Very Colombian Experience - Termales Santa Rosa de Cabal

We got up early from our country spot in Salento and took a short ride into town.  From there, we took a bus 1 hour to Pereira.  From Pereira, a 25 minute bus ride to Santa Rosa de Cabal, then a taxi ride to the hot springs.

There you will find a hotel and commercial hot springs.  There is a large swimming pool size soaking area where people of all ages (from children to grandparents) were soaking an enjoying the Thursday morning.  

Above the hot pool, there is an incredible waterfall.  So before the hot water from deep underground is mixed with cold from the river, the water falls from a taaaaaalllll, cold waterfall.  We  weren't feeling very adventurous, so we just dipped in our toes into the cold pool.  It was a cool day to start with, so submerging our bodies into the cold water of the small pool wasn't very tempting.

As the cold water spills over the rocks below, it is mixed with 40 degrees Celsius, scalding hot water.  The minerals that cascaded over the rocks over the years create a soft, swoopy look.

There is even a little cave to escape the heat.

The soaking pool varies from hot to comfortable to body temperature as you move away from the falls.

Valle de Cocora

We spent our October break in the Zona Cafetera town of Salento.  There, we visited a coffee finca, hiked amongst the tallest palms in the world, went horseback riding (Linnea went 3 times) soaked in thermal hot springs and relaxed at our hostel, La Serrana.

On our first full day there, we went hiking in the Valle de Cocora is just east of Salento.  From Salento, we took a 30 minute ride in a jeep taxi called a Willy and started the hike.  The valley is know for the wax palms that can reach up to 60 meters high.  Palma de cera is the largest palm tree in the world and is Colombia's national tree.  The trees were threatened to extinction because of their use of wax for candles, being cut by farmers to build with and the fronds that were used on Palm Sunday.  So in 1985 the Colombian government designated the valley a protected area to preserve the endangered tree.  As you can see, the trees came back.

Kid hikers - Eli, Linnea, Dempsey and Finn

Before the big trek over the mountain

At the top of the mountain, we found the La Montaña ranger post where we had a cup of chocolate con queso, a typical Colombian snack.  We were up in a cloud forest and it was cold and a little drizzly.  The valley ranges in altitudes of 1800 to 2400 meters.

After leaving the ranger post, we zig-zagged down the mountain and made several crossings over the Rio Quindío on rickety suspension bridges.

After making it off the mountain, we were in the valley where the majority of the magnificent 

palms grew.  We were in good company with a lot of cows too.

 End of the 5 hour hike!

Week One

Hi it's me


The week has been well . . . so far . . .


Linnea is doing well, she loves her teacher; she says that Ms. Rachel plans fun activities and gives out candy. Linnea's doing good with friends, too. She has one from last year and already has one  friend she made already. She also has one boy who's annoying her.



Dad has been working a lot and is getting home late and leaving early. He has high expectations for me and I think I've been fulfilling them.












Mom so far is doing great with meeting her students and doing her usual routine. Mom, Linnea and I like seeing each other in the hallways, now that we're all in elementary.


I am doing good with my studies and specials. I like my P.E. and music classes so far I am doing good with Ms. Forman. I don't have much homework, yet. I've built all the Lego sets already
and I like them allot. I also got a new skateboard and I love it!  

           

                                                                                                       

                                                                                                       

                                                                                                           

Sister and Brother

Guest Post by Dempsey

Hello, Humans and thank you for looking at this blog... or blogspot or whatchamacallit. Ok, i'm offtrack. I will start with what I did. So, basically, this is what I did. I researched Roman mythology, wrote down what I learned, typed it, printed it  and put it on a poster. Easy peasy lemon squeezey. Oops, I forgot that i'm holding an four-foot trident and i'm dressed like, I don't know, a roman. All right, i'm gonna tell you, whoever you are, whatI did, so you can do your beeswax.     

 Well, on the poster you can see (unless your blind. Oops, if your blind, you couldn't be reading this. Sorry.) on the left is our poster. I got the middle, Darius got the bottom-left, Nico got the top-left and last, but very not least, give it up for Jared Farmer, on the right. I wish I could have a cool announcer's voice during that bold. Oh, well, a guy can dream. Oh, and if your wondering, Darius' topic was Roman slaves (ouch), Nico's was geography, and last, but not least, give it up for Jared                 Farmer, in engineering (I already said the thing about the cool announcer's voice, right). Nico nor Jared dressed up, but Darius and I did. I made the trident and the toga. Darius made, well, he brought in handcuffs and made his toga.                                             

This is just practically a close-up of the last picture. Move along.   

This is our group. Jared on the right (the cool JF), Nico on the left (the surprising NE) and Darius on the middle-left (the awesome DM). 

Again thanks for reading this blog... or blogspot, or whatchamacallit. Please comment if you like it so that I can know if I should write more... well, you know :)  

Time Marches On

We can't believe that it's the end of March, which means it's almost summer!  That may seem a little overly-optimistic, but this time of year always seems to pass very quickly and the next thing we know we'll be back in California for the summer.

March always brings a birthday in our family.  We celebrated at Julia, an Italian restaurant.

We spent Semana Santa in Carmen del Apicalá.  About a 3 1/2 hour drive southwest of Bogotá, it's in "hot country".  We got a 7 bedroom house with 3 other families.  All we needed was the pool, food, and a blender.

The Colombian version of the Otter Pop is Bon Ice.  Kids ate a lot of these.

 Linnea playing hair stylist with Izzy

Almost full moon

More Bon Ice bliss and Mickey Mouse pancakes at the breakfast bar.

We trapped a little scorpion in the house and let him go far, far away. 

 8 adults and 8 kids!

Cat Haiku

Carrera 9 cat,

Doesn't your paw get tired

Posing with kids?

Lil' D's 10th B Day Party

Let the festivities begin!

Giant Pick-Up Sticks

cake!

waffles!

Popping balloons with the help from the sun and a magnifying glass

But using a magnifying glass to pop balloons quickly turned to burning leaves.  So we got some crayons and started melting them.  But the kids kept going back to burning leaves.   hmmmmm. 

smokin' leaf!