The Big Day for Kaleb! He turned 7 today and has been telling everyone that for a week. We had arranged a day of siteseeing with Herman (our driver) a couple days ago. He picked us up at 8:00 am. That was early since we haven’t been getting up until about that time. We headed south out of Bogota to a coffee plantation call Coloma. About half way there Kaleb got car sick and literally got sick all over the car. Herman took it really well. We had to stop and get the boys, mom and the backseat all cleaned up as best we could before we got going again.

The coffee plantation was pretty neat. It was about 8.5 acres large and sells an average of over 10,000 lbs of coffee/month. Not all of that is grown at the plantation we saw but it is all processed there. We had a private tour because we were the only visitors. There are only 6 employees on the whole plantation. We learned a lot of neat facts about coffee. For instance, they plant citrus and fruit trees amount the coffee plants because it helps the flavor of the beans. So as we walked among all of the bushes there were many orange, lemon and banana trees.

After the plantation we headed to a zoo that was also south of Bogota. On the way there we took some winding roads through the mountains and valleys and at one point there is a huge water fall. We are not sure how tall it was but it had to be over 500 ft. It was really cool to see but we were informed it is the most polluted river in the world and it did smell like it too.

After the falls we tried to find lunch. We were in a rather unpopulated area so we got to try the local cuisine. It ended up being different but pretty good. The boys (including Kerry) all had what looked like brats and Cresta had grilled chicken. And luckily French fries are popular in Columbia as well so Kaleb and Cohen got some of those too.

Will our tummies full we headed the zoo. It is an older zoo but it was pretty interesting. It was basically right on the side of the mountain and amongst the jungle. The paths were laid native stone and very steep and rough at times. They had some amazing animals including, jaguars (spotted and black), lions, parrots, monkeys, ostrich, cappiberras, tapirs, snakes, etc. Since it is an older zoo the cages tend to be smaller but you could get pretty close to them. We had to watch the boys pretty close so a parrot or monkey wouldn’t get them. The male lion liked to roar when we were there and he did it when we were only about 10 ft from him.

After the zoo we headed back to Bogota and got back to the hotel about 4:30. It got to be a long day but well worth it. Of course Kariana was great the whole day. The only time we heard a peep out of her was when she was getting hungry. As long as the car is moving she loves to travel. In stop and go traffic she can get a little frustrated but luckily she was sleeping when we hit the heavy traffic on the way back.

When we got back to the hotel, they had some streamers and balloons put up to celebrate Kaleb’s b-day. He was pretty excited. After supper they sang him Happy Birthday in Spanish (all four verses) and gave him a Toy Story 3 watch. The head cook here is very fun loving and she took Kaleb and smeared his cake all over his face. He thought that was the greatest thing that happened all day. I think he had a pretty good birthday. Even during the party he stated “I never expected it to be like this!”

Sorry for not posting any pictures but we left the camera in the back of the car when we got dropped off so we aren’t getting it back until Saturday morning when the driver is picking up Kerry and the boys to take them to the airport. Luckily we also brought our old camera so we could take pictures of Kaleb’s b-day party but then found out we forgot the cable to down load the pictures to the computer.

Well that about it for today.

The Melchers