Got Milk?

One day, Simon, Lina, Lucas and I loaded up the car and headed to Panaca. I was told this was like an animal-themed Six Flags without the rides. 'Why else would you go to Six Flags if there are no rides?' I thought. Well, my skepticism faded and we had a great time.

Right off the bat there is a big (lazy) bull at the entrance to meet you. The guys just hopped right on. Me - no, thank you. I'd rather not straddle a bull. Ha!


But I will hold this cute, baby goat. So precious!


The first exhibition of the day was 'las vacas' (or 'the cows'). So I stepped right up for my shot to milk a cow. This was quite an experience. I'll just say that I really felt like I was violating her. Poor cow.
Lucas took full advantage of my milking and DRANK THE MILK!!! Ugh! It was hot and everything. So gross!


Lucas spared some milk for the goats so we poured the milk into one of their bottles and went off on our nurturing ways. Those goats sure are greedy. None of them wanted to share.


We tried to be fair and give to many.....


I don't even have words. Haha! So after feeding time we walked around and looked at all the different bulls living in Panaca. This strange fellow looks oddly familiar...

Next we were off to a show where they explained many different things about some of the animals in Panaca. Much of the show included audience participation. Lucas was picked right off the bat for a little friendly cow milking competitition. Haha!


Simon got called out for a little 'tug of war'. He lost....


And Lina got to ride into the stadium on a bull!

Next, we were off to visit the piggies. I was so excited about this exhibition. I saw a litter of baby pigs that had been born just that morning! We also saw a show with some pig races and got to meet lots of the pigs at Panaca. My favorite part was feeding the pigs.... or should I say pig. Now I understand where the saying 'eats like a pig' comes from. That little piggy swallowed the entire contents of the bottle in less than two gulps and was fighting me for the bottle. He didn't want to let go!!

Lucas, Simon and I bought tickets for the 'Canopy Tour' or zip-line through Panaca. This was such an adventure! I wish we had better photos but the memories are awesome!


When we came off the zip-line there was a military exhibition set up. I jumped at the chance to show you readers their equipment. Much of the equipment here are things they use to hunt the militants deep in the Amazon in the southern part of Colombia (drug lords and guerillas).
Simon really got into it, as well. I would say a little too into it......
The last exhibition of the day was the horse show. Seeing the horses and their talented riders was really amazing. We were enjoying ourselves so much.....until the rain hit. I thought surely this would be the end of the show. But the crazy stunt riders kept right on going!

We had a wonderful day and learned lots about animals. It is definitely something I'll take our kids back to see in the future. They'll probably understand it a little more than I did as I'm sure their Spanish will be much better than mine.


On that note I will have you know that my Spanish improved greatly during my two weeks there. I'm really excited that I was able to pick it back up so easily once I was fully emersed. I need to continue speaking and studying now while it is fresh so that I can improve even more. I would love to speak fluent Spanish one day. But as anyone who knows both English and Spanish can tell you, Spanish is much more difficult to learn than English. Much. I have a long way to go.

Think Thin Thursdays

I am now going to take this moment to depart from the Colombia vacation recap and let you know about an awesome new bloggy program.

Bridgette @ The Not-So-Blog Blog recently started "Think Thin Thursdays" (Thanks Aubrey for helping me find it). I'll let you jump on over there to learn more about it.

Lucas and I decided we need to start eating healthier for several different reasons. I'll admit that the main reason for me is to lose weight... because what girl doesn't like to be skinny. I'm not going to kid myself about being supermodel skinny. As my mom says - "You're just curvy." Thanks, mom. You also told me it was 'just baby fat' through the seventh grade. Haha! Anyway, my body isn't made to be a stick. But I would be more happy if my tummy were just a little more flat.

So my goal is to lose 15 pounds in 8 weeks. This should get me bikini ready for our trip to Cabo San Lucas at the end of February! That is definitely a big motivating factor.


Monday night I cooked an incredible Weight Watchers' dish. If you're interested give it a try.

Tuesday night I cooked "Slowcooker Chicken and Dressing" from a diet recipe I found online. It was terrible! But it was healthy and we ate it. Needless to say, I won't be cooking that again.

Wednesday was Mexican... it's our one night out. I'll have to find a way to lose weight while keeping this in my diet for sure. It is a main stay.

So we're staying on course thus far. I took Rafa on a 40 minute run this morning. He did great for such a small little doggy! Then I came back and did 10 more minute on the elliptical machine and an upper body workout with my exercise ball and weights.

