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...

:)