This morning we woke up and had our last breakfast at the Intercontinental Hotel in Medellin. Diego and Yerly had a great time saying goodbyes to everyone of the staff ( Gonzalo, Luis, Carlos, Yessica, Estafani –the breakfast gang) and proudly telling each one they were going in an airplane. Gloria met us in her mini car with our 5 suitcases…all at capacity. We squished some in front, some in back and a few in the trunk, but we made it!! The airport is a 45 minute ride from the hotel. Along the way Diego and Yerly would say…Ciao Casa De Maria, Ciao Hotel, Ciao ninos, Ciao to everything and everyone they could think of.
We arrived at the airport and said our sad goodbyes to Gloria…and off we went.
They were so excited to ride the airplane, especially Diego. He was dancing and moving like he was going to pee his pants. We arrived at our gate and were able to watch them load the luggage on the plane and de-board the passengers before us. Which thankfully we were not on that CON AIR flight, as they escorted a Colombian prisoner in cuffs.
As we boarded the plane, they continued to tell the staff, they were riding on an airplane. We boarded first and they quickly buckled their seatbelts, even though we had to wait another 20 min for everyone to board.
They both loved the flight, although Yerly said she was a little nervous and thought she might fall out of the plane. Yerly also told us that we need to be sure to zip up our luggage so the clothes don’t all fall out!!! They loved drinking a juice box, given on our 28 minute flight and it was perfect for the first trip.
Once we arrived, our driver Patricia met us with her car. She took us straight to ICBF, which is the social services for children in Colombia. Once there, we met our worker,Carmen, who took us inside to get the confirmation of the adoption.
Once that was complete the ladies drove us to our house. We are staying at Betty’s Place. http://www.residencebettysplace.com/
It is a bed and breakfast for adoptive families run by a woman from New York who has lived here for 30 years helping families. The cost is just $65 a night!!! SUPER BIEN Right now there are 3 families including us. One family just arrived last night and received their 4 month old son today. Another family has been here 2 weeks with their new 15 mo old son. Betty has staff who live here and some who just come for the day. The staff does the cooking and cleaning. There are 6 bedrooms all with their own bath and tv. There are 2 family rooms and a community dining room.
After resting a bit, we had an appointment at the medical office for the US Embassy. It went well and fast, although the kids asked about 25 times if they were getting a vacuna…vaccination. We had enough of those!!
On the way back our driver gave us a nice talking tour while we drove home. Lots of neat things in this city of 8 million. It is definitely not as pretty as Medellin though. It has mountains, but a very flat and wide valley where the elevation is at 8,700 ft and the mountains reach just over 10,000 ft. Whereas Medellin is in the small valley and the city continues into the mtn…very San-Francisco-like steep roads and mountains reach about the same height but the city is at 5,500Ft ….beautiful!!!
We learned an interesting new rule in Bogota. People are only allowed to drive their car twice a week. If they want to drive more they need another car. Each car is licensed to drive on certain days. For this reason, many people own a couple of small cars and a little motorbike. The city tram was packed with people tonight and lines a block long. This is all done in attempts to improve the complete traffic congestion. What we saw today it didn't help. We believe they are planning a major rail transit system – seems like a no brainer to me.
Tonight we were served a barley soup with chicken base and cilantro (a must have recipe), bread and a chicken and meat lasagna and for dessert lemon meringue pie. WOW
Things in Reedsburg are well. We are so thankful for Skype and the ability to see and talk to our kids daily. What an amazing thing!!! The kids have been having fun with Nana and Grandpa and had Kelly and Andrew come for few days this week too! We will al be happy to be back to norm again though. Yerly would not eat the dinner that was served tonight. We explained that it is like being in a family. You cannot chose what you want, but we all try and eat. She loves hearing the word family and melted when we explained it that way. Hopefully, she will eat breakfast tomorrow!!
Tomorrow we are planning a day trip with another family here. We are going to Montserrat which is at 10,000 ft in elevation!!! It is a small antique village.
There is some hollering,chanting and hitting some type of bell and pots outside our house right now – possibly a soccer match just ended, birthday? Or people are getting the holiday weekend started with a bang!
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