Andersons in Bogotá

My parents are celebrating their 40th anniversary this month. They wanted us to celebrate with them, and originally invited us to join them in Ireland. I said, why go all the way to Ireland, when you can come and experience Colombia with us? They decided I had a point, and so south they came with my sister for a week of sightseeing, eating, and family.

They got in pretty late on Saturday night, so we took it easy on Sunday with a quick shopping trip to the Usaquen market and an anniversary lunch at the fabulous French restaurant near our house, La Brasserie.  Since we celebrated their 30th anniversary in Paris, a good French meal seemed to fit. Plus, we all love French food.

Luckily, it was lunch and not dinner, because we spent three hours enjoying our French food.  We even had the added excitement of seeing U2 leave the Four Seasons across the street where they had been staying for their Bogotá concert, not that my parents know who U2 are.

We spent Sunday evening recovering from our meal, and by Monday, we were ready for adventures. I arranged a van to take us all to the funicular and cable car station for getting to the top of Monserrate, which is over 10,000 feet above sea level and has great views of the city of Bogotá. Online it said that the funicular was closed on Mondays and only the cable car was open, but when we got there, we discovered that the reverse was true.  This was a bit of a relief to my mom and sister who are afraid of heights.  They get credit for being willing to try the cable car though.

There was about a 10 minute wait to get tickets, and then another 10 minute wait to get on the funicular, but it wasn't too bad.

When we got to the top, the views were indeed incredible.  We took our time though, since it was an extra 1,500 feet on top of the 8,500 my family had just had to get used to the other day.  From the funicular station, there was a pretty steep walk up, past the thirteen stations of the cross.

I had read some blogs online that had recommended against bringing a stroller.  While there was a smoother path along one side, I was glad that I didn't have to heave Elena up and then make sure she didn't go freewheeling back down.  She did a great job getting up the hill, slowly but surely. 

Once we made it all the way to the top, we took some time to enjoy the view.

There's a newer church there, but also the remains of an old monastery.

After all the walking and photo taking, it was about lunch time.  My dad did some restaurant recon (there are a couple at the top) and chose Casa San Isidro.

The inside was classic rustic, with a fire and a live piano player.

We asked to sit out on the balcony where we could enjoy the view while we ate.

The menu we were presented with was in French and in Spanish, and our food vocabularies were being quite challenged until the waiter told us that if we just flipped the menu over, it was in English.  Much easier!  We all agreed that the food was okay, but not as good as the French food we had had the day before, and at this restaurant, we were paying for the view.  We decided to just go with it, and we ordered two helpings of strawberries flambé for dessert.  It was prepared with butter, sugar, orange juice, and Gran Marnier, then served with ice cream, yum!

After lunch, we walked around and took a few more pictures, and then we headed back down the mountain on the funicular.

Monday afternoon was about relaxing and waiting for Piedad to make us empanadas from scratch.  They were delicious and gave us the energy we needed to pack for our trip to Cartagena.  I'm going to do Cartagena in a separate blog.  We spent four lovely days there, and then came back to Bogotá for one more full day of excitement.

On our Saturday back in Bogotá, we got a van to take us all (except Judy who asked for the morning off) to the Museo del Oro, or Gold Museum down in the old part of the city.  It was a fascinating museum.  Yes, the gold was shiny and pretty, but what was most interesting was the history of all the civilizations in this region that used gold to worship, to show status, and to honor their dead.  

We were particularly impressed with the size of the earrings and the nose rings.

The ancient statues of San Agustín are on Lonely Planet's "must list" for Colombia, but they're pretty removed from anything else, so we felt pretty lucky to be able to find one in the museum to admire.

Elena cracked us all up, because she got really into the audio guide.

At first she was like, "What's his name? How can I talk to him?", but after a while she just accepted that he was a recording.  Each case had a number you pushed for the audio guide, and she wouldn't let anyone help her.  She got quite good at entering the numbers.

Some of the display was behind a set of impressive safe doors.

And we almost missed the display that ends up in most guidebooks with the entire wall of golden objects.

It's in a circular room, and they only let in a few people at a time.  Once you get in, all the lights go off.  Slowly, different parts of the display light up in time with chanting.  It's kind of spooky, and Elena was scared at first, but afterwards, she asked to do it again with grandpa who had been taking his time with the displays and was a ways behind us.  We figured, why not, so we did it twice.  In addition to the semi circle of gold, there was a circle in the middle of the floor with gold and an emerald.  Part of the religious ceremonies was to throw these objects into a volcanic lake.  This is where the myth of El Dorado came from.  If we could get to the bottom of this impossibly deep lake, we would most likely find a treasure trove of gold and emeralds.  In the display, the circle lights up slowly to the sound of small splashes.

