Will we ever get home?

August 14th

4:15 am - Xander wakes up hungry and in need of a bottle.

4:45 am - He finishes his bottle and is ready to go back to bed for some more sleep.

4:46 am - Daddy decides to stay up since the alarm is going to go off at 5:15 anyway since we need to get to the airport early for our flight from Bogotá to Orlando Florida. We have to leave enough time to jump through all the customs and security hoops.

4:50 am - Daddy takes an extremely cold shower, and this is not by choice. No hot water is to be had in the crummy hotel we find ourselves in. This was no Pensión Stein. Not a happy way to start the day

6:00 am - The family is packed and our driver Julian arrives to take us to the airport.

6:20 am - We arrive at the airport and are whisked to the front of the check-in line due to being "baby people".

7:00 am - I go to get coffee for Kristin and I and on the way see a huge tube of duty free Mentos. For some reason Kristin loves Mentos like crazy so I buy them for her. Plus I was trying to get rid of my Pesos.

8:15 am - I eat my chocolate croissant and get some chocolate on my shorts which immediately melts directly on my nether region. As Kristin can attest, it's not unusual for me to spill foodstuffs on my clothes but the good news is that I can now blame it on Xander. So, for the record, it was his fault even though mommy happened to be holding him at that time.

8:40 am - We board the plane for the first time. Yep, you read that right, the first time. The implication here being that we boarded the same plane more than once.

9:10 am - The passenger beside me has a little "yap" ("yap" not lap) dog in a carrier that won't fit under the seat. Our flight was due to leave at 9:00. The Jet Blue representatives go in search of a proper carrier. Are we being delayed for this? I'm not pleased. Please just leave the dog at the airport, my son is going to have meltdown if we don't get going.

9:20 am - The new carrier arrives and the dog fits snug under the seat. Aren't pets supposed be down with the luggage anyway? Okay, problem solved, let's get a move on. Don't get me wrong, I love animals, I'm just really nervous about traveling this long distance with an infant. An infant with lots of energy and a short fuse...

9:40 am - The pilot informs us that we aren't leaving because the smoke detectors are not working and legally we can't leave. Kristin overhears the pilots commenting that the maintenance crew is going into the lavatory and simply banging the smoke detectors with a screwdriver. Sometimes the Fonzie maneuver works but mostly it doesn't. This doesn't bode well for our trip.

10:30 am - We are informed that we must deplane in order for the crew to fix the problem. The flight attendants and pilots split.

Baby is getting bored so we let him walk around on the floor a bit after we get off the plane.

12:30 am - We are informed over the loudspeaker that the flight has been canceled. I get in line to make the arrangements to get on another flight. I'm third in line, there are at least a hundred people behind me.

12:35 pm - Some of the Colombians start yelling at the crew in Spanish. Everyone rushes the counter yelling at the Jet Blue employees. I'm no longer third in line, just in the middle of a mass of people all yelling in Spanish. This is going nowhere fast so I leave the "line".

12:40 pm - We find a young Jet Blue employee that speaks a little English and he agrees to help us make arrangements. He keeps leaving to go speak with his manager to try to get us on another flight.

12:55 pm - The person helping us informs us that the flight may leave today after all. Nothing like a good old fashioned riot to get things done! They are in the process of bringing the crew back who have left to go to the hotel. Hopefully they haven't stopped at the bar.

1:00 pm - We finally get back on the plane and are on waiting in line for takeoff.

1:40 pm - We are informed that we need a new flight number in order to take off. Apparently in order to fly over Cuba the airline must pay $500 per flight and only the flight numbers that have been approved can enter Cuba's airspace.

2:15 pm - We are informed that someone wants to get off the plane so legally we must go back to the gate. Plus, at this point we need more fuel.

2:45 pm - We're back at the gate and the passengers begin to chant "Almuerzo...Almuerzo...Almuerzo" which means "lunch"  in Spanish. Some people near us start chanting "Luncha", I guess to make Kristin and I feel included. The stress of the situation is starting to get to me so to make a joke I raise my fist and chant "Cerveza...Cerveza...Cerveza!" which gets a good laugh.

