14 Feb

Last few days have been busy going on "field trips". We've hit the hardrock, went to a place called parque Jaime Duque and yesterday we took an 8 hour tour yesterday of an indigenous village and of a laguna (lake) holding the legend of El dorado. First off, the view of the Andes was amazing. You can see forever. It was wild to just stand there and stare. I was trying to imagine the land below without buildings. The eco tour took us to a village which was started about 11 or so years ago to help Colombia get back it's lost native culture. We had a great tour guide named Marco, who taught the kids about the native culture before the arrival of the Spanish conquistadors.

After the village we had a typical Colombian lunch. The girls in the group had a crush a boy "directing traffic". We were the traffic! They gave him a tip. It was really cute. Lunch for some of us consisted of cow intestine. Delish! (joking) It's called Chunchulo, I think. Andres tried spelling it for me and got "mad". (Side note- English class is going well!)
Pics will be on FB soon. Can't wait to show his first girlfriend eating that crap. Pun intended!

After lunch we took a hike to la laguna and learned about El dorado. Firstoff, it was amazing. The lake, the views, the native trees and plants. I was happy to be there. However, the air is so thin up there I couldn't move 5 steps without gasping. The kids left me in the dust which might have added to my stress. The tour guide asked how everyone in the group was doing..."is anyone shaking, getting a headache, or feeling faint"? Of course there is a chorus of "no" behind me...menos yo... acutally, I had all of those problems! I apologized to the group and they were all super nice. "Tranquila" is the word I got from everyone. The guide let me led the procession to the top so we could go at a speed comfortable for me. How nice! I think the tour took twice as long because of me!

Anyway... on the way home we saw two huge fires on the side of the mountains in Bogota. It was really bad. People live up there and their houses are made of wood, too. The fire was really spreading fast. About two city blocks were on fire. The only way to put them out is with helicopters. During the night, I don't think they can fly them with the topography here.

Well, today we will chillax. I need to go to exito to buy groceries. Besides that...things are going well. I hope to have an idea about when I need to go Putumayo this week!