Mom was so impressed with all the gold, she got herself a pair of gold earrings in the gift shop.  

Our original plan was to eat lunch nearby, and then walk to the La Candelaria.  Unfortunately, the restaurant we were planning to eat at, didn't seem to exist.  La Candelaria was much farther from the Gold Museum than we thought, and it started to rain.  With meltdowns all around, we squeezed the six of us into a regular sized car (both girls on my lap) and retreated to the apartment.  It was clearly too much on top of all of our other excursions.

We spent the afternoon recovering and then went out for one more fabulous dinner.  This time we met up with some of our friends and went back to La Brasserie which my family had enjoyed so much the first time.  The meal was excellent, as usual, and it seemed like a nice way to round out their trip.  They got up early this morning to head back to Washington, but I think they enjoyed Colombia as much as we do.

Daily Adventures

So, it turns out having a full time job and working on my dissertation cramps my blogging style.  It's been over a month since I wrote, so I will try to play a bit of catch up.

The girls and I are getting used to CGB. We are all liking it and making new friends.  We are also enjoying making new friends through the embassy, as well as being reunited with old friends from Thailand who have come here as well.  It's nice to feel like we already have a social group.  Vivian has even gone to her first birthday party (a major social landmark), and the mom was kind enough to send me pictures of my goofy kid.

Our sea freight arrived a little over a week ago, and we are finally making this apartment into our home.  We still need to hang the pictures on the walls, but things are definitely starting to look homey.

Jeff has gotten his NFL subscription set up, and Sunday is football day once again. On our inaugural football day we had six adults and three kids over.  Everyone had a lot of fun, so we're planning to continue the open invite. We also got some nice balcony furniture from the embassy, so we're trying to figure out how to make use of the outdoor space for things besides weekend breakfast.

Vivian made her stage debut at CGB in the Year 5 adaptation of Aesop's fables.  She played a gossiping bird.  The hat didn't make the final costume cut, but she and I had a lot of fun putting the outfit together.

We found the accessories at Cachivaches, a local chain store that is kind of like Williams-Sonoma crossed with Party City. The first floor has beautiful (and expensive!) home goods, and then there are two stories of themed goods.  At this time of year it's Halloween heaven. I'm curious to see what it looks like the rest of the year.  We first went in because they had big cat eyes in the upstairs windows and a sign that said Halloween in big letters. We figured that was worth checking out.  The second floor had one section of women's costumes, one section of men's costumes, plus Halloween decorations, and every type of costume prop and accessory you could think of. That's where we found the hat, the boa, and the yellow tights.  The top floor had kid costumes.  That's where Elena found her PJ Masks Gecko costume.  She was THRILLED.

The girls are getting into their routines.  One of our top priorities was figuring out swim lessons for both of them.  One weekend we took a family walk down to Gimnasio Moderno which has a great reputation for swimming.  The pool was very nice, but we were told that they only hold evaluations once a month, so we had to wait for that date for Vivian to get evaluated and start. We were a little bummed, but the girls enjoyed the sidewalk obstacle course on the way, so it was a fun outing overall.

We got Elena's lessons sorted out a bit more easily.  She is having private lessons once a week in the little pool in our building.

I'm hoping that she'll figure it the whole swimming thing quickly, but I know you can't rush it.  She likes her teacher, and he said she thinks she has a good attitude towards the water, so hopefully she'll figure it out sooner, rather than later. Gimnasio Moderno starts their swim lessons at 4, so it would be awesome if she could swim well enough to transition to group lessons.

After much "que pena"ing, Vivian finally got to do her swim evaluation. Apparently, Gimnasio Moderno was having trouble with their water heater, so the evaluation kept getting postponed. When the day finally came, Vivian had to wait on the bench for her turn for quite a while.  I could tell she was nervous, and she mouthed to me, "Why are you making me do this?" I felt bad, but not bad enough to pull her.  I was justified when she finally got in the water, and her whole face lit up. She remembered how much she loves it, and she was super excited when they put her in the same group as her friend Emma.

So, we're getting settled into our routines. I've been to PriceSmart (aka Colombian Costco) several times now.

We also go to Kayser regularly.  I mean, who wouldn't if it was just down the street?