3:15 pm - Xander has had enough of this business so Kristin takes him for a walk and ends up chatting with the pilots who take them into the cockpit for pictures.

3:30 pm - The man who wanted off the plane has changed his mind and doesn't want to get off. The crew makes he and his family get off. Be careful what you wish for I guess.

4:30 pm - Jet Blue has finally gotten food together and loaded on the plane for us to eat and we are finally taking off. It is nearly three hours after we were supposed to arrive in Orlando. If they hadn't fed us we could have probably left an hour and a half ago. I would have gladly forfeited my ham sandwich and shoe string potato chips to be in the air already.

7:50 pm - We arrive in Orlando.

8:20 pm - We get to customs, there are about a hundred people in front of us. Where's the line for "baby people"? We quickly realize that the people waiting in line are visitors to the country. We're in our own country so we go to another section where we are first in line! Score! USA! USA! USA!

9:00 pm - This isn't really working out that great. We're still standing talking to the customs agent. He finally lets us know that he was having trouble finding Xander's name in the database because someone entered it wrong. I think he said they entered something like "De La Luna". He leads us into a waiting room with the Homeland Security logo and tells us to stay there. Why do I feel like criminal? Are they suspicious because we're coming from Colombia? Oh dear God, please don't tell me that I'm getting a cavity search! I still refuse that test at the doctor... Don't let it happen like this!

9:10 pm - I start chatting with another person waiting in the room, a Colombian man from Bogotá who has lived in Denver, Colorado for the last 20 years. I'm keeping my eye on him ready to tackle if he tries anything funny, we have to be diligent in the defense against "evil-doers".

Not really, he was actually a very nice man. I think he would have been perfectly content to sit in silence but I kept talking with him anyway.

9:40 pm - My new buddy finally gets cleared and gets to leave. As he is leaving he asks, "Was there a problem?" A legitimate question for someone who has been held up for 45 minutes with no explanation whatsoever. "Your name was very close to someone we are looking for", was the agent's reply.

10:00 pm - We are finally cleared to leave as well. The first agent and the agent that went over our paperwork with a fine toothed comb came out to speak with us and were very friendly and congratulatory about our adoption. That was very nice of them but we're all beyond exhausted. Please, please, please let us go...

10:30 pm - Alexander falls asleep strapped to mommy.

Here we're waiting outside for the shuttle bus to the hotel. It's so hot and humid in Orlando that my camera lens fogs up.

10:45 pm - We finally arrive at the hotel and baby wakes up from the commotion. We had such a wonderful time in Colombia and a great experience interacting with the people but Kristin and I are both so happy to conversing with someone who speaks English as their native language. The woman helping us at the front desk says hi to Alexander and he bursts into tears. Poor little baby is so tired.

10:55 pm - Room service shows up with brie and crackers. We didn't order this, we think the woman at the front desk sent it to be nice. We're not sure. I'm so tired I only have one small piece of brie. I give Xander his bottle.

August 15th - Nope we're not sleeping yet...

12:30 am - After quite a crying spell baby finally is able to fall asleep.

1:00 am - I finally fall asleep.

5:15 am - Xander wakes for a bottle.

5:45 am - I crawl back into bed after feeding him. The alarm is set for 6:30. I can't get back to sleep so I get up about 6:20 to take a shower.

6:25 am - I am so happy to be taking a shower in a good quality chain hotel. The water pressure is great and the water is hot! Yes, it might be terribly inefficient and wasteful and bad for the environment but we liberals like a good shower as much as anyone. Oh, beautiful for spacious skies...

7:30 am - Someone from the hotel comes to help us with our bags. Remember the first post where I stated that we had 200 pounds of luggage? Well, whatever we left or used up in Colombia as far as diapers, formula, or donations for the orphanage we gained back in weight with the coffee we brought back.

