History & Gold

Time has certainly slowed down. There really hasn't been too much to post since our visit to San Mauricio. The kids seemed to enjoy that but were completely over it by the time we were ready to leave. And, at this point, we are all ready to go home. There is also a holiday today which is delaying things a bit. Our paperwork is on the judges desk and we were told that Sentencia will be later this week. I still go to bed early to call it another day done. I miss my family at home and Angie and Camilo are ready to get on with their life.

Yesterday (Sunday) we made a trip to the Museo del Oro (Gold Museum.) Since I'm trying to stay on some sort of budget I decided to brave any crowds and go on the free day which is Sunday. We got there and the lines were so long out of the front door and didn't appear to be moving so, we decided to walk. The area was really cool and full of history. We walked down a couple of blocks and there was a square with a statue in the middle of it. On one side wa a church with Mass in process and everything was decorated because of Corpus Christi. We were feeding the pigeons some corn (obviously not my idea) and Angie took off with the camera telling us to follow. Here the national band was marching down in front of the church. They went past, came back and stopped in front of the it. The church was lined with guardsmen and there was this throne, alter, float thingy (sorry,I'm not familiar) that was held by some more guards. We then waited for the processional but, it seemed like there were going to be a while yet so we ended up walking away.

We then walked down a few more blocks (in the street though since there were blocked to traffic) and happened upon the President's house. It seemed so weird to me for it to be so close and so much downtown. We snapped some pictures then Angie pointed to a small historical museum in an old home/headquarters for General Santander a big historical figure in Colombia.

We walked through, snapped some pictures and walked some more. We then found the Iglesia Santa Clara museum that was an old church converted into a museum and took some more pictures. I have to say that it was absolutely beautiful. We decided that we were hungry and turned around to go back toward the Gold Museum to the McDonalds. We stopped at a few artesenal stores and bought a few more souvenirs (and a new umbrella since one of ours is shot)and braved the McDonalds frenzy. If you thought that McDonalds n the U.S. was crazy during busy times you should try a Bogotanian one- they are always in close quarters and very busy. At any rate we got our lunch.

After lunch we headed over to the Gold Museum and found that the the line was long but, not as long and appeared to be moving so we jumped in. We probably waited about five minutes and then endured the crowds in the museum. The museum is beautiful and very nice. We didn't see all of it because of the crowds but we saw enough to call it an experience and take some pictures. I got a latte and we then went over to another artensenal/souvenir area bought a couple more things and left. We lucked out and happened upon a taxi that was dropping someone off right at the museum and grabbed it.

The day overall was a really good one. We absorbed some history, got some pictures to reflect on and enjoyed the culture. There were two major things that came to me yesterday. Number one is that sometimes the best times are the ones that are not planned and just happen. We had plans to go to the museum but ended up with so much more. The second thing that came to me was that Bogota, Colombia is starting to look "normal" to me. In other words, I am starting to recognize the different areas and neighborhoods as we drive by in taxi's. And things look familiar and are no longer so foriegn to me. The homes, businesses and surroundings are normal for me now. I really need to get home.......