All cultural differences aside, the rest of the world just doesn’t work as seamlessly as America does. As such, it took me considerable effort to get a car rented to drive out to Guatape today. Having successfully executed that, we worked from the apartment and grabbed some lunch at this Italian place nearby, Asti. I went to collect our rental car, which was another ordeal. I had to laugh at some of the special disclaimers for renting a car in Colombia. Bad news, if the car is destroyed as a result of your participation in an insurrection you’re out the cost of the car… After reams of paperwork and some incomprehensible directions back to the apartment we were on our way.

We had found this gorgeous AirBNB right on the water in Guatape way out on one of the many snaking promontories (basically islands) that make their way into the lake. Even though our rental car could only get up to about a top speed of… 40kph we had a pretty smooth drive out there. Right up until the last turn before our place. Turns out the road was completely impassable. Being the resourceful types that we are, this wouldn’t have been a huge problem if we had turned up earlier in the day. But as it stood here. We were stuck with no way to get to our place.

It started out as a pretty standard day. Went to my now staple, Ganso & Castor for breakfast and then headed over to the work space for the rest of the day. However, by the end of the day I had fallen into a trip to Guatape departing tomorrow.

Very early start today. Went back to my new passion Ganso & Castor to work in the morning, then relocated to Cafe Velvet for a while before heading over to the workspace. Lost motivation, though, so just hung out until my clothes were clean next door and then headed home for the evening.

Another productive day and one that I finally managed to venture out of the house for. I managed to wake up at my more usual time this morning so I think I’ve totally kicked that brush with getting sick that I had after my junket to New Orleans. I started the day at Ganso & Castor which is a just great little cafe, possibly my favorite since Copenhagen Coffee Lab in Lisbon. Worked there for the morning before heading back home and working there in the afternoon. In the evening I had dinner at this Indian place, Naan. Not only was it excellent it featured something else I’ve been sorely missing; American-level customer service! Called it an early night afterwards.

In true American fashion and after not finding anything open yesterday morning I went and worked at Starbucks this morning. Then made an unsuccessful attempt to secure some new clothes before returning home and have an extremely productive afternoon. Last night when I was at Dante I noticed that there are three Italian places in the same little complex and since it’s the closest place to me I’ve resolved to try them all. So tonight I went to Parmessano which was also good, not great, but a killer deal for the price.

Tried to venture out and find some cafe or coffee shop to work from this morning. Sadly, everything was closed so, as usual, I just ended up wandering the streets. I finally just decided to have lunch at Bonhomia which was good. But after that I was full and tired so I just went back home and worked until the evening when I tried this Italian place called Dante which was average but also extremely cheap.

Another quiet day today. Worked from home all day and then tried to venture out to find somewhere quiet for dinner. That was looking like a failure when I randomly ran into some other Remotes on the street, as tends to happen. And we ended up grabbing a bite at Chef Burger which is a local burger chain and a pretty good one at that.

The nice thing about Medellin is that waking up here feels like waking up in Denver. It’s cool in the morning and they air has that crispness that comes from being in the mountains. And for the first time in I don’t know how long I’m not blasted awake by construction or honking horns. Its a nice change of pace. Felt more on top of it today but still didn’t do much. Worked from home all day and then had a burger at Fire House before heading to weekly Tejo league. Despite feeling a bit better I still called it an early night.

Another pretty uneventful day of recovering from weekend craziness. Just hung around the apartment and attempted to be productive although that was met with limited success.

Still recovering from bachelor party weekend today so I did basically nothing. Hung around the apartment and worked all day and then went to sleep super early in the hopes of staving off this sickness that is starting to settle on me.