Day One: Bogota
Hola from Bogota! Yesterday was an adventure all by itself. More on that in a moment…
We’ve never been in a city of 8 million people that smells as nice as Bogota does. We went for a walk to the park this AM, and we both commented on how fresh and clean it smells. Amazing flowers everywhere, with everything from roses to Bougainvillea. It’s definitely tropical, but somewhat cool and not yet sticky. Our bed and breakfast is not far from the airport, and I get the sense that it’s in one of the more high-end neighborhoods of the city. (It’s hard to jump right to that impression because of the profusion of barbed wire and the gigantic potholes in the streets, but that’s the one I’m left with.) On our walk this morning, everyone we passed said “Buenos dias!”
What can you say about a 14-hour travel day that starts with a 3:30 AM cab ride, includes one toddler and one anxious 11-year-old, and ends in a completely foreign metropolis? We kept our sanity. I have to say that the decision to bring our kids seemed perfectly right when Georgia sat on my lap over the Caribbean and intoned, “We’re… going… to… get… Ke-lly!” Or when Braden and I chatted in rudimentary Spanish with Sophie, the brown-eyed 5-year-old who peeked over her seat back at us. But as we dropped into the Bogota plateau and I considered the reason we were here… Well, I really wished that I wasn’t four seats and an aisle away from my wife.
Here’s an impression of Colombia from the air: dark. Not nearly as many lights in the towns and countryside as in America. For a city of 8 million, the lights of Bogota at night looked more like the lights of Fresno, or maybe Sacramento. There were clouds off to our right, and lightning was rippling through them as we dropped down. It looked like the flak bursts in old WWII bomber movies. We couldn’t feel them, but they looked amazing. Once in the airport, I again noticed it was only lighted about half as brightly as US airports. It makes you wonder about the rate with which we burn electricity back home, and what that rate would be if it was simply not as easy to come by or afford.
We got in late, got through customs, got our bags, and were met—for the first time in my life!— by someone holding a sign that said, “THELANDER.” Our family of four squeezed into the back of a little cab and we darted out into Bogota traffic. (An interesting note: there are potholes here bigger than either of the first two cars I owned.) We had heard a lot about Bogota traffic, but all in all Manhattan driving—and Manhattan drivers—are both worse. The fresh air streaming in through the windows felt great, after nine hours in planes.
We arrived at Zuetana, which means “home” in a native Indian dialect, where everyone but the desk manager (Juan? It was late) was asleep. He showed us our two rooms, one on either side of a play area strewn with toys and small tables. Every room is named after a native South American Indian tribe: Braden and I are in Tolima and Joie and Georgia are in Tumaco. I asked for a cold cerveza, and it was wonderful. It took a while, and some crying, to get Georgia to sleep, but then there was peace.
Just a few quick impressions of Bogota: Coffee, fantastic. Espresso-style served in a little metal pot, with a tin pot of steamed whole milk that smells super rich (I don’t put milk in my coffee, so I just sat there sniffing the tin.) Scrambled eggs FULL of yolk. Plantains and mango. On our walk to the park we went by a bunch of gated hacienda-style condos or apartments, with lots and lots of flowers hanging over the walls. Light misty rain that is not at all cold… We went to two parks, and in one they were mowing. With weed-eaters. Seriously, you could see the un-mown side, and the mowed side, and a couple guys sweeping their weed-eaters back and forth and making the one look like the other. The parks are rugged, but not messy. There are fir trees that look just like the Dedor cedar outside our house, and also tropical trees: wild figs, oranges, jacaranda.
There are two other families here. One is from New York and they have adopted three kids—Danivis, Jefferson, and Darwin—who are 7, 4, and 10. Danivas is a doll and rattles off endless, endless Spanish. They just picked them up yesterday and they all seem a little loopy, in a happy way.
Joie here: Yesterday was one very long day and Georgia was the only one who DIDN'T want to fall into bed. Many tears and a couple of tantrums later, she was sound asleep. Braden is bored out of his mind because we can't wander far and there is no pool. Tomorrow, brings the pool. We met with Lucia today and it seems we are bound for Florencia tomorrow around 1pm-ish. We will be meeting our daughter, Kelly Johana (can't bring myself to call her KJ...), at 7am Monday morning!!!!! Guess we won't be getting much sleep tomorrow night either....... It seems very surreal here, knowing how much everything will be changing in less than 48 hours....comforted in knowing that from what Lucia knows, Kelly is very excited and happy and waiting for us...
Michael says: It's almost dinner time here, and Georgia just woke from her nap. I'm looking forward to this: they have GREAT food. If you want to follow tomorrow's journey on a map, go south from Bogota to Neive, where I think we have a 10-minute stop, and then continue south to Florencia.
Met the hotel owners tonight, and when I complained of not being able to leave the hotel in Florencia he said, "Well, there's not much to do there anyway." They're great people.
And, of course, so are all of you. More tomorrow from Florencia.
