Bogota, Colombia

So my husband and I returned from our mini-vacation to Bogota, Colombia last week. I know what you're thinking... you vacationed where? Yes, we went to the land of coffee and coke (the other kind.) No, in all honesty Colombia gets a bad rap. It's not nearly as dangerous as it used to be, as the good ole US has pumped a lot of money into fighting drug trafficking which as helped turn around the economy and weaken the FARC tremendously! Colombia is actually the world's grower of flowers and is also where most of the world's emeralds are mined from, so try to think of those exports the next time you read about Colombia :)
Anyway, my hubby is 1/2 Colombian. This was actually our second trip in 3 years to Bogota. We really had a blast! His father is from Bogota, and that side of the family is still in Colombia (my father in law is one of 8 children, so our family is very large down there.) Jim has literally dozens of cousins, second cousins, etc down there that he didn't really meet until just a few years ago.

Bogota is a city of 6 million people (NYC is 10 million). It's just enormous. It's 1.5 miles high in elevation, and is surrounded by mountains. It very much so reminds me of LA (esp the smog.)

We went on this trip because Jim's aunt was celebrating her 50th anniversary as a nun in the Catholic church. It was a really big celebration and about 80 relatives from all over the country joined us in Bogota for the celebration. Very few of them speak English, so the communication was hard, but luckily I brought along a LOT of pictures for them to look at and keep. They loved that! Sister Maria was so happy to have us there. Above is a picture of her hugging my sister in law (her niece), whom she's never met until now!

This is at the luncheon celebration for our family after mass Sunday. She was so happy to have everyone present. It melted my heart.

After lunch we went to the rear of the convent to take family pictures (yes, we actually tried to get all 85 of us at one time.) Anyway, here's a picture of Jim and his dad. Other than their outfits, the resemblance is tough, huh? Everyone in Colombia is very short, but Jim's Mom is 5'10" so clearly he got her height. When she saw all the nuns for the first time, she muttered "does everyone take short pills here?"

One day we went sightseeing around Bogota. It is the capitol of Colombia, and this picture is one of the capitol buildings. When we came in 2005 I was yelled at by armored guards for trying to take pictures of government buildings. This time they were present, but didn't yell at me :) I was happy about this, as I really loved the historical architecture and wanted to capture it.

August is the "month of wind" in Colombia. There are celebrations throughout the month. On every street corner people are selling kites and Colombian flags. This was outside a McDonald's right off their interstate.

I was returning to the salon by our apartment when I rounded the corner and saw these two little boys in front of me. Thankfully, I almost always have my little Canon PowerShot on hand, so I whipped it out and got a quick pic while I had the chance. True friendship...

Nuns, nuns, everywhere! Very intimidating, as I'm not Catholic. I think I was the only one in our mass to not partake in communion, but that's how the rules go. I don't make 'em...