7:35 am - The person who carried our luggage down noticed the address on our bags. It turns out that he used to live a few blocks from our house in Rochester. He was also born in Brooklyn and grew up in the Bay Ridge neighborhood. It seems like whenever I meet someone who was born and raised in Brooklyn they always say they are from Bay Ridge. I've never even been to Bay Ridge and actually don't remember where it is.

7:55 am - We arrive at the airport and get in line to check our 200 pounds of baggage. No "baby people" lines here. No one could care less if we had a baby or not. Get in line with the rest of us chumps! Being in Orlando, about one in every three people has some sort of Mickey Mouse related item on their person, whether it be a tshirt, backpack or a balloon.

8:20 am - We finally get our bags checked and it's off to security.

8:25 am - We actually get to go in the "family line" for security.

8:50 am - Kristin's in the bathroom changing Xander and I hear over the intercom that our flight in boarding. I was so psyched to get a chai latte at Starbucks before getting on the plane but it was not to be. I didn't realize we were cutting it so close, we could have very easily missed our flight.

9:00 am - The flight takes off on time and Xander sleeps most of time on Kristin's shoulder.

11:30 am - Our friends Marc and Jen pick us up at the airport.

12:01 pm - Home sweet home!

Well, that's it. That was our journey to and from Colombia. Thanks to everyone who followed our story and sent the sweet and encouraging words along the way. It meant a lot to us to have the connection to all of you while going through all of this, to know that there were so many people back home that cared. This was such an amazing experience and now we have such an amazing little boy to share our lives with.

We love you Xander!

August 13th

Our last day in Colombia, it's on to Orlando tomorrow and then the next day we go home. Manuela and our driver Julian picked us up at 10:00 am for a tour of downtown consisting of a museum of archeological relics and a walk to see the central square, some beautiful old churches and the presidential palace. Unfortunately I was not allowed to take pictures inside the churches but they were unbelievably beautiful. Manuela said that one of the was from the 1500's and the other from the 1600's. I really like Bogotá quite a bit, even more than Calí. If I spoke the language, which we will hopefully continue learning, I could definitely see myself living here. One of the nicest things about Bogotá is that since it is at such a high elevation the weather is very moderate. The average temperature year round is 60-65 degrees Fahrenheit. Yes, you read that right, 60-65 degrees! The weather has been beautiful here the last few days.

After our quick tour we had lunch at a typical Colombian restaurant that was very nice and then went to the embassy to pick up Alexander's visa. We went back to the hotel and then we went for a walk to a different grocery store than yesterday so we were able to see a different part of the neighborhood. We took the main streets which were very busy and loud. On the walk back we took side streets through a quite residential neighborhood with some beautiful Spanish colonial homes. We ended up walking through a very nice and quiet park that had a path that ran through it and the path continued outside of the park and took as all the way to the hotel. It was a wonderful way to end our trip here in Colombia.

This is the guard that yelled at us for getting too close to the fence around the presidential palace.

Mommy dancing with baby. 30 minutes until bedtime...

August 12th

We applied for Alexander's visa today! We will get it tomorrow at 3:30. We've booked our flight to go home! We're flying from Bogotá to Orlando Saturday and then Sunday we are flying from Orlando to Rochester. We are flying Jet Blue this time and we're hoping the little tvs on the back of the seats will keep Alexander entertained for the duration of the flight. He was really great on the one hour flight yesterday but these flights are going to be significantly longer.

Yesterday I wrote that we were waiting for a letter from Chiquitines, they send it to ICBF yesterday at 4:30 in the afternoon. ICBF then writes a letter that we take to the US Consulate to apply for the visa. Usually it takes 24 hours for this process to take place. Manuela took us over to ICBF this morning to beg for the letter early. She and I went into the office and she spoke to the person responsible for issuing the letter. He was not happy that we showed up unannounced and told her it would be ready at 4:00. If that turned out to be the case we wouldn't have been able to apply for the visa and would have been in Bogotá until at least Wednesday. Manuela pleaded our case and the young man begrudgingly agreed. "Everyone wants an exception!" The letter was really a form letter where he had to fill in our names and correct birth dates. I really think that that was all there was to it. So twenty four hours turned into twenty minutes. I know he is probably very busy and gets requests like this all day long every day but this really was important because of the four day weekend at the Embassy.