But we've also had our little excitements.  The first was "Pope Day" when the Pope came to visit Bogota, and the school and embassy were closed for the day.

We're also waiting to see if Colombia will qualify for the World Cup this year.  When there's a game on, it's a big deal.  We even had the Colombia v. Brazil game on the bus on the way home. 

It ended in a tie, but when Colombia scored, all the cars around us started honking like crazy.  

At work, I had my first in-service day.  Instead of just hanging out at the school, we went to a beautiful country club with gorgeous views and delicious food.

Our most recent adventure has been Elena's first major illness since we got here.  She had a cold for a few days, but on Monday she had a fever and was completely listles. We decided to do medical care the Bogota way, with a house call. The embassy recommended a lovely doctor who spoke fluent English and came to the house.  She gave Elena a quick check up and diagnosed tonsillitis. She then proceeded to call a nearby pharmacy and order antibiotics to be delivered to the house. It was fantastic, but we had a moment when the amoxicillin was delivered in powder form.  Luckily, my new doctor friend is now available to me on WhatsApp, and she explained that there is a fill line on the bottle to tell you how much water to add.  After that it was easy and Elena took her medicine like a champ.

I stayed home with Elena today, and she is already on the mend and playing math card games.

So far life in Bogota is pretty darn good.

Getting to Know You

We have made it to our one month anniversary in Bogotá, and we are definitely in love.  Hopefully, it's the kind that lasts and not just an infatuation ;-)  We've been spending a lot of our time figuring out our new home.  Jeff started going to work and getting into that routine, while I worked on figuring out what to do with the girls until school started.

We tried an embassy sponsored get together at Chuck E. Cheese which is at one of the malls near us.  The girls had fun with some of the games there.

But it was loud, hot, and completely overstimulating, so, sure enough, after about an hour Elena completely lost it.  Luckily, there's a frozen yogurt place in the mall directly across from Chuck E. Cheese.  I asked Elena if she wanted ice cream, and suddenly, every thing was all better.  We sat and recovered for a while. 

Once my children were resorted to their pre-Chuck E. Cheese selves, we even got in some cute pictures with the Emoji movie advertisement and the E from SALE.

This mall also had a movie theater and some nice stores, so we may come back, but I think that was our one and only trip to Chuck E. Cheese.

We also tried out a weekly baby playgroup.  Elena was a bit old for it, but she found toys to have fun with.

The ladies were all very nice, and I think if Elena hadn't been heading to school, we probably would have stuck with the group.  Because, of course, all of this was about killing time until school started.  The girls got to come for a new student visit the Friday before their first day.  They loved it.

It was wonderful to see them so happy, and I was so proud to show them off.  By that point I had been working for a couple weeks at the school.  They had a four day week just for new staff, which was a lot of fun.  I got to know everyone in the new group well.  The school even took us all out to Andres D.C. which is an over the top restaurant in town.  They have great grilled meat, and they give you a bib, so that you can really get into it.

I was especially glad that they invited spouses.  They have people who come around performing and asking you to get up and dance.  It ended up being a really fun night out for me and Jeff.  

I'm working as a learning specialist in the school's educational achievement department.  Our work space is in a little house, and I have a corner desk that I can sit at when I'm not running from class to class.

I can't wait for our sea freight to arrive with all my books, so that I can fill those shelves.  It can get quite cold in our little room, so I was especially grateful when one day the provided snack was hot chocolate and arepas.

Teachers get the daily snack and lunch, and it's always yummy.  My favorite part is the crazy variety of fresh fruit juices they serve.  There are always two juice choices at lunch, and usually a third juice at snack.

There is only one slight draw back to my office location.  It's right next to Elena's classroom.  

The door to my office/house is in the back of the picture.  Elena has only been at school for two days, and she's already tried to come to class with me once.  Hopefully, she'll get used to seeing me walk by without trying to come with me.

When the rest of the staff came back to work after our new teacher work week, we had a big staff meeting, and then finished the day off with a big staff party at one of the nearby country clubs.  They set up all kinds of games for us to play, including tejo, which I've been dying to try.  It's kind of like exploding cornhole.

The bottom part has a substance like clay, and you throw heavy metal discs about the size of a hockey puck.  There's a circle in the middle, and you get the most points for landing in the circle.  That circle is surrounded by little triangles that contain explosives, and if you hit the triangle hard enough, POP!  It is required to drink alcohol while playing this game, so we took turns holding each other's drinks and throwing.  The picture above is the closest I got to either the circle or the exploding triangles.  I had better luck at a game called rana, or frog.  I was having so much fun I didn't take a picture, but it looked kind of like this.

