Someone forgot to tell him he wasn't driving the Porsche today!

So, it's been chilly here in Bogota, so Marcia and Suzanne invited me to go away for the weekend. Woo hoo!!!!

Marcia offered to go to Isabella and see what she could book for us and when she returned she said that we could all go to the little town of Paipa. And when she said "we all" she meant herself, Suzanne, me, and............ Isabella.

Yeah.

Well, because we are all very gracious and polite women, we all said that would be 'fine'. Now, any normal person would think that the story would move right on to our trip to Paipa.

Nope.

You see, that night a bomb went off in Bogota. Marcia told us all about it the next morning on the bus to school. Seems that the bomb went off at a Blockbuster and was set by the FARC. They get money nowadays through extortion since Uribe tightened the screws on them. But anyway........ when the bus stopped at school, Isabella, who rides my bus, stood up, blocking the aisle and announced to her captive audience that 'the FARC bombed a business downtown' and then paused dramatically. In that pause, Suzanne dared to say to Marcia, 'there is your bombing'. Bad call. Instantly, Isabella pointed at her and yelled, 'Shut up! I am talking. I am the teacher now and you are the student. This is important and you will listen. No one wants to hear what you are saying.'

Yeah.

Well, needless to say, we decided to forgo the trip to Paipa and find something else. And we did. We decided to go back to Melgar ~ to the gorgeous hotel where we stayed a couple of months ago. And what a good call. It was hot and wonderful and delightful and perfect!

Of course, since we were going by ourselves, we had to go to Melgar via bus. Not too bad, we thought. We made sure to book the direct bus (rather than the one that makes stops) so that we could get to our hotel as soon as possible after school on Friday. The bus station in Bogota was really nice. Very similar to the airport, really. And the bus wasn't bad either. Spacious enough. Soon enough we were on our way. Well, sort of. I mean, we were on our way, but it was hardly 'non-stop'. We had our driver and this other man who periodically hung out the door and called to pedestrians, looking for passengers. No, seriously. He did! It was bizarre. Even when we thought the bus was full, he hung himself out there, hollering, until there was someone sitting on the bump at the back of the bus (between the bathroom door and the last seat) and another was sitting on a barrel in the aisle. Seriously!

But eventually we were on our way. And boy were we moving. You have to understand that Bogota is on a savanna between two mountain ranges. So, in order to get down to the lower elevations, you have to drive over one of the mountains and then drive lower and lower. And I use the term 'drive' loosely here. OUR driver was more into 'careening' down the mountainside, driving across the double yellow lines in order to pass cars and trucks (did I mention we were in a bus!?!) I'm pretty sure someone forgot to tell the driver that he wasn't driving the Porsche today!

Luckily we made it to Melgar safely. Our driver dropped us off at a corner in town and pointed. We wandered up the street until a woman, who had also been on the bus, pointed out the cabs to us. Whew!



Hotel at last!!! What a relief. Now we three days to relax in the sun! Which we did.






Man, I love this life!

But we didn't just lay by the pool. We went to the local zoo. Very, very small zoo. But we did get to see a beautiful lake and a gorgeous, huge tree filled with white birds.



At first glance, they looked like blossoms in the tree!


Suzanne, Marcia, and I enjoyed walking around.




And were very surprised when we saw a floating bar!!! Those Colombians, they think of everything!


And since it was a zoo, we did see some animals. There were cats and birds and happy turtles.


There was this rodent ~ apparently the largest in the world ~ from Argentina, I think. There weren't many signs, so I am not sure of it's name..... It's definitely a rodent though!


And our favorite, monkeys!!!




And, just like on the island with my girls, there was a toucan!

And Macaws

And even peacocks and hens!



So, despite all the drama at the start of this long weekend, we had a wonderful time and came back to CNG well rested and raring to teach!