Ah, the culinary experiences!

So, while we are talking about all the different fruits available here in Colombia, I thought I would take a moment to reflect on the food and how the girls enjoyed it.... or not.....

While Christina was pretty open to the variety,





and offered it gleefully to her sister for a taste,



Jennifer was, well, lets just say she takes more time to.... smell,



inspect,



scrutinize,



investigate her food



before tasting it.


Matt even joined us for breakfast Christmas morning~ LOL

And not always with the desired result! Poor Jennifer nearly starved here in Colombia!!



Of course sometimes it really wasn't her fault....


Yeah.... pretty sure that is a piranha ~ even though the cooking staff denied it.

The bright spot was that Jennifer provided Christina and me HOURS of hilarity at dinner tables!!!!!!!! And we always had a walk to the bookstore to look forward to when meals were..... tough.





Luckily though, we did find a Hard Rock Cafe for our Christmas dinner, so Jennifer was able to enjoy our holiday feast!!



Ah, thank heaven's for the hamburger!!!!

Merry Christmas!!!!

There was no snow. There weren't any fresh cookies baking in the oven. There weren't even any Christmas carols. And yet this was one of the best Christmas's I have ever had!

Living without Jennifer and Christina has been the way of life for the last 5 years or so, what with them off at universities, and so you would think that I would be used to that already. And yet, living this far away has been more difficult than even I could have imagined.

Somehow, knowing that you can drive up (or over) for a weekend makes all the difference in the world. Not that you do it very often ~ but you could if you really wanted to! From Bogota, though, that drive is... well, more difficult!!! Luckily we have had skype, without which this adventure would not have been possible (cue the ad campaign).



And then today, there I was. Together with my daughters again for Christmas. It was a perfect day! We tried all of the new fruits here in Colombia ~ some we loved, others... not so much! It was fun to try them together, though, and share stories.







Christmas was different this year, because we didn't have our traditional decorations and other accouterments, but it was wonderful nonetheless!

Merry Christmas to All!!

Ah, the fruits of our labors!

Well, today was a another great day with my daughters!

We started the day off with an early morning trip to the market to buy fruit. And I mean early ~ no showers or anything!!! My friend, Diana, picked us up at 7:00 and took us to this market in a part of town I don't know at all. It's basically in a huge building, but there are tons of vendors! They sell everything from potatoes and sides of beef to flowers and baskets. It is a little crazy because the vendors are pretty aggressive. This is their livelihood, you know! Anyway, Christina in particular,wanted to buy some of the unusual fruits that we have here. We went to one stand, and the woman was like a one stop shopping queen!!!! She had everything: papaya, mango, ychujas (?), guanavada (?), guava, and other things I can't remember the name of right now! In fact, the only thing she didn't have (nor did anyone else) was mamoncillos. Which is very sad since I really love them and had told the girls about. But apparently this is not the right season for them. Which is an odd statement since they don't have seasons here..... hmmmmmmm.



Our "Canoe o' Fruit"

Anyway.... after the market, we went back home to nap, write emails, and shower for the day. Around 10, Arlet and her son, Mariano, showed up. Arlet has been wonderful with me ~ taking care of the housework, cooking my meals, doing my laundry.... She is amazing. Anyway, today is a regular work day for her, but it was also a chance for her to meet my daughters (about whom I talk incessantly!) and for me to give her and Mariano gifts.



Well, turns out, she had gifts for us as well. I told you she was amazing!!! She gave me salt and pepper shakers (which I needed!) and a bowl and serving spoons. Way more than I expected!! And she gave each of the girls a bag ~ handmade with sort of pre-Colombian geometric designs. They love them!







Arlet loved her camera and Mariano was thrilled with his new Spiderman!!! So much so that he sort of forgot about the crayons and paints!! Well, he tried to be polite and go to them every now and again, but then he would quickly get distracted by Spidey again! lol He is such a cute little boy!

But we couldn't stay and play too long, as today was our Monserrate and La Candalaria day. So off we went, to the foot of a mountain at one edge of Bogota, and we took a gondola to the top. (This is the one that took me almost an hour to hike up ~ straight up!!!) The ride was GREAT!



Once at the top, we checked out the lights on the church and the walk depicting Christ's crucifixion, and the bazaar ~ where Christina finally found post cards!!





Christina really loves that last pic because of the 'poser' in the background!!!!





My beautiful girls!

The view from the top was gorgeous (we sure picked the right day for this excursion!!!). The city was spread before us so that we could almost imagine that between 6 and 11 million people live here!!!









Then we headed down to the old colonial part of the city, La Candelaria. Our first stop was the Museo de Oro.









After that, since we were starving!!! we headed over to Crepes and Waffles for dinner. Yum yum!!! Once fortified, we headed out to cruise the narrow streets of La Candelaria.











The architecture is beautiful and the Plaze Bolivar was so pretty with the many Christmas trees, decked out in white leaf-lights. We even saw a llama with shoes on!! But we couldn't stand still for too long or people would approach for handouts.



There were just too many beautiful sights to see ~ we could barely keep up!

After seeing the most beautiful sights in the neighborhood, we once again headed for home. Exhausted. We only rested a few minutes, though, before going out for our before bedtime hot cocoa. But not just any cocoa ~ the WORLD'S BEST COCOA!!!!




