Archive for the 'Adoption' Category

Another, unintentionally quiet day today.

We had intended to go out and do some tours around Bogota today, but Leanne had spent most of the night with diarrhea and vomiting, so wasn’t feeling up to going anywhere.

She spent a lot of time sleeping while I looked after the kids.

In the afternoon, when Leanne was feeling a little better, we sat in the lounge and watched Madagascar 2 with Andres (Nicol largely ignored the TV) – although he doesn’t really have the attention span to be able to watch an entire movie yet.

By dinner time, Leanne was feeling up to eating a little food and so we booked a tour for tomorrow, hoping she would be okay to spend the day out and about.

Nicol seems to be sleeping a bit better now – she is only waking up once a night for a feed, which is much easier for us to cope with!

She is also much more responsive to us and looks up when we call her name. She is cheeky enough that if I tell her not to do something and shake my head at her, she will smile at me, shake her head, and then usually go and do it anyway.

We have also heard her say “Papa” a couple of times, and also do the baby-sign for “Mama” when she wanted Leanne to pick her up. She’s a quick learner!

A quiet day today – we had decided to hang around the hotel and relax for a bit after being out every day over the past week or so.

Leanne spent some time putting a few loads of washing on while I looked after the kids. The hotel provides a washing machine that the guests can use themselves for a nominal charge, which is far more economical than paying for hotels to do it for you. That being said, we weren’t charged at all for the washing we had done at the Hosteria Mi Monaco and it was done quickly too, so we couldn’t complain about that service!

We sat around the toy room while Andres and Nicol played and tried to keep Nicol out of the dirt in the garden and away from the power cords in the lounge.

After lunch we went for a walk to the nearby Parque 93, a very up-market area surrounded by restaurants with a beautiful park in the middle. We spent some time at the playground while Andres played and made friends (his friend spoke Spanish and French, but not English), while we watched the “beautiful people” of Colombia assemble for what turned out to be some kind of fashion event in temporary marquees in the park.

Before dinner, I ducked around to the supermarket again to get some more supplies, and this time I picked up a tub of arequipe (dulce de leche) icecream to stash in the freezer for when I was up late sterilising the bottles. Made the time much more pleasant!

A very early start today – we had a driver coming at 9:00am to take us to the airport for our flight to Bogota. For some reason, they like you to get to the airport 2.5 hours before a domestic flight. I understand that Bogota airport sometimes gets quite busy, but some of these regional airports shouldn’t need you there that early.

Either way, we were at the airport by around 9:30am – we arrived at what looked like a small out-building of the airport, but turned out to be the terminal building itself! There was one other car parked out front unloading passengers, so we stopped right by the door. Andres stopped and talked to a nice policeman standing by the curb while Leanne and I lugged our luggage into the terminal. The distance between the curb and the checkin counters (all four of them – one for each airline!) was so small that we didn’t even bother with a luggage cart – we just brought the bags in one-by-one, we were never that far from our other bags and there was practically nobody else around anyway!

Checkin took only a few minutes – after weighing our 5 bags (total weight: 95kg – less than I expected!), they handed us our boarding passes and waved us towards the departure gates. They didn’t mention anything about excess baggage and we didn’t ask, so we were grateful to avoid what I estimated to be around 130,000 pesos (AU$75) of charges. I guessed that the flight was nowhere near full, thus the additional baggage wouldn’t cause any problems for them.

We wandered towards the gates and found that there was a small pre-departure lounge before security and then a larger departure lounge after security. There were actually about 6 gates, but they were all just doors leading out to the tarmac, where you walked to your plane. Since we were almost 3 hours early for our flight, we decided not to go through security yet and instead sat in the food court – where there were six cafes servicing the one departure area. Slight overkill I think, but at least there was a choice of food and drinks (although most of the drinks were types of coffee).

The three hours passed fairly quickly – Andres decided to go for a run at one point and went from one end of the terminal building to the other. We could see him the entire time, so I wasn’t particularly concerned – the building wasn’t that big, probably less than 100m long. The staff seemed to take a liking to Andres and they would come up and shake his hand as he went past.

