Colombia Forum

yolatengo
Joined 2019
Posts: 545

4 years ago

Blog entry, March 27

4 years ago

Friday, March 27, 2020

Andre (not real name) is a professional French chef (so sez Andre) who has been supplying me with great breads (brioche) and pastries for several months. He’s a bit loco, but funny loco. He’s in his 30s, tall, lanky and talks a mile a minute. He lives with 2 women and doesn’t stop talking. Sometimes I want to say, “Shut up Andre!” He makes deliveries himself by bicycle all over Medellin. That’s an enormous task and a lot of exercise, not to mention the danger in bicycling the streets of this city. I still cannot believe he bicycles all over town.

James once told me he saw Andre handle a brioche with his bare hands. I foolishly chose to let it go. Then there was something foreign in my bread. Again, I chose to let it go. This was pre-Covid-19 days. Then he made a delivery on Wednesday. No one is allowed into my building except residents, so we did the transaction in the deserted street. I was completely astonished and almost speechless when he pulled another James move and handled the bread with his bare hands. I couldn’t believe it with all the nastiness going on. Not to mention his hands were probably filthy from riding a bike all day. I said something like “WTF” to him, but I greedily figured that I would somehow be able to sanitize the food. The brioche and torts are that good that I lost my mind for a moment. However, once I got to my apartment, I realized that it would be impossible to make the food safe and the thought of eating it sickened me. I threw everything out, kissed 80,000 pesos goodbye and spent the next 2 hours wiping everything down with disinfectant, ripping off my clothes and doing a wash and took a shower with disinfectant soap.

Several barrios implemented pico y cedula. Remember, the cedula is the Colombian ID. In the barrios that it’s in effect, one can only go for a prescription or food shopping 2 days a week. To the best of my knowledge, it’s only in effect in the outlying barrios of Medellin, not Medellin proper. Sabaneta is just outside the city.

The last number of the cedula corresponds to the days one is allowed shopping. My days are Tuesday and Friday, so today is one of my days. I didn’t desperately need anything except exercise. So, I headed out to a distant Exito in order to get in some exercise. As soon as I got to the main drag, Avenida Las Vegas, I was stopped by 2 cops on motorcycles. They wanted to see my cedula and asked where I was going, where I lived, etc. The first degree! I wasn’t doing anything wrong so I wasn’t TOO frightened. Fortunately, they gave up trying to understand me and let me go with a warning – return to my apartment immediately after shopping. Five minutes later, the same sh!t! 2 different cops on motorcycles.

The streets remain eerily empty of people whether pedestrians, motorists or cyclists. Exito, the same. There was only 1 cashier open but I was the only customer. The cashiers were all congregating by the one that was checking me out. They congratulated me on my choice of antibacterial stuff. I got 4 different kinds!

Surprisingly, pollution levels are the same as always. The consensus was that pollution takes a while to go away in Medellin. We’re in a valley and the air just sits here. But today marks a week since the quarantine started. I would have thought the air would be a little better.

That’s it. Another day of studying Spanish with YouTube videos. Reading on the balcony. I also find that I’m constantly cleaning probably more out of boredom.

I hope everyone is well and taking care. And hopefully, Americans are going a bit further than the government mandates and taking self-isolating seriously.

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