After getting the letter we went to the US Embassy / Consulate. It turns out that we actually applied for the visa at the Consulate, not the Embassy. The Embassy is the part that deals with diplomatic issues between the US and Colombia but it shares the same building with the Consulate. Again, the reality was drastically different from the vision I had in my head. I thought the US Ambassador would greet us at the door with open arms welcoming us back to the United States (Embassies are technically considered territories of their respective countries).  He would chat with us as we sat and had coffee and talked about the differences between the US and Colombia. He would play with Alexander as he was signing the paperwork. No, actually we waited in line for a hour and when it was our turn went to what looked like a bank teller window and spoke with the representatives on a telephone like you see in the movies when people are in prison.

First I paid for the visa, $440.00 US. Didn't expect that. My credit card burns my skin whenever I take it out of my wallet anymore from all the swiping. My own little stimulus plan for the US. You're welcome!

We waited again until being called to another window where the person on the other side of the glass looked at the paperwork to verify that everything was in order. She asked a question about Alexander, which I forget, in a pretty dispassionate tone. I answered her and then to lighten the mood a bit I said, "He a pretty good looking kid isn't he?" Kristin laughed and smacked me on the arm, "Stop!" The woman had looked at his Visa photos, but had not really "looked" at them, she was simply going through the motions. "Oh, I haven't seen him yet, I was going to ask you to bring him over." Manuela was walking him around in the stroller we borrowed from the hotel. When Manuela brought him over she smiled and said how beautiful he was.

More waiting.

I was finally called up to the window to speak with yet another person. This was the final "interview". I don't really remember what the woman asked but she wanted to see Alexander and she congratulated us and said he was beautiful. I think the whole conversation with her lasted a minute and a half. After walking away from the window I asked Manuela, "Was that the interview?" She smiled and said, "Yes, that's it!" So we'll go back to the Consulate tomorrow to pick up the visa. Manuela is going to pick us up at 9:00 am and we are going to do some sightseeing of Bogotá beforehand.

No pictures today, I brought my camera but wasn't allowed to bring it into ICBF nor the Embassy. 

Not much action during the afternoon. We walked to the supermarket to get diapers.

Dispatch from Bogotá!

Yes, you read that right, we're finally in Bogotá. We arrived at 3:30, but let's start at the beginning.

Kristin went with Alexander and the lawyer this morning to get his passport. He's still legally a Colombian citizen so we had to get a Colombian passport. The reason for going to Bogotá is that we have to get a Visa for him to travel to the US. The moment we land in the US he automatically becomes a US citizen and the Colombian passport becomes null and void.

Kristin was gone by the time I showered and got to breakfast, usually in the hotel we ate together as a family but it didn't work out this morning. Somebody, I'm not mentioning any names, took over an hour getting ready this morning, and she, whoops, I mean "they" left me to entertain Alexander so I wasn't able to get ready in time to eat breakfast with them.

I went down to breakfast and as I was eating all the staff came to my table to shake my hand and some of the ladies hugged and kissed me to bid me farewell. As much as I wanted to get out of that place I will miss these warm and kind people.

After breakfast I went up to the room to wait for Kristin. I had asked Enrique what time checkout was but he insisted that we stay and relax, let the baby take a nap and so on before going to the aeropuerto. Lunch doesn't begin until 12:30 but he also insisted having the cooks make us lunch at 12:00 so we could eat before we left. When they got back Xander took a short nap and we packed our stuff to go.

We were hanging out on the porch until it was time to leave. I was entertaining Xander and talking to Peter and Cecilia from Sweden. Kristin went inside to settle the bill. When she came out she had tears in her eyes. "What happened Kristin? Did Enrique yell at you?" I said in mock outrage. Everyone laughed. It turns out that all the staff came to bid Kristin farewell as they had with me in the morning which was very touching to her. Enrique came out to say goodbye and got choked up too, which made me get choked up.

