Trip to Colombia- part 2

Recreational fun in El Salado

On our third day in Colombia, we went to a recreational spot, which I wish I could describe how relaxing and beautiful it was.  They are like ranches but geared to a very nature oriented experience.  There was a nice pool with a huge kiosk area for escaping from the sun, but there was also a natural pond (actually a few of them) in which you could fish, and what you caught they would clean and give to you for dinner!  You can see a small portion of the pond above.

This is the view of the pool from inside the kiosk... by the way it was like 95 degrees that day!  Whoa baby was I loving the heat and the sun.

The pool was DELICIOUSLY warm... just enough to cool you off, but not ice cold to jar the senses when you jumped in.   As you can see on the sides are swim up tables at which you could sip on a coctail, beer or soda. Soo nice in October!!!

Here we are with Carlos Sebastian experiencing a swimming pool for the first time in his life!  Can I tell you this baby is a natural fishy... he made a "not too happy about this wet stuff" look for the first maybe 10 seconds in the water, then he realized he loved it, and was as happy as can be the whole time I had him in the water.

This is my absolute favorite picture of our entire trip... I love me my chubby cheeks!

So, after a jaunt in the pool, we fished a little... and by "we" I mean my husband and his nephew... I was so all about being in the pool that day! 

Then a little later we went horseback riding, which was wonderful! The view was gorgeous, and you will have to take my word for it, because the stupid ass horse that I was given was more stubborn that I am!  The horse decided he was going where he wanted, as fast as he wanted, and occassionally humored me by slowing down enough for me to hold on to my camera and shirt... the camera was clipped to my tank top which was falling off with the weight of the camera while the horse galloped away to his hearts content.

Against my better judgement, I did not bring jeans to wear while we rode the horses, so I had two massive bruises on my leg that evening... one on my calf where the stirrups were pinching my leg against the saddle when we galloped, and one on my inner thigh near my knees .. again from the stupid saddle.  But all in all it was a good time.  I would recommend it to anyone heading to Ibague, ps... DON'T FORGET TO BRING JEANS AND SNEAKERS IF GOING HORSEBACK RIDING!!!!

As the day drew to an end, I got this beautiful sunset on camera... I love sunsets, there is just something so beautiful about nature when you see it at this time of day.

So after a long day of experiencing nature, we headed home, exhausted, hungry and bruised (oh, that was just me!)  It was great...


Rancho Valle Escondido

On the fifth day in Ibague, we took a trip to Valle Escondido, translated means Hidden Valley, this is a beautiful mountainous area outside of Ibague.  There are ranch type places were you can rent a cabin and hangout all day, again enjoying the wonders of nature and then spend the night in the mountains enjoying the silence of being away from it all, all the while enjoying natures symphony.

In case you hadn't noticed, I love nature!  I love to enjoy the wonders and beauty that God created and that man has not yet entirely ruined.

This place is gorgeous, it has a main house/kiosk where you can buy drinks and food, then there is a pond and other kiosks where you can kick back and relax.  There is horseback riding too!  So what did I want to do after semi-healing my bruised leg??? Hey... why don't we go horseback riding again!!  Yeah, I know.. I never learn.  Ahhh, but as you can see above, I wore my JEANS and SNEAKERS this time, and I emerged unscathed from the riding!

Here is a lovely picture of my um... rear as seen by my husband...

The horse ride was about 30 minutes up the mountain to a huge granite mine/deposit, the view was amazing... again, take my word for it as I did not have the camera this time.  But unbelieveable gorgeous was the view as we ascended the mountain.

This is the granite mine.  It was enourmous! The entire side of that mountain was being mined for hunks of granite to be used in homes and what not. 

Here I am again... this time my horse was much nicer, although I think he may have had a few drinks before we left because he kept swerving over to the edge of the unpaved road... which when you looked down, was an abysmal drop that would have killed us both!  Stupid horse!  But we had a blast... I laughed the whole time, and on the way back down from the mine, we got caught in a torential down pour! Oh yeah... never a dull moment on our trips!  The best part was, I think the horses wanted to get wet less than we did, because the booked it back to the stables as fast as they could on the dirt road.  I laughed so hard, when I got off my horse... my entire body was soaking wet... EXCEPT my tush! 

Soaked to the bone, we ordered some sancocho, colombian stew, and drank a huge bowl with some white rice.  This warmed us up... didn't do much for drying us off... but at least it took the chill off.  We hung out some, hoping that the rain would stop but nope... it didn't.  So we called it a day.  We went back home, and I went right into the shower and bathed in hot water to warm me up.

Again, if you are ever in Ibague... I highly recommend this trip  sans the rainstorm!

;o)

Trip to Colombia - part I

So, I've been promising this post FOREVER now, and I have finally gotten around to writing about it.

 

I'll warn you, it was a 3 week trip... so it will be long.  But I got to thinking, I'm going to mostly post pics with a little blurb about it, so its not all blah, blah, blah.  Sounds good??? Works for me.

This is the view from the airplane as we left Miami International and flew over the Atlantic Ocean.  I have yet to figure out what islands these could be, but I think that first one may be one of the Florida Keys... at least that is what I tell everyone that see it!

This is Carlos Sebastian enjoying his second ever plane ride... can I tell you this child is the perfect flyer!  He did not cry, fuss or give any to do the entire trip!  The change in air pressure on the plan bothered us more than it did him! 

What a cutie pie... am I right??? I know I am!

Here's my hubby being all serious on the flight out of Miami...

