Archive for the 'Travel' Category

Another relatively quiet day today. Nicol slept through until about 2AM, at which point I gave her a bottle and changed her. She seemed to settle down again quite well and only woke briefly around 6AM before going back to sleep. We all had a bit of a sleep-in this morning –  obviously the disturbed nights are getting to us a bit.

After breakfast this morning, Magnolia came and picked up Leanne to take her shopping for supplies and clothes for the Chiquitines orphanage. Last visit, we brought a lot of donated clothing with us, collected from a variety of sources. This time, we felt we might do things a little differently and buy things for the orphanage while here in Cali. This has two benefits – firstly, we didn’t require extra luggage to carry all of the gear with us from Australia (although we may still require extra luggage to take everything home that Leanne wants to buy for ourselves while here!).

The second benefit is that by buying locally here, we help stimulate the local economy in a small way – we were also able to ask for a specific list of current requirements the orphanage has and focus on what they really need right now. We were able to buy nappies and wipes in bulk from a local supplier, plus Leanne and Magnolia had some fun buying a heap of clothing at one of the local stores. I reckon the sales docket they came back with is nearly 80cm long – Leanne felt a bit bad for the other customers forced to wait behind them at the checkout queue!

At the end of the day, Chiquitines are grateful for whatever they can get and would be more than happy with clothing and things brought from Australia – we just decided to do things differently second time around.

After lunch we all had a long sleep and then late afternoon, Andres decided he wanted to go for a swim. The weather hasn’t been that warm here in Cali – especially compared to our last stay, so I was dreading going in the pool, which doesn’t get enough direct sunlight due to the tall buildings on one side and the mountain on the other side. I did promise Andres I would take him for a swim though, so we ventured to the pool.

Oooh - this water is really cold!

I decided to give my GoPro cameras a test underwater – the supplied casings are supposedly waterproof, so this was a good chance to check them out.

Nicol sitting by the pool

The water really was quite cold and after a while Andres was shivering quite badly, so I suggested we get out and get warm, which he fortunately agreed was a good idea.

Feeding Nicol a bottle

For the second night in a row, dinner was just Andres and myself. Nicol has been getting a bit grumpy during dinner, so we thought we would feed her a bottle and put her to bed before we go for dinner – which means that one of us has to stay here with her. The kitchen staff take a tray with food on it to our room for Leanne, while Andres and I go and sit in the dining room and eat together. Funnily enough, I do think he is a little better behaved when it is just the two of us. Not sure why that is. Perhaps he just appreciates having his Papa all to himself for a while?

Leanne uses the opportunity while Nicol is asleep and Andres out of the room with me, to tidy up and prepare bottles and formula and such – and gets to eat a quiet dinner in front of whatever show she is watching on the computer, so there are other benefits too.

Tonight we’re going to try feeding a bottle to Nicol by about 11PM, even if she hasn’t specifically woken up and demanded one. Hopefully that will see her through until closer to a reasonable waking up time.

A quiet day today, after visiting Chiquitines on Thursday, then back again to collect Nicol on Friday, Sugar Cane Museum on Saturday, drive to the country for lunch on Sunday – we needed a rest day to relax and catch up on a bit of sleep!

I did some work in the morning while Leanne took the kids out to the front porch of the hotel. Andres has been enjoying playing with the two other boys staying here at the moment. One is 18 months old and the other about 2 years old, so they are quite a bit younger than him, but he still has fun with them.

After lunch we all had a bit of a sleep and then late afternoon we headed to the shops to pick up some supplies.

It’s great staying at the Hotel Pension Stein – most things are taken care of for you, we don’t need to cook, clean up, change the sheets or towels, do the dishes, or any of the usual daily chores. We don’t even need to sterilise our own bottles – they provide a basket for us to put stuff in and the kitchen staff sterilise them for us while we eat our meals.

However, there are some things we still need to do ourselves. Feed and change our baby is the main thing. That requires supplies of nappies, wipes, formula, baby food and more. So we have regular trips to the supermarket to buy things – plus there are other supplies we occasionally need, like tissues and small tetra-packs of milk for Andres for when we go out. We also needed more cornflakes since our small box was almost empty. I don’t find them very substantial, so I tend to eat quite a few compared to what I would if I had Weetbix.

It was about 4pm by the time we got ourselves organised enough to go to the shops, unfortunately today it decided about this time to start raining. It was a steady drizzle on the way there, so not too much bother. Leanne carried Nicol in the Ergo carrier with an umbrella easily covering them both, while I carried Andres on my shoulders and he held our umbrella above his head for both of us. Worked fairly well.

