Paipa! not Papaya

We spend our American Thanksgiving in a sweet little Colombian town called Paipa.  It was an easy 3 hour bus ride to this town of about 10,000 people.  It is known for its artisan cheeses and hot springs or aguas termales.  When we first arrived, we took a walk around the lake and discovered a plaza del toro.  We checked first to be sure there weren't any bulls in the ring, then we had our own bull-fighting fun.

Linnea, the patrton saint of bull fighters...

Fruit and veggies.............................. or tasty meats?

Being inconspicuous on the streets of Paipa... 

we got a lot of stares because there doesn't seem to be too many foreign tourists.  

Rotary International seemed to have commissioned for this great crocodile-looking statue to be created from bicycle sprockets, wrenches, random car parts, and other mechanic shop paraphernalia. It was situated along a pedestrian path at Lago Sochagota.  We discovered it on the way to the hot springs, which we will post pictures of soon.

Gardening, Apartment Style

We were getting some tall weeds in our garden... it was time for them to come out.  But this required some climbing out of a window and balancing on the bricks...

Zipaquira Salt Mine

We headed out of the city to Zipaquira, a cute town about 50 km north of Bogota.  We taxied from our house to the nearest TransMilenio station.  From there we went to the northernmost terminal and changed to a much smaller bus for the hour ride to Zipaquira.

When we arrived there, we walked to the main square in town.   

Then we made our way up the mountain to the maze-like tunnels of the salt mines where 2 underground salt cathedrals have been carved out. 

Entrance to the mine

This is how they do it...

We got Salt!

It's snowing salt!

 Yes, we drank espresso 180 meters underground.

 Here is the main cathedral.  There were crazy colored lights that 

changed from blue to white to pink to purple.

                                                       blue..... then..................................pink!                                     

Rainy Day in Usaquen

                                                                           

Ricky-Ticky Halloween...quiero dulce para mi...

That's how the trick-or-treat chant goes here.  I've heard is a hundred times tonight, but now can't remember how the rest goes.  We had our share of halloween here... on Friday we had the school parade and class parties.  Eric was Flash and I was a Rubric's Cube (posing with my student, who is a little nerdy here.)

Linnea walking with her teacher in the parade.  Kindergarden through 5th grade walked through the Primary School, Elementary School and Middle School.  That took a while!

 And today, the actual Halloween was celebrated in our apartment.  To our surprise there are 23 kids living in our apartment and nearly all of them came to play and eat snacks our in our "park".  Unfortunately Linnea's grey bunny costume got washed today and it wasn't dry in time for the party, so she improvised with blue and white stripes.  Kind of a french bunny...

 Felipe, Linnea, Dempsey and Elijah

After the downstairs party, the kids roamed the halls and trick-or-treated, apartment-style.

Sorting and trading.

Our City!

(Update November 7, 2011)

When we first saw this "sculpture" at Hacienda Santa Barbara, a rambling shopping mall, I thought it was some cool art installation.  I learned recently that it's the symbol for a bottled water company and this was an advertisement.  I'm such a sucker.  The subtle things you miss when you're new to a place...

Villa de Leyva

We spent 5 days in Villa de Leyva with Papa Bruce.  We stayed at our friend, Bonnie's, house/bed and breakfast.  She teaches with us and goes to her finca every weekend.  We dug in the clay, hunted for fossils and made pizza and cooked it in her clay oven.

Before you can make things out of clay, you've got to find the clay in the ground.

 Bonnie's place...

After digging in the mud to find the clay, you've got to rinse off in the pond.

Pizza time!

                  

 Fossil hunting on the property.

 Mural in the Fossil Museum

This fossil was discovered in 1977 and the museum was built around it.