Enrique's wife ended up taking us to the airport. We were sitting in the car in the hotel parking lot waiting for the security guard to open the gate and Kristin said she couldn't believe they fit all of our luggage in what seemed like a really small trunk. One of the men who does general work around the hotel packed the car. "Should we check and make sure that it's all there?" "Yeah, probably a good idea." It turns out that three of our huge suitcases were still in the room. He thought we had carried everything down and had only packed the bags on the porch. I can't even imagine what would have happened if we had left our luggage at the hotel and had gone to the airport without it. We almost did.

An interesting transformation occurred when we got to the airport. We became "baby people". You know, the people that everyone at the gate sees and thinks to themselves, "Oh god, I hope that couple with the baby doesn't sit next to me on the plane!" I've said that to myself many times. On the flip side, there also seem to be some perks to being "baby people". When we got to the ticket counter one of the airline representatives pulled us from the back of a twenty person long line and directed us to the empty preferred customer line. The same thing happened when Kristin went to get the passport this morning.

Xander dealt with the flight really well, he actually got more impatient waiting for the flight than when we were on the plane. Let's just say this, by the end of the flight he was VERY relaxed, and I don't mean he was sleeping. You could just sense something in the air.

I've never seen people push and shove to get off a plane like this before in my life! That's my boy!

The scenery from Calí to Bogotá was beautiful. There were miles and miles of wonderful lush green mountain ranges. It was breathtaking.

Manuela, our Bogotá version of Magnolia picked us up at the airport. Bogotá seems like a really great city. What we've seen so far is very modern and clean. It actually reminds me of NYC in a way and it just feels significantly safer than Calí for some reason. I asked Manuela if Bogotá was safe and she said that it was indeed a very safe city, and that Medellín and Calí are the worst cities in Colombia with the most crime and drug activity!

Before we are allowed to go to the US embassy we are required to have the baby checked out by a doctor so that's what we did this afternoon. The doctor was a gentle and sweet man. He said that Alexander was perfect, in great health and growing exactly as he should be at this age. He said something that really touched me, he thanked us and said it made him really happy that we were taking care of a child from Colombia and said that he could tell we were taking good care of him. He then led us into another room so he could show us pictures of his children.

We are waiting for a letter from Chiquitines that basically determines whether we can leave for home by Saturday. If we don't get this letter by 11:00 tomorrow morning we won't be able to go to the US embassy and will have to stay until at least Tuesday because the US embassy is closed Friday and Monday for a holiday. This whole process is really taking so much less time than we thought so what's a couple extra days? It would be nice to do some sight seeing.

Waiting for the baggage in Bogotá.

Some snapshots on the ride to the hotel.

La Sentencia!

We signed the court documents today! It's off to Bogotá tomorrow afternoon!

Kristin and the baby stayed at the hotel while I went to sign the papers. Magnolia called and said the lawyer was coming to pick me up.

The lawyer doesn't speak English.

I don't speak Spanish.

This is going to be fun....

So our lawyer shows up in a cab and we're off to the court. It's about 90 degrees and I had put on my suit pants and a long sleeve shirt to make myself presentable to the judge. I had visions in my head of a big old beautiful courthouse (Calí has some really wonderful buildings actually) and standing in a courtroom in front of a judge with ceremonial judicial garb, being sworn in, in Spanish of course, and pledging to take care of Alexander and take him as my own son, etc, etc. We drive through a neighborhood I'm completely unfamiliar with and end up on a block that reminds me of Canal street in NYC. If you've been there, you know what I mean. If not, think of a super crowded street with a ton of crummy shops selling a bunch of junk. The cab drops us off at this building that has a rather large open storefront on the ground floor with more junk shops inside and a copy center consisting of a girl standing in a 10x10 foot room making copies and a couple of self serve copiers outside of the room. Hmmm, we must be making a stop for some reason? Remember, the lawyer doesn't speak English and I don't speak Spanish.

