July 30th

Slowly but surely Alexander,  mommy and daddy are getting to know each other. One thing that we are learning is that we don't need to entertain him every waking moment. He is often times perfectly content to play by himself with his toys. Kristin and I can lay back and play goalie to make sure he doesn't launch off the bed, which he wants to do so badly!

We are starting to develop a schedule. Unfortunately this schedule is probably going to be upset because baby is getting his shots today. We need to get more bottles, so if he gets upset we'll take him for a walk which seems a good strategy to calm him down.

We've getting more comfortable walking around. I'm not going to lie, I was very intimidated the first couple of times leaving the compound on our own. Our hotel has 24 hour security with locked iron gates. The security people at the malls also carry guns. Kristin was following some US government websites with tourist warnings and a guidebook we bought for Columbia also put us on edge. These both made us feel like as soon as we set foot off the hotel property someone was going to stab us in the eye. It's not like that at all. Magnolia was explaining the social structures in Colombia based on a ranking system from 0 (pobre) to 6 (rico) (poor to rich) BTW- 90's pop star Rico Sauve's name literally translates to "Rich Soft" but that's besides the point. The area that we are staying in ranks 5-6, it's absolutely safe. As with any big city there are certainly many areas we should avoid but where are is fine. We do get a certain amount of stares when walking around the neighborhood, in cities like NYC tourists can blend in pretty easily if they know what they are doing, it's not so simple for Kristin and I. As with NY people on the street pretty much ignore each other.

For some reason when we go to the mall, the people that work in the food court are very aggressive trying to get you to eat their food. It seems pretty clear that at the other shops commission comes into play, could that be the case at a fast food restaurant?

Magnolia has told us so many interesting things that I will try to describe on this blog as the days pass. We've learned a lot from her and when I've had time I've been reading about the history of Colombia on Wikipedia. In the same way that it happened in the US, the Spaniards came to conquer the area that is now Colombia bringing  African slaves and mixing with the native Indians. If you look at the pictures from the orphanage you can see these three groups clearly represented.

I've mentioned that the traffic is so bad here. One technique they use to combat congestion is Pico y Placa. There are certain hours that people is not allowed to drive based on the number of their license plate. This forces people to either stay home at this time, car pool or take public transportation. Very inconvenient I'm sure, but seems like it could be a good idea for many different reasons. I'm not sure how effective it is here though, as I've mentioned the traffic and pollution are pretty bad here. Now that I think of it, since the city is essentially in a valley that probably holds the pollution in. This was the case when we went to Paris as well.

It's 10:30 am - Shot time approaches. Wish us luck...