El Parque Nacional del Cafè

According to Lonely Planet's Colombia guide the country of Colombia lacked an American-style theme park (which makes sense since they are Colombian) so they decided to build one. They did it in honor of the major export, cafè.

Ironically enough if you take the correct minibus (which we did not) it is only minutes from Pueblo Tapao which is the tiny town that the finca is outside of. Built on a pretty and gently sloping hillside it consists of nature paths and rides. All the Colombians were apparently not interested in the walking paths they were all too busy screaming their heads off on the roller coaster. This meant that Mark and I had a wonderful day pretty much all to ourselves wandering through the lovely nature of this park.

We bought our economico tickets and entered. Wondering where everyone was we meandered through the museò and then headed to the cable car that carries you across the park to the lower end.

We had some lunch which turned out to be one of the best pieces of chicken I´ve ever had and decided to start walking around.

We went over a swinging bridge and found the entrance to El Bosque de Mitos y Leyendos (forest of myths & legends) where there was interesting statues of mitos y leyendos we had never really heard of, bushes of various coffee plants, and beautiful exotic flowers.

We took our time wandering up the hillside staring at the flora. By the time we reached the top it started to rain. It was a gentle rain and was great to cool us down. It paused just as we reached the top of the hill. We turned and saw the whole valley open in front of us with a beautiful arco iris. As we stared at what must have been the most perfect rainbow I've ever seen a flock of wild parrots flew over our heads.

As the rain continued we decided to walk back down the hillside on the far side of the park. We wandered through more coffee beans, an example of a coffee plantation, saw the replication of a Casa de Campesino (farmer´s house) which turned out to be almost identical in color and architecture to the finca, walked through a covered bridge with an amazing lilly-pad covered pond below and visisted briefly an example of an indigenous burial ground.

The sun started to go down and the extremely heavy rainclouds started to move in. We quickly walked through what was probably my favorite part, El Bosque de Guadua (bamboo forest). If I haven't mentioned it before I will now: Bamboo grows everywhere here and it is beautiful. Most of the older, bigger houses have bamboo as a major part of their construction. It has feathery leaves and sways in the breezes. It's really pretty to look at.

The Bosque was amazing. It was like we walked into a movie scene with great shadows, a river rushing with rainwater, and green, green, green.

It was time to start heading back and it was time for a monsoon. People were running for their lives as we headed back to the cable car. We stood in the car as it ascended the mountain. My dress became pasted to me and Mark's jeans were saturated. We caught a bus and walked down the road to the finca in almost dark. We pulled off our drenched clothing, took our semi-cold showers (see previous post) and were glad that we had made it to the parque del cafè.

Things my Mami told me were dangerous

They say we learn more in the first 2 years of our life than we'll ever learn. Or something like that. My point is that as a young child and for many many many years after (my mother tends to repeat herself) I was taught a few things. Don't talk to strangers, don't play with plastic bags, and most importantly, water and electricity don't mix. However it appears that this last nugget of knowledge can be debated or perhaps applied in a different form.


Maybe Mami should teach you that because of certain luxuries that we have it is a good idea to avoid the mixture of electricity and water because of the danger that it can foster. For example instant death.


Here in Colombia there are different rules to abide by because it is a different way of life. I will first touch on the idea of electric kettles. Now I know that many countries (including the tea-loving people of the UK) use electric kettles but it doesn't make the idea of it any less strange. I'm standing at the sink filling a kettle that has two electric rods in the base, in the water, and an electric cord hanging out the back. I fill it up, plug it in. I do this many times a day because the kitchen has no hot water and to do the dishes you fill up a bucket with kettle water and soap and wash away.


Then there is the shower. Notice here one pipe leads water to the green reservoir the other pipe leads...electricity. See the cords atop the green piece. This is how we have hot showers here at la finca. Now please realize that 'hot shower' is really a statement of formality. You turn the faucet, you hear an electric buzz, the lights flicker, and out comes water. Just warm enough that you don't yelp in the shock of ice hitting your bare skin but still, not hot. Even using the word warm is being generous. The whole time you're in there you're wondering "If I somehow splash water up will I become a charred tourist?