And here I am... all smiles on the flight to Colombia.  Please do not let this picture fool you... I spent about 95% of ALL the flights out cold, and drooling on myself.  I hate to fly.. LOVE to travel... not a good combo.  Oh and I also get airsick, so I have to take Dramamine to help me make it through the day.  Love me my Dramamine... pssst any people from Dramamine, please feel free to mail me some coupons or free samples!  ;o)

So we left our house at 2:00 am to head to the Boston airport for a 5:00 am flight to Miami.  Let me point out a little secret, even though the airlines state firmly that you MUST be at the counter, in line, at least 3 hours prior to an international flight... American Airlines does not open its ticket counter until 4:00 am!!!! So we sat for an hour waiting for the AA people to set up the velvet ropes for the ticket counter, and then let us into the line somewhere around 4:15 am! Yes, a whole 45 minutes prior to the flight!  Bastards!!!!




Any how, the flights were all uneventful.  We arrived on time in Miami at 8:30ish am, then headed over to the next gate for our flight to Bogota at 9:00 am, which amazingly was on time and off to Colombia we went.  We arrived in Bogota promptly at 12:30 pm.  After navigating through immigration and customs, off we went to see if we could find a cheap flight to Ibague (the city/town where my husband is from) well... apparently since it is a small airport that can only hand small 20-30 passenger Fokkers... there are only 2 (yes that is TWO) flights a day.  The fist of which is sometime early in the morning, the second being at around 6pm.  Ummm, yeah, I didn't want to hang out for another 5 hours in the airport not doing anything.  (NOTE TO SELF... its not such a bad thing considering the flight only lasts a whole 20 minutes and no I am not exagerating!)




So in all my wisdom I said to my hubby, why don't we just take a bus to Ibague??? Its only a 4 hour road trip, we won't be driving, and I can get to see a lot of Colombia that I have never seen before.  He agreed.  Love my hubby, but it was an awful idea. 




We jumped on a small bus at around 2pm, comfortable enough for me because I'm super short... not so much for my hubby who is 5'10" and was quite cramped during the almost 6 hour road trip!  Yes I said 6 hours, apparently there were a few stops along the way, but that wasn't that big of a deal... what my husband neglected to tell me is that apparently all bus drivers in the country take driving lessons from Mario Andretti! (Juan Diego Montoya for the Colombians)  These people drive like the devil in on their asses and there is no regard what so ever for posted speed limits!  Having said this, I swear to never voluntarily put myself on a bus in Colombia again!




So sometime around 8pm we arrived at my mother-in-laws house... AMEN! What a long freaking day!!!  But us being us, we couldn't just go to bed, we talked and ate some food, then crashed a few hours later.




Sooo... anyways, so much for not jabbering too much, but that is day one... as long as hell, but thankfully uneventful and we made it with all our luggage and our wits!




Now here are some pics to make up for all the gabbing....

This is Bogota, well a views from the bus as we were leaving... I love the Colombian skyline, for some reason the sky just seems bluer and prettier.

This is our "Welcome" sign on the entrance to my mother-in-law's apartment the night we arrived.  Oh and this is my husband's nephew... I kinda got him unbeknownst to him... not a good pic but too bad.

Here we are with my mother-in-law and my sister-in-law the morning after we arrived.

I love this pic... my mother-in-law bathed Sebastian ever single morning we spent at her house!  It was actually funny, because she'd come into our room, hand me a coffe and whisk away my baby.  He loved it, and she got to bond with the baby.

That's all I have for right now... I'll post more in a bit, I have to run and do some laundry now (yuck) before the kids get back from school.

;o)

Home Sweet Home

I'm back from vacation!  Well... I actually got back on the 27th... last week, but staying true to form for when I travel to Colombia... the drastic change in weather kicked my butt and I landed a wonderful welcome home head cold that has lasted until pretty much now.  I am still sniffling, but functional... and what more could I ask for right?

So I'm making this one SUPER short... just wanted to say HI... No I didn't fall off the face of the earth and I didn't decide to just not write ever again.

I'm am still uploading pics to my piece of s@#$t laptop, so I will post pics later today or tomorrow.  Just know that I am completely ready to move my family to Colombia!  No joke.  We had a great time, everything is beautiful, and with the right business... we could live comfortably while the kids get a MUCH better education.

So... I will leave you with that thought.

OH... btw, anyone that reads this... so yes, this is directed at you Mel!  What the hell is going on with Fish World on Facebook??? I can't get my stupid tanks to load and my fish have ALL died for like the 5th time in two weeks.  GRRRRR!

;o)

Did I forget to mention....

I realized yesterday, that I forgot to mention that I am going to Colombia with Carlos and Carlos Sebastian.  Oh and we are leaving on ... WEDNESDAY, October 7th!! 

Unfortunately, Isabel and Tyler aren't coming on this trip because we are going to be gone for 21 days, and I can't pull them out of school for that long.  So they are staying home with their dad, which to them is just as good as any vacation.

I came to the realization today that I am just not that into this trip, and I think its because my babies aren't going to be with me. 

So, I am sitting here thinking that I really should get off my ass and #1 get suitcases and #2 pack those suitcases!  Grrr.... I love to travel but I absolutely hate to pack and unpack.

I guess tomorrow I am going to have to go out and buy some suit cases, the packing isn't a big deal... I always pack like 2 hours before I have to leave for the airport. 

So, I will be posting from Colombia because I will have our laptop, camera and internet.  I will be emailing the kids, and hopefully I'll be able to chat with them online. 

Wish me luck... the last time I traveled with the kids by plane, Tyler was 2 and Isabel was 5... and they did excellent... but Carlos Sebastian is only 2 months old! I'm hoping he won't cry or fuss too much, and that the pressure on the plane doesn't make him uncomfortable.

If you have any suggestions, please let me know.  I think right now I've put more thought into the knitting supplies that I will be taking with me in my carry-on, I gotta make some use of the flight time and layover time!

;o)