CANDELARIA: OLD BOGOTA TOWN (the Battery Point of Bogota :)

We went to La Candelaria today which is the old suburb of Bogota. The `Battery point of Bogota`as they say. Ok ok, as I say :P Ì came here last time we came (2004) but we basically just drove here with Paulo`s uncle Miguel, had lunch, then drove back to where we were staying. This time we came, had a coffee (campesino), had lunch, then had a big walk around. It`s so beautiful, me loving colonial type houses and all :)

Info about La Candelaria in English

I really love how the streets give a view up to the mountains behind (Montserrat side of Bogota) & then down into the city mass from old to new.

The below pictures are taken outside the house that Rafael Pombo (1833 -1912) was supposedly born in. `Pombo`was known as the `Childrens Poet` & his verses have been adapted into songs and cartoon interpretations as well as books. Paulo and I have managed to gain a wide range of reportoir of his books and cds etc. (for Mahlia, of course:P). His verses are definitely Classics :)

Info about Rafael Pombo in English

We also went to the house (which is now a museum) of Manuela Saenz who was the love of Simon Bolivar, the Independance fighter of Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador, Peru. However, the photos are on my mobile phone as the camera batter ran out so i`ll have to wait til we get home to Australia to download them off my camera :(

Info about Manuela Saenz in English

New Years & Choachi

For New Years we went to a small town called Choachi which is just over an hour from Bogota as Paulo´s cousin Diana lives there as well as all her in laws, ie, husbands family. The photo with the car and the army etc is on the way out of Bogota. Paulo`s uncle locked the keys in the car at an army post. No RACT but an army guy managed to get it unlocked with the shoelace from his army boot!!! `Que viva el ejercito` :P.

So we had finger food at Diana´s place while the people who were staying there (mainly her sisters and their kids) Then we went and sorted out our hotel then on the way to the actual party (at Diana´s sister in laws house in the centre of town on one ofthe main streets) the boys stopped at a pool place (to play pool with3 balls?!?) then we FINALLY got to the New Years Eve party at about 10:45. Mahli was cranky at the pool place so I spent about an hour rocking and walking in circles like a mental patient to put her to sleep and she slept through the whole party til we woke her up trying to walk her back in the pusher along the bumpy footpath to the hotel at about 2:30/3:00am or something. as you can see from the photos New Years Eve was spent, Dancing in the street (in Choachi :P).

The next day once we sorted out everyones mental and physical state we gradually made our way to `the farm´(another place owned by Diana`s in laws, brother or sister in law i think ?) where we have a type of BBQ I guess. Boiled, beautiful potatoes, Fried Pork Meat, Fat and crackling (they actually cut up the fat and fried it - totally normal here :P), fried Yuca (root plant), fried Platano (Maduro) or Plantane, a very big specie of banana and very green. eaten both green and ripe (cooked). YUM YUM YUM (expept the fried whole fat part, which is aparently yum but i`m fine thanks !). Mahli had a ball and then slept through half of the thing waking up just as we were leaving.

Choachi is so beautiful, I was so glad to be there as i´m a bit over the whole big city scene. It's a nice little town in the mountains (okok, well everything is in the mountains!!), typical Colombian small town. Bogota is quite a nice city as it´s surrounded by mountain (like everywhere!) but as well as Cali you just seem to get swallowed up by the city the mountains contain. Choachi was apparently nothing and surrounded by guerillas until Uribe, the current president was elected and ran them out of the area. According to Paulo´s dad the guerillas weren´t around here but choachi was full of thieves and so forth. It was probably a combination of both.

Once back in Bogota we all alyed around feeling sorry for ourselves and Hilda and her kids had to force themselves to pack suitcases etc as half the Molanos are going to Panama for Holidays (going for about a week). We have about 4 days left in Bogota til we head off to Brazil for 3 & a bit weeks.

Road Trip: Cali to Bogota

We decided to go to Bogota for New Years to catch up & Celebrate with the extended family on Antonio, Paulo´s dad´s side of the family. Cali to Bogota was a road trip and a halfwith 3 nights on the way including crossing over the mountains aka the Andes by car! ¨cruzando la linea¨they call it.

First Stop from Cali was Tulua where Paulo´s cousin Estela and her family live. Her children Jorge & Oriana(she wasn´t there at the time) are teenagers and the whole family are beautiful. Mahli got to go for a spin on Jorge´s scooter. Estela & her family will also go to Bogota for new years with the whole Molano Family too.

So the next destination was Ibague the next morning which is the part where we go over the mountains! we were like 1st or 2nd gear the wholeway with the crazy traffic of trucks, vans, cars, donkeys and pedestrians on the sides of the road including kids telling all the cars & Truks whether there was any traffic coming the other way so that motorists could overtake on the death defying bends. We stalled about half way up etc but after rolling down a few hundred meters our good old $2000 Mazda chugged back up & over again! It sure is a drivers training and a half. Paulo did a great job and I learned that there is an art to ¨Cruzando la linea¨ and anyone whos annoying on the way obviousy doesn´t know how to drive on the Linea properly ;P .

so the other side of the linea broght us to Ibague where we stayed 2nights, first night in a Hotel there, second night in a friend of the family´s place. we went to their grandmas place and had San Cocho de Pescado or fishy green soupy thing.

So the next day we left Ibague for (finally) Bogota with a pit stop along the way at Paulo´s aunty(mum´s side) Maria´s house in Girardot. The house is a bit unfinished but it´s so open (because its so hot) I loved it. Mahli was so hot we just stripped off her clothes & nappy and dipped her in the laundry tub. Then she demanded to have her own bucket of water and container to tip water over herself!

A little bit further we dropped in to Melgar as paulo´s cousin Wilson & his wife were spending a couple of nights there in a Hotel (they live in Bogota) and stayed there all afternoon as in Colombia´s major cities they ban certain registration plates on particular days of theweek between 7-9am & 5-7pm or 8pm depending on city – it´s called¨Pico y Placa¨ - and that day in Bogota we had ¨Pico y Placa¨as our number plate ends in 8 so we couldn´t drive in bogota til after 7, so we stayed at the hotel til after 5 as it was pointless to get going before.

So, then we finally got to Bogota, dead tired and grotty, to begreated by relatives on Paulo´s dad´s side at Hilda´s place where we´re staying (Hilda is Paulo´s aunty/ Antonio´s youngest sister). Hilda has 2 sons (Paulo`s cousins) Juan Camilo & Rodrigo. So we`re just hanging out in Bogota now, preparing foir the big 31...

:)