The return journey was a bit more perilous – the drizzle turned into a downpour and with it came some gusty wind, making the rain fall at an angle rather than the usual straight-down. This made umbrellas less effective – especially those held way above my head by a 3yo sitting on my shoulders. All I can say is, my quick dry clothes work well – and they needed to, since I got quite saturated on the 10 minute walk back to the hotel from  the local mall.

We have become regulars at the local supermarket now and our kids usually get friendly smiles from the staff. We also get a lot of attention from other shoppers there, and regularly get stopped by people (usually older women) asking questions about the kids and telling us how cute they are. I’ve lost count of the number of times someone has walked past Andres and touched his hair. Back home he sometimes gets a bit touchy about this (we have encouraged him to say “no tocar mi pelo” to people … “don’t touch my hair”), but he hasn’t really been upset here in Colombia – although he does sometimes get a bit shy or feel a bit awkward with all the attention he gets.

We also come prepared when we shop – since I use my Amex charge card to pay for things, which requires a signature rather than a PIN, I usually get asked for identification to verify the details of the card. To this end, we have taken to carrying my passport with us whenever we are going to the shops and I know to hand it over with the card – makes things easier. Fortunately it is easy to recognise the request for identification even with my limited Spanish skills.

The other thing I learned back in 2008 on our first trip to South America is that most vendors will offer you a choice of how many payments you want to make the purchase over. I’m not completely sure of the reasons behind this – I can only assume that this is some means of allowing people on limited incomes or with small credit limits to spread the charge over several periods rather than hitting them all at once? I’ll have to find out about that. Either way, we learned early on there was a phrase we would be asked near the end of the payment transaction – which essentially translated to “how many payments”, to which the easy (and usually best) answer for us is simply “uno”. I can’t remember what the phrase actually is now, I just know the sound of the question and the context in which it is asked, and automatically answer “uno”.

The one thing we didn’t buy this trip (we already had enough to carry), was more Colombiana to drink. The hotel keeps a fridge full of soft drink and beer for guests – with a clip-board next to the fridge where you mark how many “gaseosa” or “cerveza” you have consumed for billing purposes. However, while they do have the very nice Quatro, they don’t stock any Colombiana! I must talk to Enrique about that – although it’s probably a good thing we have to go out especially to buy it rather than being able to just grab some from the fridge whenever we want!

Nicol is still being a bit annoying with her night-time sleeping. We’ll see how she goes tonight, but if she wakes up very early demanding a bottle again, we might have to try a different approach with night-time feeds.

Ahh, the joys of parenthood. Nicol decided that she preferred her old routine of being woken up in the middle of the night for a bottle, so we were all roused from our slumber by her wailing.

She woke around 4AM and we fed her a bottle, but she refused to go back to sleep. I decided to sit up and do a bit of work, so I sat her on my lap and she chatted happily to herself while trying continually to thump the keyboard.

I tried putting her down in her cot just after 5AM and she did go back to sleep for a while – but woke up again before 6AM. I hope we can get her out of this middle-of-the-night routine soon, it’s going to be difficult with a girl who won’t sleep all night if we also have a boy who won’t sleep during the day anymore – so no chance for us to have an afternoon nap either!

Being Sunday, breakfast was a little more relaxed anyway, with a buffet breakfast rather than the usual offering. The kitchen staff have Sunday off, so Enrique usually takes the families out somewhere for lunch. Over breakfast, he told us he was planning on taking us somewhere the kids could swim – he just needed to see what the weather was doing before deciding where.

We managed to give Nicol a quick bath after breakfast, she really enjoys sitting in the baby bath, kicking her legs and splashing with her arms. She’s quite good at sitting herself up and holding herself there, so bathtime is a bit easier than it was with Andres at that age.

At around 11AM, we all climbed into another mini-bus and were driven for about an hour out to a restaurant near the town of Rozo, north east of Cali. The restaurant was called Siga la Vaca, which translates to Follow the Cow – they specialise in Argentinean BBQ.

After sleeping part of the way there, Andres was a little grumpy when we first arrived, but I was able to convince him to come and play on the playground for bit – he enjoyed the trampoline.

Nicol had been quite fussy all day, whingeing a bit and not very settled – we’re not sure whether it is her teeth bothering her (she does keep chewing on things and sucking two fingers), or if it is something else. She didn’t drink either bottle we offered her during then day – we wonder whether she was feeling a bit hot, it was a very hot and humid day.

