Kite Festival Weekend in Villa de Leyva

It has been a while since we've posted... the summer came and went quickly as we spend 6 weeks in Sebastopol; spending time with family, camping, and painting our house (that was a lot of work!).  We got back to Colombia in the beginning of August and it has been full tilt since then!  We escaped to Villa de Leyva for a long weekend for the kite festival.  The town plaza was abuzz with kite flyers, but we preferred flying our kites at our friends Bonnie and William's place.  Linnea flies her kite with William's advice...

On Saturday morning we went to the local market to get ingredients for our pizza.  The little guy above on the left was sitting with his grandma (?) as she pulled the kernels off the mazorca.  He took a nip off her Poker beer without even skipping a beat.  The mora in the picture at the upper right makes tasty juice - think blackberry juice with sugar added.

A family picture in the plaza while we enjoyed the kite festival and people watching.

Linnea and I took a horseback ride.  She was on Odelinda (Ode to beauty) and I was on Sereno (Serene).  The horses belonged to Bonnie and William's friends and 6 of us rode together to Pozos Azules, some beautiful ponds that invoked the colors of caribbean waters.

Pozos Azules

Our friends Moses (who also came to be known by the following names by Linnea: MoMo, Big Monster, and New Daddy [that one was a little strange, but somehow, seemed to not bother Moses]) and Rachel were traveling through Colombia for several weeks before they met us in Villa de Leyva.  We had met them in Honduras where they were Peace Corps volunteers in a sweet little town called Marcala.  We spend the long weekend together in V de L and then they came back with us to Bogotá and they stayed with us for 3 days before flying back to their other life in the states.

One of the reasons why Moses got called New Daddy... doesn't this look like a great family photo?  Moses and Rachel have an instant family!

Back at Bonnie and William's, there was still much to do... 

Dempsey spend many hours catching and releasing frogs from the numerous ponds.  

Of course there had to be a pizza making table to create all the tasty pizzas to cook in the pizza oven.  While we were outside cooking, the smells of the pizza and the kindness of the pizza-eaters attracted a stray dog that had been lingering around the periphery.  We coaxed him closer with our sweet voices and bites of pizza.  William was quickly warming up to the idea of having a dog, but I think Bonnie will take a little more convincing.

Bonnie and William's place on Monday morning, just before we got on the bus to return to Bogotá.  

The last few weeks have been a bit of a whirlwind... finishing up school and getting ready for our summer in California.  Here is the Cliffs Notes version of the last few weeks...

This is an awesome slide at a school called Gimnasio Moderno.  It's about 10 blocks from our house and a great place to play on Sundays.

Linnea took ballet and had a little performance in May.

Linnea's first grade class did a play.   She was a rainbow...

   Father's Day in Cota

Our friend's family has a finca in Mesitas, about 2 hours from Bogota.  It's a working coffee farm, but the coffee part is more of a hobby these days than a necessity.  Here are some stages of the process...

Here was a coffee cat sitting on the edge of a big vat of beans waiting to go down the shoot.

There were about a dozen horses on the property and Linnea got to ride Luna every day.

Life at the finca...

Linnea and Sandy

Now we are back in California, gearing up for our summer vacation... hopefully we'll have some time for some posts...

No Wonder!

We are just finishing up our first "year" (school year, that is) in Bogota, and this just came out today.

http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/economy/24532-bogota-is-53rd-mot-expensive-city-in-the-world.html

Bogota is the 53rd most expensive city in the world for ex-pats and 5th in South America.  Now I really can't complain...but living in a desirable city comes at a price.  Here are some of the conveniences we have enjoyed since moving here...

• Beautiful parks to stroll through on the weekend
• Ordering-in things like sushi, pad-thai, ice, beer, anything from the grocery story you want, a doctor, your prescription, and of course, pizza
•  An abundance of museums and restaurants
• Great local boutiques as well as recognizable brand name stores (when you need them)
• Inexpensive busses and taxis
• Great neighborhoods to stroll through from modern and new to the neighborhoods where "Bogota was born" where the buildings, cobblestone streets and architecture tell a story of long ago
• Great little towns to getaway to on the weekends

La Candelaria

              La Candelaria and Botero Museum




                                                                                                                                         

Near Lake Guatavita

But there are some things that we just can't seem to wrap our heads around...

•  a used car (that is pretty expensive) when the pica y placa restrictions mean that you can't drive your can 2 days a week (and it looks like it will be changing to 3 days a week) to counteract the terrible traffic
• The cost of eating out in the fancy restaurants (although we are finding lots of local joints in out neck of the woods) 
• The cost of our utilities
• Travel within the country by airplane

But these things that are less desirable are things that we can pass at this time in our life (well, I won't pass on utilities, but I just have to bite the bullet and pay them).  We really like it here and we'll continue to figure this city out and make it our home, for now.  It feels like this is a great time to be in Bogota and Colombia in general.  And the things we love are being outdoors, checking out and learning about Colombian culture and exploring the small towns and places off the beaten path.

Birthday Weekend in Anapoima

Renting a finca is something quite common here...

Technically, finca means farm.  But for most folks in Bogota, it means "weekend house".  Most fincas are all in the family, or you go with a friend to their finca.  Our students talk all the time about "going to my finca" or "... when I was at my finca..."

So when I shared with my student that we'd be spending the long weekend (on Monday we observed Dia de la Ascension) at a finca, my students immediately started asking questions.  The conversation went like this:

me:  "This weekend we are going to a finca."
student:  "Where?"
me:  "It's in Anapoima."
student:  "I have a finca there..."
different student: "Whose finca are you going to?"
me: "We are renting it."
student: "What? You can rent a finca?  How do you do that?"
different student: "Whose finca is it?"
me:  "Yes, you can rent a finca."
student: "Whose finca is it?"
me:  "I don't know who owns it specifically, we are renting it from an agency that rents out fincas."
student:  "I didn't know you could do that!?"

Yes, well when your family doesn't own a finca, you rent one, and that's what we did.  We also rented a 19 passenger van to transport all 16 of us there.  Here are the pictures... the time went by too fast and we got to top off our weekend by celebrating Eric's 40th b-day.

Uno and Doritos!

Hey, what are you guys doing over there?  Oh, it's the bbq pit.  Making pizza!  

Can you see the peacocks behind Eric?

Pizza on the grill

 The food kept coming... and we got stuffed.

 Happy Birthday Eric

Give My Regards to Broadway

This year, we had 75% of our family in the school musical.  We'll see if we can talk Dempsey into doing it next year.  From kindergarten to 12th grade, our tribute to Broadway was a whole school affair.  The show ran for 3 nights, and each night was better than the one preceding it.  

Pre-show pep-talk with the whole cast.

 Linnea in "Hard Knock Life" from Annie.  She has already committed to be in next year's musical.

 Us adults were  country folk from Annie Get your Gun.

We sang "Doin' What Comes Naturally".

A cat getting made up for "Mr. Mestoffelees".