Jasmine's travels: May 2010

On December 18th we flew from Costa Rica to Bogota, Colombia where we were met by our Colombians.
We arrived late at night without out bags and didn't get them for a couple days. So here I am wearing the same outfit that I left Costa Rica in.

But that didn't stop us. Our first day they took us outside the city to eat with some of their friends and after lunch we started dancing. Can Colombians dance.

The Sunday after we got there we went with all of Daniel's family, who we were staying with for the first week, to this beautiful sight. You start at the bottom of the hill and than ride these cart like things up the hill to the top where those two small lights are.

Once you get up there you walk along a winding path to this beautiful church that is open and people are inside praying and outside there is music. It was incredible

And than you can look out and see all of Bogota.

They have huge Malls there and everyone is decorated. This was one of the decorations outside of one.

Typical headdress made from pure gold at the gold museum. I bet it was heavy to wear.

Old Bogota was beautiful. Here's the parliment.

Where the President lives!

Bogota Temple

One of Colombia's most famous attractions is their underground salt cathedral. It was insane and all carved out of an old salt mine.

hmm salty.

Bogota sits inbetween two of the Andean Mountain ranges and the country side was green and beautiful.

Turns out Ari had met some Colombian foreign exchange students back in Omaha so we spent one of our days with them. They took us to La cabana which makes all sort of good treats. This is where we were introduced to arequipe, which is like caramel but 10 times better. It was so good and I've yet to find it in the US. Good thing our Colombians are coming back to Alaska this summer!

They took us to this amusement park like thing which was kinda a little different but turned out to be pretty awesome. Here we are at the begining and Ari's face just says it all.

In front of the Taj Mahal.

Andrea and I

We had to be sure and see our other favorite Colombians while we were there! Here's Leonardo, always the life of the party. We were fortunate to meet his and Diego's entire family and I mean extended. We saw were he get's his awesome humor.

It was so awesome to see these guys in their own country.

And to dance to night away with them at Discotecas.

We got to spend alot of time with their families. We came super close to Daniel's sister Cata who is teaching me how to make brunellos on Christmas eve.

Every night leading up to Christmas they have a 'Novena' where the family or community gathers together and reads from a special book and they sing and eat together. We were lucky to spend it with different families and people every night and eat some really good food and see how they celebrate Christmas. We spent Christmas with Daniels family and New Years with Camilo's.

On New Years Eve they eat 12 grapes the 12 last seconds of the year and you are supposed to have a wish for each grape. Its hard to eat 12 grapes that fast and remember all your wishes but a pretty cool tradition.

Another tradition is after it turns midnight to take a suitcase and run around the block with it. This means you will travel alot in the upcoming year. Camilo wasn't the only one outside running around with his suitcase. I think I'm going to have to keep these two traditions going.

These two were the best hosts we could of asked for. They took us sight seeing, to museums they'd seen a million times, showed us their city, introduced us to their friends and family, spend their school vacation with us and took us out dancing almost every night.

They never once complained and alway made sure we were having a great time.

And we did no matter where we were or what we were doing.
I can't wait to see these two in only a few weeks!

My parents weren't too excited about me going to Colombia. I don't get why. lol But I'm so glad I did. The people are so full of life and fun and some of the most welcoming people I've ever met and they are all amazing dancers. The two weeks we were there went by way to fast.

These four boys pretty much made Alaska this last summer.

Meet

Leonardo

Diego

Daniel

and Camilo!

I had never met a Colombian before

Diego and Leonardo are brothers

Daniel and Camilo are best friends (even though they tried to convince us they were brothers too)

They all are from the capital of Colombia, Bogota and were practically inseperable in Alaska.

Always the four of them plus us!

Talking to them made work go that much faster.

And when we weren't working we were all together!

Colombians are amazing dancers. Like they were born with some serious skills.

Which they tried to share with us. But it just didn't quite work.

They are all hilarious and sweet in their own way.

If you ever get the chance to get to know someone from Colombia, don't run away thinking they are a drug dealer, get to know them. You won't be sorry.

Icouldn't imagine the summer without them. Saying goodbye was hard and they said we'd always been welcome in their home in Colombia. So Ari and I decided to see if that was true!