Archive for June, 2009

We had a lazy morning debating about whether to get organised and head back to the zoo to finish off the bits we didn’t see on Monday. However, at around 11am we got a knock on our door – it was Magnolia our interpreter come to let us know that our lawyer wanted us at the courts by 2pm to sign our adoption papers. This was a big surprise, as we weren’t expecting to be signing until late next week at the earliest.

The other Australian couple here who arrived a week before we did only signed their papers yesterday, so to be signing ours today was a bit of a shock.

We hurried around to the shopping centre down the road to get some more cash for the various expenses we would have in the next few days – and then had a quick lunch. Magnolia picked me up at 2pm and we headed to the courts together in a taxi to meet up with our lawyer. When I say “courts”, I actually mean the administrative offices – it’s just paperwork done in a small crowded office with piles of paper everywhere. Nothing formal, and no fanfare or ceremony.

For some reason they only needed me there to sign, not both of us, so Leanne didn’t come with. We waited for the paperwork to be organised and we checked it for mistakes (standing around in the hallway), and then they ushered me into the office where I stood at their front counter and posed for a photo before signing the document.

At the Family Court signing the adoption papers

Next we headed back downstairs to where there was a store offering photocopying services – convenient that they happen to set up right below the court offices – they seemed to be doing a roaring trade. We copied the documents and made additional copies of our passports and then headed back upstairs to submit them all. Quite quick and simple really.

Photocopying service downstairs from the courts

This isn’t quite the last step, we still need to organise a new birth certificate for Andres (showing our names as the parents), and a Colombian passport so he can leave the country. We’ll be doing those in the next few days.

We spent the rest of the afternoon sitting around and snoozing – Leanne wasn’t feeling that great.

Quiet day again today – I had some work to catch up on in the morning, and I wanted to get the blog a bit more up to date. Our plan was to have a quiet morning at the hotel and then in the late afternoon, head to the art and craft markets up the road. However, we were all a bit tired and Andres actually slept for over 3 hours until around 5:30pm – we slept quite a bit too, this parenting business is exhausting (and the heat tend to sap the energy a bit too).

We did spend a bit of time on the front porch after lunch and I took the opportunity to get some more photos.

Leanne and Andres

Leanne and Andres

Leanne and Andres

Leanne and Andres

Leanne and Andres

Andres has taken quite a liking to mashed banana – he ate a bit at breakfast and then quite a bit more at lunch. He seems to be getting the eating action more under control – and has started using his tongue more too – he licks the spoon clean!

We arranged for our interpreter / guide Magnolia to drive us to the ChipiChape shopping centre this morning to help us find some books on Cali and Colombia plus some music CDs from this region.

We spent a few hours looking through bookstores and bought some lovely books that we will keep for Andres when he is older – to give him an idea about what Cali and Colombia are like.

We also bought some CDs full of chilrens songs (in Spanish) that Magnolia tells us they play at the orphanage Chiquitines. We will have to learn the words so we can sing them with Andres. We also bought some CDs with local music from around Colombia and another with salsa music played by three well regarded Cali bands.

Spend the afternoon napping again – while I also spent some time organising photos and updating the blog a bit.

Leanne and Andres

We decided this morning to visit Cali Zoo – which is quite close to the hotel we are staying at. We mentioned it to Enrique who insisted on driving us there and paying our admission, something he does for most of the families who stay at the hotel.

We only had a couple of hours – Enrique arranged to have someone pick us up so we would be back in time for lunch, so we decided to see as much as we could, and then come back on our own schedule another time to see the rest of it.

Cali Zoo

Cali Zoo is set next to the Cali River, indeed, it actually spans the river with the entrance and several small exhibits on one side of the river, and the main part of the zoo on the other side. It is a lovely setting with lots of well established trees providing plenty of shade and a haven for lots of native birds.

Flamingo

One of the first main exhibits we came across was a large walk-through aviary, full of wonderful exotic birds from around Colombia. While this exhibit was excellent, many of the other bird cages were not as good as we would generally expect from a modern zoo. Similarly, the primate enclosures seemed quite small for the number of animals they contained, and the dirty glass around them made it difficult to actually see the animals.

Scarlet-fronted Parakeet

Scarlet Ibis

The zoo has an excellent collection of birds and animals native to Colombia, plus a few exotics (lions, tigers, kangaroos, emus, and such). Most of the enclosures were good, but as I mentioned, some were a bit small or a bit crowded.

Stripe-billed Aracari

Jabiru (a real Jabiru, unlike the Asian Black-necked Stork which we call Jabiru in Australia)

One of the highlights of the visit was the butterfly house. Beautifully set out, it contained a great collection of spectacular butterflies, but that wasn’t the good bit – it was when we discovered these tiny little birds buzzing around inside – they also included hummingbirds and other tiny birds in the butterfly house. Indeed these birds are so small that some of the butterflies were significantly larger! Unfortunately they are quite difficult to photograph since they move so quickly, I hope to get to spend more time there waiting for some great shots on our next visit.

Hummingbird

Hummingbird poking his tongue out

We really enjoyed the visit to the zoo – we will try and get back there at least once more before we leave, I want to get some more photos of some of the Colombian animals, plus some photos of the enclosures to upload to ZooChat.

A snack stop for Andres

A cool Andres after enjoying the water spray in the butterfly house

I’ve only uploaded a few of the best photos here from this visit – most of which happen to be birds, but I’ll hopefully get to spend more time taking photos of the other animals on our next visit.

Pelican

Cali Zoo