This morning we went kidless for the first time (Lucia looked after the large clan of children) and took a tour of central Bogota. We started in the Gold Museum, which I thought was pretty cool but Renee found boring (hey – at least we both love libraries). Colombia is a fascinating country – all the more so because its geography is so completely varied. I mean, it has beautiful coasts (on both major oceans), huge mountain ranges, and the Amazon. It’s a recipe for thick history. And much to the Spaniards delight, Colombia had a good amount of gold.
After the museum we took a tour of central Bogota (the oldest part of the city). Our guide was David, Lucia’s son. David’s a bohemian. He’s 31 and goes with the wind. While this undoubtedly provides a lot of heartburn for Lucia, he’s really fun to talk too because of travels (he speaks English, Spanish, and French fluently). In many Colombian cities (indeed, in most Latin American countries) you find these young people living on street corners. They’re not homeless per se, more like willfully wandering. They sell arts and crafts and make enough money to get food (I’m not sure if I’d qualify this as “get by”). Anyway, David did that for a number of years. Now he’s more a permanent student, father to 2 crazy sons, and works odd artistic jobs. In short, the kind of guy you’d love to share a drink with and just listen.
We viewed the first houses in Bogota, the congress, the President’s house, a bunch of universities, and gobs and gobs of pigeons (indeed, it was like swimming through a vast ocean of pigeons… occasionally encountering an Alpaca island…sort of surreal). By that time Renee was really hurting (we self-diagnosed strep throat) so we were ready to head back to the B&B.
The Lohrstrofers had arrived when we returned so all the kidos were in quite a stir. It’s really fun to see the four siblings together. Fun and daunting. They are a hyper whirlwind of chaos. Thank the Lord there’s four adults around because I’m not sure how it would go if the ration were smaller!
This afternoon I made a pit stop to the embassy and picked up our paperwork. Everything was good to go! Tomorrow we leave for home.