Traveling-with-TLC

January 16, 2025

Since we went to sleep around 5:00 in the afternoon (Eastern Time), it isn’t much of a suprise that we were awake by 7:30 the next morning. Ted grabbed his binoculars and stood on the balcony. Within half an hour he was able to show me a Yellow-headed Cara Cara, a Blue Gray Tanager, Ruddy Ground Doves, a Spot-breasted Woodpecker, Eared Doves and a Palm Tanager. Not bad for our first 30 minute look at Colombian Birds! Press the arrows on the right of the image to see the next bird!

You may think it strange to write most of a post about going to the bank, but as usual, Ted and I managed to make it an adventure. Due to our wanderings last night, we were able to walk directly to the bank. Before we left home, we had wired some money to ourselves via a company called Remitly. We had notification that our money had been delivered to Bancolombia and all we needed to do was show the receipt and pick up the money.

Banks in Colombia seem to always have lines outside which in itself is a little worrisome. Once inside you take a number and a seat. It feels very much like a DMV. Ugh!! Eventually we were called to our teller. She didn’t understand a word we were saying and vice versa. More ugh! Eventually we were able to communicate that we wanted our money. She seemed very bothered and became more bothered as she clicked away at her keyboard and talked to whomever was on her phone. The teller beside us started talking to her and the next thing we knew a gentleman came up behind us and interpeted for us. Such a relief! He said the bank didn’t have our money, had never heard of Remitly and would not even exchange our US cash for Colombian pesos (COP) We were out the money we transferred and had no COP. Super ugh! Our interpreter said we should try the mall as they have good exchange places there. I thought he was a bank employee, so that seemed unusual to me, especially when he offered to drive us to the mall!

Our new friend, Norman, walked with us to his apartment, got his keys and we walked to his car. He drove us to the mall while explaining he had lived in NYC for a couple of years and knows how intimidating a different country can be. Turns out Norman works from his home as an accountant. He is actually a customer at the bank and the tellers knew he speaks English. He was planning to be at the bank for only a few minutes but decided to take a little more time off to help us. Norman took us to Western Union and then to an ATM so we took him to lunch, visiting the whole time. What a genuinely nice person. We felt as though we had actually met our guardian angel!

We were almost finished with lunch and a thought popped into my head that we should talk to Norman about the Lord. Ted and Norman had been talking about travelling. Seemingly out of the blue, Norman said, “I’m a Catholic and I want to travel to Egypt and the Holy Land to see the things in the Bible”. Ted and I have been studying the connection between Bible events and Biblical prophecy and the places mentioned in the Bible. Ted knows a fair amount about Biblical archeology. As Ted told him about how secular historical events and archeology line up with Bible truths, Norman said he got goose bumps. As Norman left, it felt as though we had just had a divine appointment. Ted has sent him some links to good Bible archeologists and other information. We are praying that Norman will be able to increase his faith.

Our new friend Norman. Notice the huge Colombian lunches!! Oh, and isn’t this a fancy mall?

We bought some groceries at the mall supermarket. Colombia has little things that are very different than we do in the states. Here’s an odd one. In the US, coffee filters are next to the coffee. In Colombia, coffee filters are next to the coffee pots. It took us a good 20 minutes and complicated conversations with 3 employees. Sometimes you just have to laugh!

Once back at the AirBnb, we finished making our arrangements to hire a bird guide, cooked dinner and headed to bed. Oh! Good news! Remitly refunded our money. Although it doesn’t work to send money to Bancolombia, Remitly seems to be a pretty legit company!!