Tues

We have had a couple of busy days since Dad arrived. Today we are just hanging around the hotel and relaxing.

Although I prayed hard for the call to come yesterday, the only news we got is that our papers were accepted by the court. Although this is good news and indicates that there is nothing wrong with our papers, it doesn’t really mean much. It was not the news I was hoping to hear. It appears that I won’t be going home in the very near future.

Joe and Leah and Cole leave first thing in the morning. They pick up Cole’s visa this afternoon and then they are out of here. I am so happy for them to be going home but it’s also really hard to watch knowing my timeline is still unknown. Going home is all I think about these days.

Took Dad to the markets on Sunday and stopped at Crapes and Waffles for lunch which is always delicious. Had to have ice cream for dessert of course. It was another nice day for the markets. It’s uncanny how the weather is almost always warm and sunny on market day. Dad found an amber rock complete with enclosed bugs and everything that he couldn’t resist but after being there for 5 weeks in a row, I finally think I have everything I need as I came home empty handed.

Yesterday I called for a driver and Dad, Kariana and I got out of Bogota for the day. First we went to the Salt Cathedral which is located about 45 minutes outside of Bogota. It was very interesting. It’s a cathedral that was built into a salt mine. The salt mine is still an active mine but is also an active tourist site that claims to be the most visited site in Colombia. It was a guided tour but Dad and I got MP3 players that explained everything in English. It was really interesting. There are so many nooks and crannies that they even created spots for the 14 stations of Christ plus a number of other important spots relating to the church like a choir chamber. It even had a 50 foot cross cut into the rock salt with cool lighting and 50 ft tall by 25 ft across columns holding everything up. It’s a true working church with mass every hour on Sunday. (FYI for the Catholics out there, Colombia is a HUGE Catholic country. In fact, I have never seen any other religion even mentioned here. Mass is only 45 minutes.)

After the Salt Cathedral, we drove another hour or so to Guatavita which is a small but beautiful town along a large river. The old town was flooded in 1964 when the river was dammed to create water and power for Bogota. We saw some of the pictures of the town underwater. The town moved up the hill at that point and it’s a rule that all the houses have to be white with clay tile roofs. This makes the town beautiful to look at. Our driver said it was the only town in Colombia like that. We drove down by the lake which was spectacular surrounded by mountains. It was a quant little town. On the way back to Bogota, Dad got to see lots of Colombian countryside. The country continues to amaze me. On one hand, Bogota is a modern, slick city and on the other hand, the countryside looks like something out of National Geographic with cows staked out in the ditches for the grass there.

That is about it for now. We continue to wait for the much anticipated call.

Cresta