Tierra Caliente!

By 4:45 am, with all the girls brushing their hair and teeth, I still hadn't heard a noise from the boys' room, and I didn't see a light from under the door. I knocked, "rise and shine!" I was greeted by a grunt from the other side of the door. Twenty minutes later, the 6 of us walked out the door into the cold, drizzly Bogota morning. We waited at the bus stop for half an hour, wondering why every bus that went by went to the center, and not a single one went where we wanted to go. Finally, we caught a bus, and splashing through the puddles, headed in the direction of the main bus terminal. With our hoods and umbrellas up, shivering in the rain as we walked the last few blocks to the terminal, we wondered if we were crazy to think we were going to go swimming.

The bus terminal's motto claims that it will be a "pleasant experience", but when you're anticipating a 3 hour bus ride on a bus without a bathroom, and bathrooms in the terminal charge 700 pesos just to use them, with a 200 peso additional charge for toilet paper, it's a little hard to agree with that. An additional 3000 pesos for sweet bread to share on the bus and 15,000 pesos each for our tickets, and we were on our way to Melgar in Tierra Caliente by 7:30.

Melgar is a popular tourist destination for Bogotanos, who, despite the fact that they live very close to the equator, never have a day hot enough for swimming because of the high altitude. Just hours downhill though, the climate changes, and swimming pools and resorts abound. Since pretty much everyone on the bus was off to do exactly what we were- spending a day at the pool- there was a festive atmosphere on the bus. We stopped to pick up more passengers along the way, and between the salsa, merengue, ballenato and reggaeton playing on the speakers, the laughter in the aisles at Fabian's constant monlouge, gorgeous views of the mountains, and frequent jokes about our need for a bathroom break, the time went by quickly. We did stop once, and one of the girls who went in search of a bathroom also found a mango tree and brought back a bag of green mangos to share with everyone. Green mangos are not my favorite, but eating them gives you something to do on a longish bus ride.

Our final destination was a water park, Piscilago, just a bit outside of Melgar. Most of the people on the bus, and maybe half the population of Bogota seemed to have the same destination that day. After avoiding the vendors outside the gate selling hats, swimsuits, and "mandatory" swim caps, we finally made it inside. As we walked through the park, past the various pools and water slides, we started looking around. Maybe swim caps really WERE mandatory. Everyone seemed to be wearing one. We broke down and bought them, because we though the 4 blonde girls in the pool without swim caps would be VERY noticeable. Fortunately for us, the Colombians haven't quite perfected the art of ripping of a captive audience and even though lunch we twice the price we could have found it for outside the park, the swim caps cost the same inside and outside the gates- roughly 50 cents.

We spent the day swimming, standing in really long lines (that's what happens on the Sunday of a 3 day weekend when kids are on a 2 week vacation from school), going down giant water slides, eating jelly belly jelly beans, and alternately trying to tan or trying not to get burnt depending on our original skin color. (I was trying not to burn. I do not get tan in one day. I get lobster red. I was amazingly successful at not getting at all burnt).

We stopped in Melgar on our way back for dinner. We had rotisserie chicken. Here it comes already cut in pieces with baked potatoes that have been rolled in salt, mini arepas, and if you are lucky, fried plantains (we weren't lucky this time). It's also served without silverware, and "chupando huesos", or eating all the meat off the bones, is an art.

The bus ride back was uneventful. I talked poor Edwin's ear off because I talk too much when I haven't gotten enough sleep. We caught a bus without problem when we left the terminal, but it only took us part way home. We got off at Carrera 57. We live on Carrera 7. We walked. And walked. And walked. And walked. For blocks and blocks and blocks. No buses passed, except for one, and when Fabian asked if it went to 7th the bus driver said it only went to the 15th. After he drove off, I realized the 15 would be a whole lot better than 40 something, but it was too late. 2 taxi drivers stopped for us, but refused to take all 6 of us, and since expenses had run a little higher than estimated, we weren't sure we had enough money left to pay for 2 taxis. Finally, the 3rd taxi that stopped took us. We laughingly said we were going to go to Alex's when we got back to ask for the ice cream he'd promised us the night before, but we decided midnight was a bit late for that.

As we drove up we noticed Alex's light was still on. Inside the house, the door to his side was open and everyone was up watching a movie, so we went in to ask for ice cream. He gave us ice cream, and then leftover soup, and potatoes with guacamole. It was a delicious end to a wonderful day!