We witnessed a few planes coming and going while we waited – but none of them would have had more than a dozen seats in them.

Eventually, our plane arrived – the largest plane of the day by far, an Airbus A318. We passed through security and waited briefly in the departure lounge before being ushered across the tarmac and onto the plane first by the ground crew (yet another advantage of travelling with children).

At only 45 minutes long, we barely had time to have a drink before we began our descent into Bogota. I think the walk from the aircraft to the baggage claim area at the Avianca terminal at Bogota Airport was longer than the flight itself – at least it seemed that way!

Most of the other travellers on the plane must have been taking connecting flights, since there were only about 10 bags which came out onto the carousel, 5 of which were ours!

Outside the terminal, our guide and interpreter, Jorge was waiting for us. He took us to his car – fortunately he had brought a mini-van so we had plenty of room for our bags.

On the way, we asked if we could stop at the ICBF offices to collect our Compliance Certificate – possibly the most important document in the whole adoption process – without it, we might have difficulty leaving Colombia and we certainly wouldn’t be able to have Nicol become an Australian Citizen or get a passport! Jorge told us he had already heard from Magnolia that our certificate was ready and waiting for us, and since we were driving virtually right past the offices, it would be no problem to stop and collect them.

Jorge and I went in to ICBF while Leanne remained in the van with the kids. It didn’t take that long to get the certificate – we spent some time carefully checking the details to ensure there were no mistakes (which might cause problems in the future!) and I spent some time filling out a questionnaire for them – and then we were done. Having the certificate means that we are officially ready to leave Colombia – we are finished with the adoption process here and there is nothing else official required (other than presenting the certificate when leaving the country).

Sign out the front of the ICBF offices in Bogota

We continued on to our hotel – the Halifax, another hotel specialising in catering to adoptive families. Our room was upstairs this time, much larger than our room last trip – with plenty of space for both a single bed and a cot.

After unpacking and settling in, we made a trip around the block to the local supermarket for supplies.

Andres likes the playroom with toys for kids, and the small playground out the front is a nice diversion occasionally – even if not really that exciting for a lively 3yo.

The one thing I hadn’t missed from our last trip here was having to sterilise Nicol’s bottles ourselves. Unlike the Pension Stein in Cali where the kitchen staff will sterilise your bottles for you while you eat your meal, at the Halifax, they only provide you with the tools and you have to boil your own water and do the sterilisation yourselves. The worst part is waiting for the water to boil – which can take over half an hour with a large saucepan filled with water. Fortunately, they have good WiFi, so I was able to do some things on my computer while sitting in the kitchen waiting.

Another “late” start today with Gustavo picking us up at 10:30am.

Leanne tries to get Nicol to sleep

We drove south from Armenia this time to Recuca, a traditional Colombian coffee farm which specialises in education about how coffee is grown, picked, and processed.

Our guide carefully prepares cups of "tinto" for us.

As part of our tour, we tried “Tinto”, a traditional small serve of black coffee typically served in Colombia – carefully prepared for us with 100ml of hot (not boiling) water strained through 7g of ground coffee into a pre-warmed cup. We found it too bitter without sugar, but quite nice with some added. Even though we are not coffee drinkers at all, I think I could handle some traditional Tinto occasionally.

Leanne enjoys a cup of Tinto

Andres and I tried picking some coffee beans, very hard work I think, especially given much of the coffee is grown on land most people would consider inaccessible – near vertical mountainsides!

Leanne and Andres at Recuca

We were home in time for lunch.

Our room at the Hosteria Mi Monaco

Our room at the Hosteria Mi Monaco

Our room at the Hosteria Mi Monaco

Our room at the Hosteria Mi Monaco

Our room at the Hosteria Mi Monaco

Nicol tries climbing the steps into our room. The scratches on her nose are from falling down the stairs the first night we were there (nothing major, just scraped her nose on the rough stone)

After lunch, I tried taking some photos of birds and the trail of leaf-cutter ants that had been busy on a nearby tree for the past few days, but we were interrupted by a bad storm.

