Making the best of a rainy day

We woke up to rain today. The first rainy day since we have been here, not to bad for this to be the rainy month. Our activities director asked us if we still wanted to make the trip to Monserrate and we decided to go for it. The weather can change on a dime so we hoped it may quit raining, but it didn’t. The drive to and from was great, it was interesting to see the various types of housing and buildings, I didn’t get any pics because all you could see through the camera were the raindrops on the windows in the taxi. But I definitely recommend anyone coming to Bogota to go to Monserrate. The train going up was out of order. Originally we planned to take a train up the mountain and the cable car back down. Now, I like roller coasters, I’m not afraid of heights, I love to fly, but the trek up the mountian got to me a bit. I had a few butterflies, but Jessica loved it. Coming down I was fine, but the going straight up to the hightest point in Bogota was a bit, well, scary. Yes, Monserrate is the highest point in Bogota, at least that’s what our taxi driver told us. There is a beautiful church there, a small market, a few restaurants, beautiful gardens and an awesome view of the whole city. Because of the rain our pics of the city didn’t turn out as good as I would have liked, but it was still worth the trip.








Once we left the mountain top we asked the taxi driver to take us to Archie’s Pizza. On the way Joaquin fell asleep. As he was starting to wake up he mumbled something and then clearly said “United States?” (In Spanish of course). We have no idea what he said, but obviously he was dreaming about something in the US.

I highly recommend Archie’s too. It was great fun for the kids and the food was awesome. You can let the kids make their very own pizza. They let the kids kneed the dough and did some fun stuff with them. They let the kids put all the toppings on and then bake it and bring it to the table. It’s really a lot of fun. Jessica and Joaquin had a ball. Most decent restaurants have a security guard. We were sitting near the door by the guard and Joaquin asked the guy if he would show us his gun. Oh boy! Luckily the guard didn’t show us.






I was telling Emilee at the restaurant that Jessica and Joaquin have no idea how a restaurant works. We just take so much for granted. Kids who come from foster families understand but kids from an orphanage, well every experience is so new. I guess restaurant behavior wasn’t something I had thought about. It’s not a big deal, just something I hadn’t thought about. They didn’t understand why we had to wait around when we were finished eating. We had to explain they had to bring the check and we had to wait so we could pay, then we could leave. And also you can’t have more of something when you eat it all, you only get what’s on your plate, not like at home.

Emi and Nate had a good time today bowling with dad and the group of folks from the Zuetana houses.



Jessica and Joaquin are doing wonderful, we are all gelling just fine and are feeling like a family. It a wonderful feeling. Today Joaquin fell off the bed, he didn’t cry, but I picked him up and put him on my lap and he just cuddled up. My heart melted and about that time Jessica looked at me and held up her hand with the I Love You sign and said te queiro (I love you). Ahh…A perfect mami moment.

Another suggestion for those of you preparing to travel, it’s worked well for us so far, is to pull out new toys every so many days. It helps to give them something new to do because you kind of get in a rut with the same ol’ stuff at the B&Bs. Balloons have been great, a beach ball, color wonder, silly putty, and other light weight things. They think it’s great to have something new every so often. And they definitely love the videos of the house, animals at home and other things we taped.

Oh I forgot to mention that we got a new French family here. Guess who? The little boy from their orphanage we spoke of the other day that they saw during our interrogation. As soon as he got here Jessica and Joaquin had to come in the cabin and grab several of their new things and show Johan, the little boy. They were really excited to see him and play with him. Very Cute.

Dad, Jeanie, Brian and Brandon, I am sorry to say that Joaquin refuses to wear his camo pants I brought him. His is not picky with his clothes, but he refuses to wear his camo pants. I am not sure why. I don’t know if it’s because they see military people in camo all the time here or what. People here don’t wear camo like we do in Harrison, so Joaquin will have to learn. I don’t think there is any thing cuter than a little guy in camo. I’ll have to work on that one when we get back to the states, it’s not a battle I want to fight here.

One more note, Jessica asked to watch Shrek in English today. Nate was so excited! She has it memorized in Spanish, I guess she needs a challenge…smile.

A few folks at the other Zuetana have lice, glad we are at this one!!

More tomorrow, again thanks for all the comments and prayers, we love you all!

Nate and Jess playing with Color Wonder


Of course the boys had to potty while we were out. This time it was 800 pesos a flush, here they are coming out of the pay to pee bathroom

And if you are a boy and you don't want to pay to pee, well you could always use the urinals out in the open for all to see...