She's motioning to the elevator? Okay, I guess we're here? We go to the fourth floor and come to this non-descript hallway with several metal doors. I'm able to make out that each of these doors represents a different "court", the letters over the door say something about family court and each is numbered. We're standing in front of "5". Ah yes, that's the one we're assigned to.

The lawyer motions for me to wait, I think she said "Uno momento" or something. It's blazing hot, no air conditioning anywhere in this building, and we're standing in this weird hallway that looks nothing like a courthouse. Every few minutes or so the lawyer goes to door numero cinqo and pounds loudly and begins to pace. Did I mention that I don't speak Spanish and she doesn't speak English?

I feel a hand tap me on the shoulder, I turn around and it's Magnolia! Someone I can actually communicate with! Magnolia I'm so happy to see you!

Finally the door opens to reveal a pretty drab office with about four desks, three of which are empty. The fourth one is occupied with two young men that look as if you added up their ages they would be barely old enough to vote. They were talking and fooling around with each other. About four foot from the door was a diagonal counter where we stood, keeping the workers in and the people out. I asked Magnolia, "Is this the court?" She smiled and nodded. No judge, no ceremonial garb, no gavel, no court stenographer,  no sketch artist (what picture will they use for the evening news?), no bailiff, nothing. Just a plain office. I'm sweating in wool pants for this?

So a young woman finally comes over to help us, she brings over our paper work which is in a folder that is literally about 12 inches high. Uh oh, this may take a while. I wish I had my shorts on...

Magnolia and the lawyer check and double check the names and passport numbers for Kristin and I on two pages of the documents. All is good. The woman behind the counter stamps the two pages with a rubber stamp and motions for me to sign on two different lines. I do....

We're standing....waiting...waiting. Some Spanish is spoken. Waiting... I don't speak Spanish....

Finally Magnolia reveals that we are waiting for the secretary to sign the documents, she's at lunch. I ask, "Is that all that I have to sign?" I've only signed my name twice. She says in her cute Spanish accent, "Yes, oh I forgot, congratulations papa! He's now yours officially! No one can take him away from you. No way!" Magnolia is one of those people that just makes me laugh for no reason in particular, I just find myself giggling around her. We really didn't even need to stay to wait for the secretary, so we left. We'll that's it, it's official. Not really what I expected. I didn't expect a ticker tape parade with paparazzi but I expected more than this!? It was really good to get this over with though.

So it turns out that I didn't actually have to stay to get the birth certificate changed with his new name, as I thought I would, the lawyer would handle that and we'll get Alexander's passport tomorrow morning. I could go back to the hotel to take the long sleeve shirt and wool pants off. Magnolia said she would accompany me back to the hotel in a cab. No, I tell her, I can take one myself, it's not a problem. She insisted to go with. We get in a cab and the cabbie tries to take a turn Magnolia doesn't like, they spend the next ten minutes while we're driving down the road, arguing about how to get to the hotel. She explains to him several times how to get there but he is claiming that the address she has given him is wrong. "See, this is why I told you I need to go with you! He wants to go over by Chiquitines!" (An hour away) I laugh and say, "If you weren't here this cab ride would cost me $100!" "Yes, more or less!" she replies.

Once I got back to the hotel Xander, my new official son, and I went for a swim. Before we got to the pool, he threw up on me.

August 9th

Not much news today. We thought for sure we were going to court but no such luck. Apparently the woman from ICBF (the Colombian agency that oversees adoptions) who needs to sign our papers has proven to be an elusive foe. Our lawyer camped out at the court today until she was asked to leave for bothering everyone so much. She then sat outside stalking the front of the courthouse. Or at least that's the story we are getting, we can only take Magnolia's word for it (don't get me wrong, we have no reason to doubt her). It boggles the mind how this works. Do they not have appointments here?