The pool area at Hosteria Mi Monaco

Dining room at the Hosteria Mi Monaco

Leaf cutter ants heading back to their nest

Leaf cutter ants at work up in the tree-tops

Leaf cutter ants coming down the tree

One of the dozens of species of bird seen around the area

Hummingbird at the feeder

It ended up raining heavily all afternoon, so I sat on a rocking chair under the verandah with both kids on my lap for an hour or so while Leanne got stuck into the packing.

While it rains outside, Andres tries out the trike brought over from her house by the cook

Another early start this morning – Gustavo picked us up at 9:30am (when I say early start – I mean we were up early to get ready to leave at 9:30am – takes a while to wrangle these two kids into getting ready!).

We drove through the city of Armenia, then up into the hills to the town of Salento. This little town set on a small plateau high in the mountains, was once on the main road between Popayán/Cali and Bogota. When the main road moved to its current location through Calarcá, the town became somewhat isolated and did not keep pace with the development of surrounding towns and cities. As such, the town retains much of its colonial architecture – narrow streets, colourful cottages, a relaxed way of life. Its stunning location, mild climate and proximity to the Coffee Region has made it a very popular tourist destination.

Cloud covered mountains tower behind the city of Armenia

Green hills north of Armenia - dairy country

Giant metal cow - I assume celebrating the dairy industry in the region

We didn’t stop on the way through, but instead continued further into the mountains to the Cocora Valley, on the edge of the Los Nevados National Natural Park. The Cocora Valley is famous for the Quindio Wax Palm – a very tall palm growing high in the mountains of this part of Colombia, and also the national tree and symbol of Colombia.

Rio Quindio coming down out of the mountains

Wax Palms in the clouds

We stopped at the end of the paved road in the valley and visited a trout farm where Andres enjoyed feeding the fish.

Favoured footwear by the locals

Feeding the trout

Bet you can't work out what this says (without Google Translate!) ... hint: "manos" = hands, "peces" = fish

Rainbow trout looking for food

We then went for a long walk through farming country, enjoying the cool mountain air and the quiet rural setting with spectacular views along the valley. It was an interesting juxtaposition – wax palm trees standing very tall – many literally with their heads in the clouds, with dairy cattle grazing on green grass below, and in the distance – large groves of eucalypt trees growing.

Cloud covered mountains around the Cocora Valley

Walking with Gustavo

Feeding the kids

Tall Wax Palms

Nicol splashing her feet in the frigid Rio Quindio - she complained when we stopped!

After our walk, we headed back to Salento and stopped at a restaurant for lunch. Leanne had the rainbow trout prepared in a traditional Colombian method – it was very tasty and I regretted buying a hamburger (I’m not a big fish eater), although the burger was still very tasty.

Colourful buildings around the main square in Salento

Church near the main square in Salento

The streets of Salento

Following lunch, we drove up to a lookout which looked up the Cocora Valley and also over the town of Salento and were treated to some spectacular views.

Andres checks out the views of the Cocora Valley

Views up the Cocora Valley

Leanne and Nicol admire the views

Salento from the lookout

Playground at the top of the lookout above Salento

Rainbow over the Cocora Valley

Finally, we headed back and not long after leaving Salento, very heavy rain prevented us enjoying the views on the way home – which was a bit of a disappointment. By the time we got back to Armenia, the rain had cleared up and we were able to enjoy the sights and sounds of this thriving city.

Huge bamboo "tree"

Back at the hotel, I jumped in the pool with Andres to cool down until one of the typical afternoon storms came through.

Nicol stands up in her cot to see what Andres is doing

After our late lunch, we requested a light dinner and enjoyed some very tasty jamon y queso tostados (ham and cheese toasted sandwiches) while sitting on the verandah in front of our room.