Hotel Estelar Paipa

Veteran's Day weekend was also a Colombian long weekend, so we decided to take advantage of that and get out of town for the weekend.  There's a town about three hours northeast of Bogotá called Paipa, and it's on a big lake.  We have some friends who had stayed at the Hotel Estelar there and really liked it, so we decided to give it a try.

I had booked our room through the hotel website, and when we got there, they upgraded us to a suite with a view of the lake which was a nice surprise.

We were hungry after the drive, so we went to the restaurant for a quick lunch.  They had some tables outside on the balcony, so we laid claim to one of those.  It was pleasant, even though it was raining a bit.  From the restaurant, we could see a giant chess game on the ground level.  After lunch, the girls insisted on going out and playing with the set despite the sprinkling.

As the rain let up, we went back to the room to change into bathing suits, and the girls and Jeff went to try out the pools, which were nice and warm but required swim caps.

Elena showed off her swimming skills, and they invented a game that involved passing the ball back and forth between the big pool and the little pool.  

Eventually, their skin got all wrinkly, so we got them out, cleaned them up, and went to check out the giant playground between the hotel and the lake.

We finished up by taking a walk around the property near the lake.

Elena found a stick which she was very pleased with.

Our path back to the hotel took us by the giant chess game, so of course the girls had to stop for a match.

We had a little rest before dinner, and then went back to "our table" on the balcony.  I had to take a picture of my dinner plate, because it had a special space for the deep fried mashed potatoes.

We had a good night's sleep, and the breakfast buffet was pretty good the next morning.  After breakfast, we went for a walk again, and Elena found a new stick.

As we were finishing up, the hotel's horses started running across the lawn.  It was really fun to watch.

We could even keep an eye on them from our room which we got a kick out of.

The hotel also had a farm, and they had a guided farm visit scheduled for 10, so we headed out with another family group to visit the animals.  The guide held a sheep steady, so that the girls could see what its wool felt like, and he lifted Elena up, so that she could feed one of the bunnies.

The girls were also excited to find a turkey, and they showed him their turkey nails.

After the farm visit, the girls had a chess rematch, and we grabbed some lunch.

We were considering heading back to the pool, but the weather turned and the thunder started, so we decided to stay in the room and have a fire, which was exciting, because we can't use the two fireplaces we have in our apartment.

We had a quiet evening reading and playing games.  I had to put quite a bit of effort into keeping the fire alive though, since the wood they provided seemed quite damp and didn't want to catch.  I fed it some pieces of our Pop Tart box, and that seemed to help it out, so we got a couple hours of enjoyment out of it.

On our final morning, I got a picture of the girls in the little sofa bed they were sharing.

We also got pictures at "our table" during breakfast.

We had to go for one more walk and say goodbye to our favorite things. The chess pieces were inside for the night, but the girls wanted their pictures with them.

We also said goodbye to the lake, the horses, and the playground.

It was a lovely long weekend away from the city.

Fall Adventures

The week after we got back from our Ecuador adventures, we had International Day at the school. We were better prepared for it this time around, so no one got sunburned.  It was still a long day outdoors though, and Elena went into meltdown mode after the parade, so we had to make an early exit.  The next night we were sitting at home, when the holiday season officially started with fireworks at Andino mall.

I was letting the girls have a lazy weekend after all our running around.

But Elena is really into the more academic demands of Reception (aka PreK).

She insisted on making me a Venn Diagram comparing ants and people.

But Elena's most impressive accomplishment this month is that she can now swim all by herself!  The best part is, she loves it and doesn't want to get out of the water.

Both the girls seem to be enjoying school this year.

Viv got dressed up for a presentation on amusement park rides and looked just lovely.

That was also the day she found out she would be Captain Cod in the Primary Production of Pirates of the Curry Bean.  I'm sure it will puntastic fun, just like last year's production.

Jeff had to travel some for work, and the girls were good helpers.  They went with me to take the car for an oil change and general check up.

Vivian found the whole thing fascinating, and luckily the mechanic was fine with her watching him work.

As a reward for their good behavior, I took them to get Halloween nails at the mall.

We didn't go out trick or treating on actual Halloween this year.  Instead, I decided we would try the embassy Halloween party which was on a Friday.  I thought that would the simpler and more kid friendly option.  Boy was I wrong.  First of all, the car that was supposed to come pick us up was half an hour late.  Then, it took us an hour in heavy traffic to get to the embassy, and once we got there it was a madhouse.  There were huge crowds and lines to get into every office.  To their credit, the offices had done a great job decorating, and the girls really enjoyed that part.  I got a cool picture of them with one of the creations.

But we kept having to stand in line to get candy.  No one around us in line spoke English, and the people behind me kept shoving into my back.  After about 30 minutes, I told Jeff he needed to take me home before I snapped and caused an international incident.  Luckily, the girls were satisfied with their haul.  On the actual day of Halloween, there was a parade, and we attempted to make Vivian green with the makeup that had come with her Gamora costume.  This was as green as she got.

After all the Halloween insanity was done, I was ready to move on to a holiday I actually like, Thanksgiving.  I offered to take the girls to get Thanksgiving nails if they let me stop at Andino to buy a couple things.  They were down for that and excited that Andino was starting to put up their Christmas decorations.

It was a Monday holiday, so unfortunately, the nails place opened a bit later than I had thought it would.  We decided to make the best of it though, with a Krispy Kreme donut snack and some crazy fun at Chuck E Cheese.

By then, the nail place was open, but there was a wait for all three of us to get our nails done together, so I figured I would continue the trend of unhealthiness and get them McDonald's happy meals for lunch.

It's good that it wasn't too expensive, because my strange kids don't really do McDonalds.  Vivian ate the nuggets, but not the fries.  Elena ate the yogurt and a few fries, but not the nuggets.  I probably could have gotten one meal to split between them, but they each needed their own weirdly patterned animal toy.  The most important part was that they were happy.

Finally, we got in to have our nails done.  The girls went for cranberry sauce red nails with turkey thumbs.

It's probably all going to be chipped off by Thanksgiving, but they were super pleased with their turkeys :-)