We’ve never been in a city of 8 million people that smells as nice as Bogota does. We went for a walk to the park this AM, and we both commented on how fresh and clean it smells. Amazing flowers everywhere, with everything from roses to Bougainvillea. It’s definitely tropical, but somewhat cool and not yet sticky. Our bed and breakfast is not far from the airport, and I get the sense that it’s in one of the more high-end neighborhoods of the city. (It’s hard to jump right to that impression because of the profusion of barbed wire and the gigantic potholes in the streets, but that’s the one I’m left with.) On our walk this morning, everyone we passed said “Buenos dias!”
What can you say about a 14-hour travel day that starts with a 3:30 AM cab ride, includes one toddler and one anxious 11-year-old, and ends in a completely foreign metropolis? We kept our sanity. I have to say that the decision to bring our kids seemed perfectly right when Georgia sat on my lap over the Caribbean and intoned, “We’re… going… to… get… Ke-lly!” Or when Braden and I chatted in rudimentary Spanish with Sophie, the brown-eyed 5-year-old who peeked over her seat back at us. But as we dropped into the Bogota plateau and I considered the reason we were here… Well, I really wished that I wasn’t four seats and an aisle away from my wife.
Here’s an impression of Colombia from the air: dark. Not nearly as many lights in the towns and countryside as in America. For a city of 8 million, the lights of Bogota at night looked more like the lights of Fresno, or maybe Sacramento. There were clouds off to our right, and lightning was rippling through them as we dropped down. It looked like the flak bursts in old WWII bomber movies. We couldn’t feel them, but they looked amazing. Once in the airport, I again noticed it was only lighted about half as brightly as US airports. It makes you wonder about the rate with which we burn electricity back home, and what that rate would be if it was simply not as easy to come by or afford.
We got in late, got through customs, got our bags, and were met—for the first time in my life!— by someone holding a sign that said, “THELANDER.” Our family of four squeezed into the back of a little cab and we darted out into Bogota traffic. (An interesting note: there are potholes here bigger than either of the first two cars I owned.) We had heard a lot about Bogota traffic, but all in all Manhattan driving—and Manhattan drivers—are both worse. The fresh air streaming in through the windows felt great, after nine hours in planes.
We arrived at Zuetana, which means “home” in a native Indian dialect, where everyone but the desk manager (Juan? It was late) was asleep. He showed us our two rooms, one on either side of a play area strewn with toys and small tables. Every room is named after a native South American Indian tribe: Braden and I are in Tolima and Joie and Georgia are in Tumaco. I asked for a cold cerveza, and it was wonderful. It took a while, and some crying, to get Georgia to sleep, but then there was peace.
Just a few quick impressions of Bogota: Coffee, fantastic. Espresso-style served in a little metal pot, with a tin pot of steamed whole milk that smells super rich (I don’t put milk in my coffee, so I just sat there sniffing the tin.) Scrambled eggs FULL of yolk. Plantains and mango. On our walk to the park we went by a bunch of gated hacienda-style condos or apartments, with lots and lots of flowers hanging over the walls. Light misty rain that is not at all cold… We went to two parks, and in one they were mowing. With weed-eaters. Seriously, you could see the un-mown side, and the mowed side, and a couple guys sweeping their weed-eaters back and forth and making the one look like the other. The parks are rugged, but not messy. There are fir trees that look just like the Dedor cedar outside our house, and also tropical trees: wild figs, oranges, jacaranda.
There are two other families here. One is from New York and they have adopted three kids—Danivis, Jefferson, and Darwin—who are 7, 4, and 10. Danivas is a doll and rattles off endless, endless Spanish. They just picked them up yesterday and they all seem a little loopy, in a happy way.
Joie here: Yesterday was one very long day and Georgia was the only one who DIDN'T want to fall into bed. Many tears and a couple of tantrums later, she was sound asleep. Braden is bored out of his mind because we can't wander far and there is no pool. Tomorrow, brings the pool. We met with Lucia today and it seems we are bound for Florencia tomorrow around 1pm-ish. We will be meeting our daughter, Kelly Johana (can't bring myself to call her KJ...), at 7am Monday morning!!!!! Guess we won't be getting much sleep tomorrow night either....... It seems very surreal here, knowing how much everything will be changing in less than 48 hours....comforted in knowing that from what Lucia knows, Kelly is very excited and happy and waiting for us...
Michael says: It's almost dinner time here, and Georgia just woke from her nap. I'm looking forward to this: they have GREAT food. If you want to follow tomorrow's journey on a map, go south from Bogota to Neive, where I think we have a 10-minute stop, and then continue south to Florencia.
Met the hotel owners tonight, and when I complained of not being able to leave the hotel in Florencia he said, "Well, there's not much to do there anyway." They're great people.
And, of course, so are all of you. More tomorrow from Florencia.
posted by Michael Thelander at 4:11 PM
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