My hot trainer!

Okay, so I have had to get back to the gym (Colombian food apparently agrees with me!!!!!). I hate that I let myself go again. Why do I do that? ARgh!

But on the bright side, I at least have a great trainer.



Tito is so sweet. He always tries to speak English with me (and of course I try to speak Spanish to him). We don't have earth shaking conversations, since we are each limited in the others' language, but I appreciate his effort.

He also is very careful with me, which I like.



He works me hard, don't get me wrong, but he takes the time to have me stretch. That is one of my favorite parts, actually. He stretches me for me! It feels nice to have someone work that hard with me. And to top it all off, he's funny! Good times, good times!

My new passion

I am so excited that I have finally taken a step toward one of my life-time goals. Painting. I have always wanted to pursue painting; let the inner artist escape! And here, in Bogota, I have finally taken the first step.

One day, walking through Usaquen, the little township that now belongs to Bogota proper, some friends and I came across a little art studio. And I signed up for lessons right then and there. I have been to four classes so far and I am loving it!!! Gavi and Clarita are so wonderful. Gavi is the maestro and she doesn't speak any English. Clarita is her sister and she speaks a little. It's fun spending my three hours with them because it's not only a painting lesson, but a Spanish lesson as well. Not to mention just a good time with girls!



My first day I only worked with pencil and charcoal. She made me just draw lines the first hour I was there. Straight lines, curved lines, zigzag lines, vertical lines, horizontal lines.... you get the idea. Then I had to look for images in the lines, kind of like looking for pictures in the clouds.



I love charcoal!!!! I loved working with my fingers, shading and contouring. I loved watching the black lines on the paper transform into three dimensional shapes. That I made! Way cool.



But finally, I was allowed to paint.



Now that was fun!!! And frustrating, when things didn't turn out on canvas the way I saw them in my head. But I stuck with it and today, I finally finished. There are things I wish I could have done differently, but overall, I have to say, I sort of like it. Gavi helped me so much ~ I love learning with her!

A Walk

It was a beautiful day and Marcia, Don, Julie, and I decided to walk down to a local flea market. Here is a picture of one of my favorite buildings in Bogota. One day I will have to make a blog entry of all my favorite buildings. And doors. And window treatments! lol



On our walk, we passed the Parque National where people had gathered for some morning aerobics. Funny how big cities can be so different, and yet they are really the same.



Here are Marcia, Don, and Julie ~ smile!!



We saw this woman sitting outside one of the vendor booths at the flea market. Marcia wanted this picture.



And guess what else there was? Yup, a Studebaker! Pretty cool, eh?!

Museo National

Well, I was too sick with bronchitis to want to go anywhere over Semana Santa, so I hung around Bogota and got healthy. Once on the mend, I headed out to see some of the local sights. One day Aaron and I took a trip to the Museo National. Neither of us had been there so it seemed the perfect thing to do over Holy week. Actually I had been there before, just not on the inside! I went with some friends several months back to watch some Caribbean drummers. They were amazing! But this time, we went inside.

And we were in for a treat! There was an amazing collection of pre-Colombian artifacts laid out in chronological order so as to provide a virtual walk through Colombian history. I really enjoyed it.






They even had a display of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria!



And then there was this great story about an explorer, Bartolome, who after being captured by the natives of Guatemala, tried to win his release by using what information he had about an upcoming eclipse, thanks to the studies of Aristotele. The natives were nonplussed as they watched his 'prediection' come true. Then they sacrificed him as planned. It seems that the native people were well aware of the mysteries of the heavens. And they knew of the eclipse, even without the grace of Aristotle!



Here I am actually touching a meteorite!!!! Wow!



And of course, no museum in Colombia is complete without a few Botero's. Here are a couple I liked with a bird.