Vamos a Armenia

On Sunday we arose early to the ringing of our new wind-up manual alarm clock that Mark believes we got ripped-off for. We wandered La Calendaria for a place to eat a quick desayuno (no such place on a Sunday) then headed off to the Estación de Buses (no one seems to use the full aútobuses here). We met up with David and Johanna, the newly wedded couple, we said our hellos, Mark forgot to introduce me (surprise!) and off we went to purchase tickets for our trip to Armenia.

One would assume that with the bus looking almost nicer than a common Greyhound that it would be a comfortable 8 hour ride. But South America proves it's stories right again. The seats were comfy and spacious however in trying to be polite and finding 4 seats together I ended up where everyone on the bus knew not to go. The Back.

With no air-conditioning and no windows that open we enjoyed the full experience of engine fumes wafting in and permeating our noses. Here are some thoughts on the trip:

1. Even though our seats appear to be the back of the bus a driver will approach the end of the center aisle, withdraw a tiny key and open a tiny door. He will then, hunched-back, walk into a cubby hole and close the door behind him. As he lies in the cubby hole right up on the engine and one would assume completely being asphyxiated by engine fumes, and tossed around like a mouse stuck in a washing machine he takes a nap! Swear to God! It was really quite an amazing sight.

2. Forgot to pack a snack? No worries. Periodically a man will appear from the front of the bus and walk down the aisle selling his wares, be it churros, juice, and all sorts of brightly packaged snacks. However if you are not a snack man, lunch is the main meal of the day and here roadside restaurants don't mess around. Not only are they huge cafeteria style places but the bus stops for about an hour to make sure you don't feel rushed at any time.

3. There will be many times on the mountainous, curvy, life-threatening road where you will say to yourself "Doesn't he think he should go just a tad bit slower?" It's really quite an amazing thing. The bus is going so fast that there are many times where an oncoming car has to squeeze against the far side of the road because the bus driver is going so fast and is just taking the middle. There are often times that he will slam on the brakes because suddenly another truck is going a normal speed in front and he can't pass just yet. However, I don't want to give you the idea that they only pass slower traffic when the other side is clear of oncoming traffic. Oh no! Why wait for the oncoming car to pass when I can just swerve suddenly and end up back in my lane, only missing the car I passed by mere inches.

I didn't panic (too much) when the ride got really crazy because I had heard Mark's stories of his bus rides in Peru. However, when we finally arrived at David's finca and they too said that the bus drivers are nuts and the rides are scary I at least realized that maybe South Amercans aren't totally crazy, they just realize they have no other options.
(check back for some pictures)

Meanwhile back home...

An out-of-focus doggy frolics in the leaves.

Fotos

Bogotà Going up the mountain. The Doña behind me was terrified.

At the top in the glare. I wear these glasses in honor of Mary Robbins!

The tunnel you go through at the very top. Pretty creepy.

Fotos

Hummingbird in flight

Casa de fùtbol

Traffic. There are no lanes you just go where you please!
It´s still Thanksgiving so we went out. Churrasco and bibs.

Bogotà, Colombia

Forget getting ready. It´s here. I´m here in Bogotà.

It is definitely a big city with lots of people, lots o´ taxis, crazy (crazy!) driving, and just weird stuff that is totally normal in South America. I haven´t done much really. After our plane ride and a very long and needed nap we went to find some food, watched some Colombianos FREAK OUT when they won their fùtbol game against Argentina (it was really funny and awesome). We´ve gone up Montserrate to visit a church and see a view of the city, had some Ajaica de Pollo for lunch, and got lost trying to find the Museo de Oro which apparently has moved to a temporary home while it´s being renovated. I´ve also discovered that I don´t mind drinking the coffee black here, which is what they do.