The staff brought out some Colombian empanadas (made from cornmeal and deep fried, rather than from flour and baked), which Andres quite liked. When Leanne was eating some empanadas, Nicol seemed very interested, so she got some of the filling on her finger and offered it to Nicol – she took to it with gusto! So, looks like Leanne is going to need to speak to some of our friends back in Sydney who we know have a good Colombian empanada recipe.

Andres jumps into the pool

Andres and Papa in the pool

I managed to convince Andres to come into the swimming pool and we soon started this game where he would stand at the edge, jump in and swim to me. Then he would stand on my bent leg and jump back and swim to the edge of the pool. We did this over and over without him seeming to tire at all – his swimming is getting quite good and can easily go a couple of metres before losing momentum. I had to drag him out of the water once lunch was served. Fortunately, they had a kids serve of chicken nuggets waiting for him, so he was okay once I got him to the lunch table. My meal was a large steak, not particularly well cooked (a little rare for my liking), but it tasted very nice.

Lunch - Argentinean steak!

Leanne's lunch: Tamales Vallunos - a typical Colombian dish

After lunch, Andres found some friends to play with at the playground and enjoyed himself until they all disappeared to have lunch themselves. So I offered to take him back in the pool and we spent the rest of the afternoon there until it was time to go home.

Andres jumps on the trampoline

Jumping really high on the trampoline

Both Nicol and Andres slept on the way home, so I didn’t get much of an opportunity to take photos. One thing that struck me this trip was just how quiet the streets of Cali are on a Sunday! The normally crowded and busy streets were almost deserted – one of the locals with us commented that everyone goes out in the countryside with their family on a Sunday.

We had showers and relaxed for a while before dinner, Nicol finally drank a bottle so we seem to be back on track there. Dinner was pizza, which was delicious although I had to turn down a second helping because I was too full from lunch still, despite all the swimming I did in the pool with Andres. Andres did have a second helping of his pizza though – he loved it.

An early bedtime for everyone, although I stayed up a little while to catch up with some things on the computer.

We all had a decent sleep overnight, Nicol wasn’t too restless and didn’t keep us waking every 10 minutes whenever she moved, like Andres did when we first got him – although we were new parents at the time and completely terrified!

Andres tries out Nicol's bath

This morning, the owner of the hotel offered to take the three families staying here to the Sugar Cane Museum on the other side of Palmira, in the middle of sugar cane country in this area.

It was a nice opportunity to get out of the hotel and see some things, and since Nicol seemed quite settled with us, we thought it would be a good idea.

A mini-van picked us up at 9am and we headed out of town. It took nearly an hour and a half to get to the museum – Nicol slept a lot of the way and Andres had a snooze on my lap too.

Of course, as soon as we started our tour, Nicol insisted on having a bottle, so we had to juggle bottles and formula to get her fed.

Nicol getting her bottle at the Sugar Cane Museum

Andres was feeling a bit tired and grumpy, so I ended up carrying him on my shoulders most of the tour, which lasted about an hour and a half. Before we left for Colombia, I knew this  might happen – especially with Nicol stealing a lot of his attention. I had prepared for it somewhat by carrying him more frequently on my shoulders to exercise my shoulders and I’ve got to the point now where such long walks with him up there aren’t so bad. The main trick I found was to relax the shoulders – made it far less painful! Given he weighs over 16kg and I had a backpack with another 8-9kg on, it was a heavy load, but I wasn’t really uncomfortable.

However, I did have to ask Andres to sit still a couple of times while I was trying to take photos with the SLR (holding his legs down with my arms while my hands held the camera up to my face).

Nicol

You can read more about the Sugar Cane Museum from my journal written in 2009 when we visited the day before meeting Andres: Day 5 – Sugar Cane Museum

We headed back to Cali just after noon and got back in time for a late lunch. It was an exhausting morning and we were all a bit tired and grumpy.

Nicol enjoys the drive back home to our hotel

We’ve had trouble finding things for Nicol to eat at meal times. According to the staff at Chiquitines, she has been eating pureed fruit and soup, but there must be something in the texture or the type of soup which is different to what we’ve been trying. We even tried mixing a bit of Farex infant cereal in to thicken it up into a paste, but she just doesn’t seem interested. We’ll keep trying.

Here is a time-lapse video of our drive home from the Sugar Cane Museum, back to Cali. Unfortunately I filled the memory card before we got half-way home, so it’s only about 40 minutes of capture (compressed into just over 4 minutes):

The big day today!

