A Rainy Sunday

Here is our short post (it) for the night:

After today we have a mere 2 full days left in Botoga. Luke and I decided that we can’t really count Wednesday as a day since we will probably be leaving the compound at the crack of dawn. We are just dying to get home.

The kids slept well last night and we didn’t get out of bed until about 8:30. Breakfast closes at 9:00 a.m. and we kind of had to hurry down. Breakfast this morning was two giant plates of French toast for the whole family. My bacon craving is back again. But now I have only a few more days to wait.

After breakfast we went to get cleaned up and go through our morning rituals. You already know about Traci’s “at least 45 minutes to get ready” ritual. She made good time this morning and may have been ready in 42-43 minutes. Another ritual now is the administration of the several medicines Maria is taking. She actually likes taking her medicine and her favorite is the breathing treatment for her bronchitis. It’s just your average looking asthma inhaler, but she gets this kiddie tube attachment. She doesn’t mind the treatments but loves putting everything back in the box.

We also took a few moments to catch up on pictures we had been promising. He’s me in my ruana. I know I posted a picture of Clint Eastwood last night, but I swear, if I just had the hat we would be identical. And i wasn't really drinking a beer - that is just how I plan to normally look wearing my ruana.

We also noticed that the Jesus on the crucifix in our room looks a little effeminate (long hair and wearing a dress). Could this be part of the DaVinci Code? Hope I am not being blasphemous. It just struck us as a little odd.

And, we finally got the kids calmed down enough to get pictures of them with their passports.


It was another typical Bogota day (light rain off & on and clouds). Montseratte was one of the things Traci really wanted to see on this trip and it is looking more and more like we may have to go without. Seems like every time we have really good weather, we have to be somewhere indoors.

We left to the Sunday artisan market at the Hotel Fontana at 10:30 and took a different route getting there. We are growing a little tired of always walking past the same buildings. Our first stop in the market was this lady who hand-makes dresses and sweaters. She has some really nice stuff and Traci fell in love with several items the first time we were there. Only problem then was that we didn’t have a little girl to dress up. I spent most of my time herding kids while Traci negotiated with the dress lady and picked out some items. There are a few things we are having made and she had to stop by the compound tonight around dinner to get a few more things sized for Maria. We bought several more items and this place is by far my favorite for local crafts (no ruanas though). If anyone reading this is coming to Bogota, the hotel is on the opposite corner from the Unicentro and the market is on Sundays. We did find one item that was the perfect size for Maria. She didn’t want to take it off and just loves it. Unfortunately, she is going to have to wait several months after we get home before she can break this thing out.

And here are some pics of the hotel where the market is located.


A couple of additional things about the market . . . I think we finally found the keepsake thing we were kind of looking for to get the ninos. Traci really enjoys scrap booking and we found some great handmade scrapbook covers with sort of a Colombian theme. I think this will be the perfect memento from our stay. Additionally, today’s weather was kind of a light rain which came on and off all day. When the sun would break through it would get kind of hot. The market is not covered but the vendors have umbrellas over their tables. Every time it began to rain, they would bring out plastic sheets to cover their merchandise. It started and stopped raining several times while we were there which had to be a complete headache for these poor folks.

After the market, we went to Poblanos for a Mexican food lunch (the compound doesn’t serve lunch on Sundays). It was okay but I had several issues with this place. First of all, they didn’t have any beer or margaritas (and I was needing one this afternoon). Secondly, they brought us out some guacamole (instead of the standard salsa you get in the States) all with about 8 chips. Eight!! Finally, Traci wasn’t all that hungry and just ordered herself some more guacamole and chili con queso. When it arrived, there were no chips. Traci asked the waiter about chips and he looked at her like she was from Mars. When he returned, he gave her a basket with 8 more chips. It was weird. We reluctantly asked for more chips again after this basket quickly ran out. It was an okay lunch but Poblanos isn’t somewhere I would tell people they had to go.

We had a pretty good day as far as development of relationships between Luke and the ninos. Luke and Andres really get along well - almost like brothers. Luke might sometimes play a little rough with him, but you can see that Andres is really starting to trust Luke. In fact, there are times when Luke is the only one that can get him to eat. As for Luke and Maria, it's still a little cold at times and there is some big-time siblig rivalry there, but there was lots of positive interation today. Lately, Maria has been asking to give hugs and kisses to everyone before she goes to sleep and she even includes Luke in the mix. Now, I don't know if this is just a stall tactic to prolong the inevitable, but it is a step in the right direction. Luke has also been better about including Maria in on things - and while he still whines about what Maria is getting/doing, I think it was a little less today. Here's a picture of Traci pushing Andres' stroller and Luke holding his hand.

And Luke and Andres wrestling on the floor (which later led to our bed, Maria's bed, downstairs, etc.)

The kids got in late naps and we didn’t get them up until about 4:30. Consequently, getting them to bed tonight has been difficult. While they were napping, another French family that used to stay here returned from a week in Santa Marta. They had a wonderful time and we exchanged a few stories about our trips. Unfortunately, they just came to pick up some luggage they had stored. They are going to try staying at that Hotel Fontana where the market was this afternoon. Nice people. Tony was just telling me this morning that a lot of the French familes that adopt in Colombia stay at that hotel. It is reasonable and you can get a room with a small kitchen in it. However, you do have to eat out a lot and that kind of raises the price quite a bit (we have found that eating out in Bogota is not too cheap). Traci and I agreed that we would take our small room, nice people and regular meals at El Refugio over a stay in a hotel.

After naps, we had quick baths and got on Skype to chat with the folks. It was fun but the kids grow more and more restless each time we chat online with the abuelos. I think Maria broke down into a pout at least twice during the conversation. We tried to keep track of her pouts today but couldn’t. It had to be in the low 20’s for the day.

Tonight’s “light dinner” (what we get on Sundays) was some kind of pastry, like a flaky biscuit, filled with chicken and covered in some kind of white gravy, and potato chips. On Sunday nights, they break out the Coca-Cola (every other night we are pretty much left with water). Traci and I thought it was a great meal, but the kids didn’t enjoy it at all. Worst yet, we didn’t have a fruit dessert to bribe the ninos with. I’ll be interested to see how hungry they are come breakfast.

Lucia has told us we are going to the embassy tomorrow but didn’t call tonight to give us a time. So, I figure we’ll get a call in the morning and should plan on leaving in the afternoon (I hope!). There are several forms that we are supposed to have filled out ahead of time and we just realized we haven’t started. So, one of us will probably have to skip breakfast tomorrow to get that done.

To finish, here is another flower picture from Traci. This is a poinsettia we saw growing out of the ground. We’d never seen where someone actually stick on of these in the ground before. It looks like it has seen better days but it was pretty big.