You throw small metal discs.  You get different points depending on which hole you get the disc in, frogs are especially good.  I don't know exactly why I'm good at this game, but it turns out I am, and I had a lot of fun playing with a group of Colombian teachers who all wanted me on their team.  It was a nice way to end the evening.

That Saturday, we set out to get the girls their school uniforms.  The insanity is still a little too fresh for me to write about it in detail, but if I had it to do over again, I would have brought many snacks and maybe a stiff drink or two.  As it was, we barely made it out sane, and we had a ratio of three adults to two children.  Elena required chocolate to recover from us repeatedly trying to fit shirts over her head that did not have wide enough neck openings, and Vivian was pretty patient with the fact that just because two skirts had the same number on the tag, it didn't mean that they were the same size.  We finally found things for Vivian, and Piedad, our awesome new empleada, got a friend of hers to come over and help alter Elena's clothes which I got used from the school's PTA.  When Vivian did her trial run of her uniform, she was thrilled because she thought she looked like Hermione.

She started the day before Elena.  My bus leaves at 6 and theirs leaves at 6:15, so my mom took pictures of them on the first couple days.  She got this great one of the two of them on Elena's first day.

In return, I sent her pictures of them having fun at school.

It's nice being back in a routine.  We still have the weekends to explore too.  We finally got to one of the many Bogota Beer Companies, BBC, to try it out.  Jeff got a sampler, and I decided I liked the honey ale.  The girls and mom had fun too.

Mom actually liked her sandwich so much, she went back and got another one without us one day.  We've also settled on a favorite local Italian restaurant, San Giorgio.  It's just down the block and their pasta and gelato are delicious.  Elena gives it five stars.

We're also big fans of the pancakes at Masa, also just down the street, but we're willing to try more pancakes for the sake of scientific inquiry.

I think we're pretty settled on a our favorite bakery though.  It's called Eric Kayser, and their baguettes and pastries are fantastic.  Yesterday, I walked down to get some breakfast yummies, and the girls sat out on the balcony to enjoy their croissants.

We're continuing to enjoy the weather and the parks, although it cracks me up that the girls like the exercise equipment better than the playground equipment.

One of the best parts of getting to know this incredible city was having my mom there to share it all with us.

She had to go back home eventually though.  Yesterday was her last day, and she and I went on a shopping marathon.  We explored the Santa Barbara Mall, which is a fun labyrinth of stores.  While we were wandering, we found an absolutely adorable rain set for Elena with boots, a coat, and an umbrella.  The mall is in the Usaquén area which is known for its big Sunday market.  We couldn't make it on a Sunday, but they have street vendors out every day of the week, and mom and I bought Colombian souvenirs and lovely Colombian bags.  This one is mine, happy at home now.

Mom, of course, got a red one.  Her main mission though was a custom made leather jacket, which we did not find at the mall, so we got in another Uber and headed to the leather district.  It's a couple blocks of leather stores, one after the other.  We had gotten a store recommendation from a friend at the embassy, so we headed there.  The man who owned the shop was great, even though he spoke very little English.  Mom tried on several different coats and finally settled on the style and color she wanted.  I'll pick it up when it's done, and it will be here waiting for her when she comes back in October.

When we got back and showed Elena her new rain gear, she insisted on modeling it immediately.

My mom and I rested a bit, and then went out for one more shopping expedition.  There's a Colombian artisans' store nearby, and we walked there to look at what they had.  I had been trying to figure out how to store extra toilet paper in our guest bathroom, since there is no cupboard under the sink.  We found a beautiful, handmade solution.

We finished off Mom's last day by taking her to the P.F. Chang's near our place.  It may seem like a strange choice, but we walk by it all the time.  It's huge, and it has these huge horse statues outside, so we're always talking about it and wondering what it looks like inside.  Plus, Mom likes their Mongolian beef.  Elena was thrilled for an opportunity to wear her new rain gear out, even though it wasn't raining.

The inside was indeed large, and the food was good.  Everyone ate well, and we were grateful we had to walk it off on the way home.  Elena turned out to be the best prepared of all of us, because it was raining lightly when we left the restaurant.

Mom left early this morning, and we miss her already.  It was wonderful to have her support while we got to know our new home.  We've got a lot of things figured out now, but there is still more exploring to do, and we've invited her to come back anytime to keep exploring with us.