We were up early, showered and headed down for breakfast. We ended up buying a box of Cornflakes to have at breakfast, since the only cereal they serve are “Zucaritas”, essentially the same as “frosted flakes” – cornflakes coated in sugar. We would prefer something wheat based like Weetbix, but nobody seems to sell anything like that in the supermarkets. Cornflakes plus whatever else they serve for breakfast will have to do.

We hurried back to our room to get dressed for our big meeting – a driver was picking us and the Danish family up at 8:30am to take us all to Chiquitines.

Our car arrived pretty much right on time, we all managed to fit in okay, it was an 8-seat people mover with plenty of room in the back (although not as much headroom as I really needed), and thankfully it had good air-conditioning. The shirt and trousers I was wearing were making me rather hot in the humid weather. Typical – it has been relatively cool since we arrived, and the one day I have to get dressed up, it turns on the heat early!

The trip was largely uneventful, we were kept busy talking to Andres about the things we saw and answering all his questions. A huge difference to the last time we did this journey to meet him for the first time – we were both so nervous, we thought we might be sick back then!

On our way to meet Nicol

After picking up our translator and guide, Magnolia – we arrived at Chiquitines – actually starting to get a bit nervous by now.

The Danish family had their meeting first, so we sat in the lobby trying to keep cool (in temperature) and calm – very difficult being made to wait!

Waiting to meet Nicol

After about half an hour or so, it was our turn – Magnolia took our camera to go and take some photos of our daughter getting ready. The director of the orphanage went through the final paperwork for us to take custody of our child pending the court case to make the adoption official and then it was time to meet our daughter.

Our family, now with extra Nicol!

All of the staff crowded in to the director’s office for the introduction. They brought our daughter, Nicol in to us and took lots of photos of our happy family.

Andres gives Nicol the same toy lion that he played with the day we met him

Andres was so good during this time – he got a little nervous with all the people and the fuss, but he still did so well and was genuinely interested in his baby sister.

Nicol

One thing we noticed immediately was how light she was – especially after carrying Andres around so much. He is a very solid muscular boy (and incredibly strong), so is surprisingly heavy for his height. To then hold Nicol who of course is so much smaller, she felt almost weightless. Interestingly though, I think she might actually be heavier than Andres was when we picked him up – she is nearly a month older than he was anyway.

Nicol checks out what he big brother is doing

After some photos, the staff left us alone for a while to get to know our daughter, Nicol. She was very interested in what was going on around her and very attentive.

Nicol sits on Andres's lap

Our happy family

Finally, we headed out and we all piled back into the car with our babies and headed back to the hotel.

In the car heading back to our hotel

Nicol was quite happy during the trip. Andres insisted that she sit on his lap, so he sat in the middle with Nicol sitting on his lap and leaning on Leanne. Leanne held on to both of them. She was interested in what was happening around her, but eventually fell asleep.

Nicol falls asleep sitting on Andres's lap and leaning against Mama

When we arrived back at the hotel, we said hello to a few of the staff who were very happy to see the new babies and then retired to our room. Nicol was fascinated by Andres’s silly antics and he had no trouble making her laugh.

The first thing we have to do is to try and work out a routine for her. We found last time with Andres that the routine they use at the orphanage just doesn’t seem to work outside of that environment – not because of what they do or don’t do, but because our environment is different and there are too many external influences which dictate what works and what doesn’t. So, we use their schedule as a guide but try and work out something that works for us.

Andres and his baby sister

After lunch, we all had a long sleep – it had been an exhausting day.

Andres looking so much older now he has a baby sister to take care of

Before dinner we were able to do Skype calls with Leanne’s parents and then my parents so they could see their new grand-daughter. It is so great to be able to talk to people and see the online from such distance – makes it possible to share events like these with family far away.

Andres helps Mama feed Nicol her bottle

One thing we found immediately is that Nicol seems to enjoy nappy changes immensely. We just need to bring out the nappy mat and she starts smiling and kicking her legs. Lie her down on it and she almost bounces herself off the bed with all the excited kicking. It is such a change from what Andres was like – he was so placid and easy to manage, while we actually needed at least two sets of hands to be able to change Nicol with all the kicking and arm waving. I’m sure we’ll learn how to manage a nappy change on our own – indeed, we’re going to need to work it out – there won’t always be both of us around at the time she needs changing!

Here is a 3 minute time lapse video of our drive from the Hotel Pension Stein to Chiquitines, camera mounted on the rear window of our hire car: