingredients for some meals, since we decided that I would cook a couple of times since it's so expensive to eat out all of the time.

I found that tortilla chips are nonexistent. (Which is super sad. I thought that I was going to miss peanut butter most, but nope. I miss tortilla chips the most.) It was funny cause when I said "chips," Juan Davíd took me to the French fry area...can you tell he studied English in Australia? I did, however, find flour tortillas. They only had small taco sized ones, and they didn't have any corn tortillas but at least they had something! I could only find red bell peppers, no other color. Of course, there was absolutely no possibility of me finding any Mexican seasoning. I found a mix of cumin, garlic, onion, and pepper cause it seemed to be the closest that they had to Mexican seasoning. Also, I had the hardest time finding tomato sauce and the hardest time explaining it cause "salsa de tomate" here is ketchup. I decided to opt for tomato paste instead of sauce and said "pasta de tomate" but I still had a hard time finding it. I did happen to find one thing of tomato paste, there was only one in an entire wall of ketchup. Juan David didn't want to get it cause it was expensive (not in my opinion, it was only $3,500 - $5,000 is equal to $1.80 - at least on that day, before the value of the dollar went up for Colombians). It's really convenient actually cause it's in a glass jar with the lid. Normally in the US, I can only buy a can of tomato paste. I buy the smallest possible, but I never need more than a couple of tablespoons and tend to throw the rest out. Beans were also pretty hard to find. There were only one type Antioquian beans (a region in Colombia), which looked a bit like pinto, and they all had bacon in them. But I had no other choice, so I decided to try it out.

I ended up getting pretty mad that night for a particular reason and shut myself in my room for the rest of the night. I ended up continuing to draw and listened to some comedy (Tom Papa) while I drew. Pretty uneventful day!

Oh also, this day I saw a jacket that said "I love Paris" and the I was made from the Eiffel tower. I just think it's so funny how much Paris stuff I've seen here. I've seen a good amount of Eiffel tower knickknack in artisan shops. I've also seen a good amount of beanies that say "Amsterdam." It's kinda funny cause it's another place that's notoriously attached with drugs.

I don't have a photo for this boring day, so enjoy another photo from the Colpatria tower.