To get something done, anything done, we walked to the mall this morning to get Xander's visa and passport photos taken. The government specifies that the subject must be wearing a dark shirt and be placed on a white background so he's wearing his Beatles "onezie". The girl that worked at the photo place way trying to speak to me in Spanish but I really only get about 4% of what anyone is saying. She kept asking, "Uno, dos, tres...?" while pointing to the credit card reader. Finally it dawned on me, the same thing happened yesterday when we went to lunch with Magnolia. Here in Colombia you can have merchants spread out the total price of your purchases over several months so the entire thing doesn't show up all at once on your monthly credit card statement. The photos cost 25.000 pesos (which is 25 thousand, they use "." instead of "," in their numbering system). This may sound like a lot but the exchange rate is 2000:1, so that equaled about $12.50. Yeah, I should be able to swing that, put it all on next month... :) Of course, with the way little Xander is eating maybe not!

America's Most Wanted:

We waited all afternoon to hear about court but nothing happened. Xander got restless so I took him swimming. We played in the baby pool but I got bored and took him into the big pool. He loved it! Some young kids from about 8-11 were playing in the pool as well and he kept paddling his hands trying to get over to them. He really likes any place where there are a lot of people and noise. We're guessing that is because he was in an orphanage with so many other children and adult staff members around all the time.

After we got out of the pool Kristin stripped his bathing suit and diaper off and wrapped him in a beach towel. We were standing talking with one of the other adoptive mothers, Cecilia from Sweden, and Kristin said she smelled something. We went up to the room to find that baby left a present in the towel. This is the third time something like this has happened when he's naked. Mommy and daddy haven't learned their lesson yet. It's like a game show, get baby's diaper on within 30 seconds or you win a prize that you don't necessary want!

Hopefully court will happen tomorrow...

August 8th

The second best day that we've had yet in Colombia! Magnolia took us to the mountains and we had Spanish Tapas for lunch. Kristin and Magnolia drank Sangria and I had wine. Xander was exceptionally patient and good spirited (except for in the car).

The mountains were absolutely breathtaking. The pictures don't do any justice to the beauty of this area. Once we got to the top and reached our destination the weather was a beautiful 60-65 degrees. Down in Calí it was really hot, I'd say in the upper 80's. It was so peaceful and wonderful in the mountains. I'm so glad we went, I really felt like we were on vacation, so much so that I was having vacation type fantasies of buying a house on top of the mountain to spend summers at. There were many nice and expensive cottages in this area. Enrique told us that the poor lived in the mountains, but that certainly wasn't case here.

Silly tourist walked into my picture...

Primer restaurante del bebé. (The baby's first restaurant)

Fog coming over the mountain tops.

Mommy I'd like some Sangria por favor!

It doesn't look that steep in the pictures but I swear this was a 40 degree incline and there were cows and horses walking around on it. I couldn't believe it. I expected to see cows rolling down the mountain.

Calí down below.

Next to the parking lot for the restaurant these children were sliding down this path on half a plastic oil drum and would slam into a couple of tires at the bottom. It seemed really dangerous but they were having a blast.

Eucalyptus and Lemon trees.

The striped patterns on the mountains are pine trees. They aren't indigenous to this area but they grow so fast and so well that they are used for paper manufacturing.

You can barely see it but there are a bunch of people flying kites here.  During the whole trip we saw hundreds of people on the sides of the road doing this. There a lot of people selling kites on the street in the city. I didn't really pay much attention to it before but apparently it's a huge leisure activity here?!

We told Magnolia that Alexander was born in Yumbo which is a little town outside of Calí so after we came down the mountain she showed it to us. I didn't take many pictures but trust me, these two pictures show the nice part of town. It didn't take pictures of the slums. Not a nice place at all and Magnolia said it was really dangerous. We didn't drive through the slums but saw them from the main highway. The ironic thing is that several huge multinational corporations such as Johnson & Johnson and John Deere have manufacturing plants in Yumbo and pay huge taxes to the town but the people never see any the money. Magnolia says the politicians keep the tax revenue for themselves. It's a real tragedy that there is such greed and corruption in the world. To be perfectly honest, it's rather disgusting to me that these trusted America brands allow such a thing to occur in places where they have their manufacturing plants.

I was really glad to see where my child was from but saddened that his biological family was probably living in this horrible environment. Such a contrast of economic environments we were exposed to today. But still, like I said, the second best day in Colombia yet!