I of course had no trouble with mine, although Christina showed me up! Jennifer, though, who by the way had a crepe filled with rich dark chocolate only hours earlier, had a tougher go of it!




Can you guess which cup is whose???

Princess For A Day!

Today was a very special day. Not only had I been waiting for about 5 months to take the girls to Usaquen, but I have also been waiting to take them to my emerald guy. And today was the special day!!

Unfortunately we were all too engrossed in the glittery, sparkly, spectacular emeralds to take any pictures...... dang it! But suffice it to say that we all felt like princesses!

It takes about 20 minutes for the safe to open, so while we were waiting we looked at the pre-Colombian style jewelry they have and, well, we all sort of picked out some favorites! LOL but by the time we had picked out some pretty pieces, the emeralds were all out for us to look at, try on, and drool over. Oh, what a delightful sight! The girls seemed to have a ball. Jennifer was looking for a pendant so she tried on all kinds of shapes and colors and different types of 'chains' until she found the most gorgeous deep green, oval shaped emerald pendant.

Christina was looking for earrings so she also tried on lots of different styles, shapes, and colors. They were all so pretty, and she finally decided on the most brilliant, larger, square-cut emeralds. SPECTACULAR!!!!

And my emerald guy, who is such a sweetheart, gave me such a discount that we also picked out earrings for Jennifer and a pendant for Christina! I am so happy that they A) loved the emeralds and B) found such amazingly beautiful pieces.

After dropping our loot off at the apartment, we headed back to Usaquen (in the rain....) to pick up Jen's artwork and for Christina to pick out what she wanted (she had a hard time deciding the day before. It was all a bit overwhelming ~ I am the same way!!) Anyway, we headed over in the rain (after stopping at the grocer, Carulla, for "water" ~aka money from the teller~ and umbrellas). Jennifer picked out two lovely, long, natural hued pieces, and Christina chose three colorfully striped ones.

Anyway, after we made those purchases, we headed back to septima (7th street) to hail a cab. Which, by the way, is very difficult to do in Bogota in the rain! In fact, one cab pulled over to get us, took one look, and took off again. Guess we didn't look trustworthy enough...? Finally someone did stop for us and he took us to the home of a Colombian friend of mine, Juliana, who had invited the girls and me over for some arapas de juevos. In fact, she not only made that delicious miracle food (a miracle because I think she uses magic to keep the egg inside the arepa...!) but she also made some wonderful empanadas filled with beef and onion. Juliana is the assistant in one of my first grade classes, and she is a doll!!!! She is lively, bubbly, funny, and generous. We all had a great time with her and her friend.

After that the three of us made a quick pitstop to pick up a Christmas gift for two someones and then we headed home where we crashed!!!

My Girls Are Here!!!!!!

That's right. The waiting and moping and weeping is finally over ~ my girls are here!!!! And what a joy it is to be with them again. I am the luckiest woman alive to have daughters who want to spend time with me and who leave other family and friends to be with me at such a warm and fuzzy time of year.

So you might be wondering what we are doing???? LOTS and LOTS!

Jennifer and Christina got here bright and early on Sunday morning so we headed straight to the apartment and took a little nap. We were up and out by 10 though, and on our way to the outdoor artisans fair in the little township of Usaquen. This was a trip I have been planning since the first time I visited the market. It is just a quaint market with all kinds of local arts for sale.





We tried some new fruit: mangositos and chellisoad...... (not sure of spelling here!!!!) as well as some delicious green mango with salt and lime juice!



We even got to see a whole pig. Did not try that......



Nor did Christina really try that doobie from Bob!!!!

The girls found some art for their homes ~ just like I knew they would. They each chose a piece by a man who makes designs out of tree bark (prettier than it sounds!!!) and a piece from a man who etches metal and then paints it and mounts in on a dark wood. Everything they found is GORGEOUS!!!



And we saw the first of many beautiful architectural features here in Bogota. Christina LOVED this electric blue!!!!

Then we headed home to drop off our things and go out to dinner at one of my favorite little places, Olivetto's. I was a little disappointed because the woman who is ALWAYS there and waits on me wasn't there! Dang it. Oh well, we enjoyed the food and company regardless!!

Juanes!!!!!!

I just paid a ton of money to be in the standing room only at the foot of the stage at a concert! And I didn't understand a word!! But I enjoyed the heck out of it!!!



I went with some friends to a Juanes concert. He is a HUGE star here in Colombia. He's actually from Medallin, Colombia.






Juanes gave quite a show ~ no fancy back up dancers, just him and his band. Awesome!





And not only is he a very popular Latin rock star, he is also a very patriotic Colombian. In the middle of his concert he brought out a little boy who was wearing a shirt that has a photo on it. Turns out it was a picture of his dad ~ a man he never met because he was kidnapped by guerrilas when the boy's mother was pregnant with him. Juanes gave a moving speech to his fans about how Colombia needed to not tolerate that any more. That the guerrilla warfare had to stop. The whole crowd broke out in a chant of "Liberty". It was a very moving experience.




Juanes also gave the best encore I have ever witnessed. He must have sung about 7 songs!!! It was an amazing concert!!!! Check him out!!!!