23 of Feb.

Hey! A month ago it was my birthday! (LOL)

Anyway... the past few days have been fun! We took a day trip to a place called Villavencencio and Granada. My friend Nelson's brother (Victor), who lives here in Bogota invited us on the trip. It was so cool to see "small town" Colombia with a native! We saw a lot of cows on the trip down there. The area is a very agricultural region. The kids enjoyed going through the tunnels. There were a lot of them! It's amazing how the climate changes from the entrance of one tunnel to the exit of the next tunnel. The rt. we were on had a lot of security. I'm talking military outlooks every 1/2 mile or so. If it wasn't an armored tank then it was at least a solder with heavy machine guns. I felt safe.

Our first stop was to take the kids (Andrés and his friend) to a zoo. The only animals at this zoo were native to this region of Colombia. Once again, the animals looked great. Very well taken care of! The workers at the zoo seemed really young to me. At each exhibition there was a teenager teaching us the basics of the animals. I really enjoyed my time there. After the zoo we took a ride to pick up Victor's friend. She invited us to lunch. The restaurant was called "El acuario". The grounds of "El acuario" were so pretty. There was a little lake with turtles, a playground and hammocks to rest in after the meal. I had some kind of fish. As always, my fish dish was delish!

After lunch they took us to a river where the kids could go swimming. (Thank God) There was A LOT of complaining in the car. The kids swam while the adults drank! I love how relaxed Colombia is. Everyone seemed so happy where we were. Regardless of what they have or don't have life is just good! After the river swim we went back to Victor's friend's home for a rest. Actually, the kids were invited to swim in her pool, too. Once again, they were super happy. The ride home took about 5 hours. I felt bad that Victor had to drive so much in one day with at least one very ungrateful child in the back seat. GRRRR!!!! That boy was in big trouble with me the next morning!

When we arrived back to the apartment in Bogota my friend Esteban was waiting for us. He was born in Bogota, but lived in a few other Colombian cities during his years here before coming the USA for college. It's been fun going back to his old neighborhood. From Esteban's perspective Colombia had changed a lot. Inflation in insane, his neighborhood didn't seem quite as posh, and Bogota is HOT. At least in comparison to his memories from 15 years ago... it's changed. I like being able to have a setting now for all the stories that he had recounted to me about his friends, his family and his memories of living here.

In terms of Andrés' adoption process, the birth certificate came, but didn't have La Hormiga (his birth town) written on the document. I imagine this is going to be a delay. My legal liason is going to call me back at 10:30 to update me on where we stand.

Once again, I got burned from the sun. Even with SPF 50... I still burn! It's really getting annoying! I know my friends back in Buffalo must be rolling their eyes at me. These burns are like frostbite, but to the other extreme! My skin kills!

OMG! I wrote another little book here! Thanks for reading. I'll update again once I find out where we stand with the missing birth certificate information.