Our last hurrah

We went on one last day trip here in Colombia as a family. We went with 2 other moms and their babies, all staying here at the hotel with us. All of us just wanted to get out of Bogota for a while!

We heard about a waterfall south of here that we decided would make a good visit. When we told people we wanted to visit Tequendama falls, people laughed at us.

No, they literally laughed.

We were told it's stinky (because of the soap factories) and that it was barely a trickle of water going down.

We hired a driver who has taken us on our other out of town trips, Rene. Rene is great. He speaks perfect English (he lived in the states for college), is very friendly, helpful, and has a great sense of humor. Rene also was negative about the prospect of the waterfall.

The smell was quite evident as we got closer. The waterfall though? Well, take a look for youself...

It was beautiful! Rene spoke with someone there who said just this morning, they opened up a dam to allow more water to go over the fall. Yesterday it was a trickle. And, the smell wasn't that bad at the falls.

We stopped at an Argentinian restaurant for some great food then headed to the coffee plantation. We had a tour with a great tour guide who was fluent in English. We were taken through the entire process, including picking the berries.

We were then treated to some coffee (I tried it, but I still don't like coffee) and also some coffee liqueur. Yum!

Pretending to drink it.

...not sure why he wanted his picture taken in front of a whiskey ad.

It was a full day but an enjoyable one.

A cloud hung over us though as we faced Joel and Merwyn leaving tomorrow night. Well, not Joel. He couldn't be happier. Joel needs to go home. He is so bored here, and his behavior has become very goofy and over the top.

We have been living in a space a little bigger than our family room. It includes 3 rooms- 2 bedrooms separated by a common area. This common area has a couch, little kids table/chairs and baby toys. I think it is meant to be a place for any kids staying here to play, but because we are 4 people, we get it since it's attached to two bedrooms. We do have access to a lounge of sorts, but still, we have been living for a long time in a small, small space. With no windows (except the windows b/w the common area and the bedrooms. Weird.).

Common area

Our room...slab of concrete bed

Kid's room

We choose this hotel because it provides breakfast and dinner. But, meals here are not great. Breakfast options are minimal. Eggs, 2 choices of cereal, bread. Dinner is usually poor. It will be a long time before I want french fries again. And lunch...oy. To save money we bought things to eat in our room. We are all so tired of it all.

When we found out about the court closure, I went to check out apts. My main reason was food. However, the apt was made up of several small rooms- it felt very closed in to me. There are also two other moms staying here (mentioned above) and we have been talking about doing things together. Karen really enjoys the two babies and I learned that the moms have come to appreciate her interactions with them. It gives the moms a bit of a break. One mom may go home before me. The other is Canadian (from Quebec) and Canada requires 10 days after sentencia before she can go home. She is still waiting for sentencia. So, I have decided to stay here for now.

I also think too much change may be tough on Karen. She really loves her papi and will miss him terribly when they leave. We also need to move to a different room, a much smaller space. Sigh.

Tomorrow evening will be a tough time. Praying for grace to get through it.