We´re doing very touristy stuff while Señor y Señora Anderson are here being our host. On Friday after they head back to Los Estados Unidos we´ll move from our hotel, Residencia Tequendama, to a hostel called Platypus which is a bit of a splurge but would be easy for Mark´s primo David to find us when he meets us on Sunday and takes us to his ranch in Armenia.

http://bubbler.wordpress.com/ you can also read Mark´s version of what´s going on so far. I found his post rather funny and more eloquent than mine.

¡Hasta Pronto!

My friend the Bride.

In honor of her second month as a married woman I thought I'd post these photos of my friend Jessica the lovely bride and Jason her groom. They were married in September outside of Syracuse, NY.

Hey Ya'll

Just an FYI that a new cord to upload pictures from my camera was finally purchased which means that 2 posts have been updated with a just a few pictures. My Day with Steve that was posted in October and Highlights from New York that was posted in September. If you're interested go ahead and check them out by finding them on the menu to the right. It's kind of like watching your favorite reruns!

Today I went for a walk along La Jolla Cove (stunning dahling, stunning!). Usually we walk (I walk Mark runs) along part of Mission Bay off of Fanuel Park but it's been really hot here so we thought going closer to the ocean would be a nice and breezy change.

I did get a pretty good stroll in but the best part of all was on the way back I noticed everyone stopping in their tracks and staring at the Pacific. I finally decided to look as well and there was an entire pod of dolphins lazily swimming right off shore. It was awesome! There had to be maybe 10 or 11 of them and they were swimming gracefully and occasionally one would jump into the sky and dive back in. It was kind of wild to see some form of nature so close to guys surfing and rich moms jogging. It definitely made my day!

Tomorrow I'll be going to my second music hour with Sophia and her mom (Mark's sister) Karen. It's pretty much a nauseatingly sweet hour of moms dressed in their La Jolla finest singing children's songs and dancing around with infants and toddlers. It's especially funny because most of the kids are really too young to participate it's really just mommy stimulus. But if well-behaved and pretty cute infant/toddlers amaze you with their tiny-ness then it's totally the place to go and hang around the edge and get really annoying nursery rhymes stuck in your head.

Until next time!

Where did it go?

Babysitting Day

Well another Dia de Sophia arrived yesterday. Grandpa read, I watched, and Mark played! I just wasn't feeling my A game on Wednesday (weather? diet? typhoid medicine?) so I just observed as Uncle Mark worked to prove that he really was the RADDEST Uncle ever.

He brought two djembe drums to maybe play some baby beats but instead of loving the drumming Sophia decided her new fave game was to have the drum inverted and to drop a toy inside. She would look at Uncle Mark who would ask in a very excited voice "Where did it go?". He would suddenly find it, pull it out of the drum, tickle her head with it, and toss it across the room. At which point she would then go fetch it like a little human puppy. Which I guess technically she is. She insisted they play this game FOR HOURS. It was awesome. Especially since I didn't have to do it.

We were there for almost 10 hours. I'm a zombie today and I've had two cups of coffee back to back which never happens, so we'll see if I can make Mark go for a walk today. (It's cold! says the boy who so quickly becomes a Southern Californian again that 70 degrees is cause for cuddling up with a sweater and not even thinking of stepping foot outside)

Here is some great baby footage you might enjoy:

Keeping Enemies Closer

My sworn enemy. He hates me. Well...he hates everyone but as someone who wishes that every animal loved me I hate that he hates me. He lunges to snip my fingers off. Even when I'm not taunting him and I only taunt him because...he hates me.

This is Vincent. Lovingly and affectionately referred to by Mark as "Vinnie" and "Little Chicken". Vinnie gets more gifts from Mark than I ever have. Sure Vinnie's gifts range from pieces of banana, tortilla chips, hummus, peanut butter, sips of cranberry juice, and even some naan but to a parrot that is all gold and diamonds. So to summarize: I am jealous of a parrot.