From now until our trip, I'll be using Thursday to update you about our progress, share any good recipes I've found, and keep myself accountable. Yes, thank you blog readers for keeping me accountable. I'm counting on you!

"The joy that you give to others is the joy that comes back to you"

~John Greenleaf Whittier

Our first full day in Colombia was a very special day. Lucas told me about this family tradition and I was so eager to take part.

For the last few years, his family has purchased little presents and held a Christmas party for the impoverished children at a rural school near their farm house. Many of the house and field servants who serve the nearby farms send their children to this school.


This year, Lucas and I pitched in - buying gifts for some of the children and helping pass out little candies, food, and juice.


After the children ate their treats, Cleo (Lucas's mom) and Lina (Simon's girlfriend) led the children in a dance through the room.
So I danced along....

Next was what all the kids were waiting for......
PRESENTS! Simon and Lina called out each child's name one by one and they came forward to accept their presents.


The best part was watching the children play with their presents afterwards


They were so precious.


I am so appreciative that his family let us take part in their tradition this year. Although it felt weird at first (being the 'rich' American girl coming in with all these presents.... note: I am not rich), it really felt good to see the children smiling, playing, laughing, and enjoying their Christmas presents. It was a great Christmas present for me. :)



There was a friendly cow across the little road so I went over to say hello and wish him a Merry Christmas, as well. No presents for him though.


Tomorrow I'll share with you our trip to Panaca (sorta like an animal-themed Six Flags without the rides).

Sign Here Please....

After a long Friday at work, it was finally time for Lucas and I to begin our trip to Colombia. We went home, gathered our FIVE suitcases, then met my parents at the airport to say our final goodbyes.

We had a lot of positive comments about our festive Santa hats while we were traveling.

From Alabama we headed to Houston, Texas for a five hour layover. Fantastic.
But I got by with a little help from my friends. :) A nice drink to keep my mind occupied before our midnight flight. Bonus: the bartender made too much and gave me another little glass of daiquiri. Sweet!


We finally made it to Bogota early the next morning.... where we waited some more.


The first flight of the day to Manizales (we were on the second) had not even left yet. Apparently, dense fog was covering Manizales. The day before the same problem occurred and only the final flight of the day was able to land. I didn't want to wait around all day only to find out that we weren't going to fly. So Lucas got us on a plane to Pereira. From Pereira we would take about an hour and a half bus ride to Manizales.

When we arrived in Pereira we were one bag short. Great! So it took us quite some time to fill out the appropriate forms before we could head out to the bus. We were the last to arrive. Waiting for us was an Avianca representative who requested our signature on a form. GREAT! I hoped this wouldn't be like last time (but secretly hoped it might so I could share the story with you)!
So Lucas read the forms and signed. We loaded our bags and boarded the bus. Then the same guy from Avianca proceeds to tell us that we will be dropped off at the bus station (in the bad part of town) instead of the airport. Lucas doesn't like this idea at all and, of course, protests.

Great! Here we go again. But Lucas backed down and we were on our way to Manizales.

At first, I didn't think I would mind the ride. I love the scenery.
But let me just tell you about Colombian roads. They suck! There are many, many potholes and if that isn't enough to slow down traffic they have put lots of speed bumps on their main roads. Well, none of this really bothered our bus driver. He just kept hurdling on down the road at speeds I would rather not know. Several times I went flying through the air (no seatbelts, of course), bumping my head on the ceiling, arm on the armrest, knee on the seat in front of me..... None of this even mentions that it is entirely two-lane roads and we just had to pass every single car in front of us.... giving us several near death experiences.

After all that, this is how I was feeling when we were approaching Manizales.

I seriously don't think I could have taken it much longer. Thank goodness we arrived. We took a cab to the house where we met his family!

We were exhausted but his mom was so extatic to see us!

Lucas with his mom, dad, and brother Simon
(Martin, his youngest brother, had not arrived from Bogota yet)

We ate lunch and visited... then took a nap. Whew! Very long trip!!

(oh, and we did get our missing bag back the next morning)

More to come about our time in Manizales and travels within Colombia....

(By the way, go check out Aubrey at The Fam Five for a fantastic giveaway!)

Back Home Safely

I'm back! I have so much to fill you in on and so many photos to sort through. I'm hoping to resume normal blogging tomorrow and tell you all about our travels.

I've missed you all and your blogs so much! I can't wait to catch up with everyone. However, there is one minor problem. I have over 900 POSTS in my reader! Holy cow! I mean - I love ya'll and everything but there is no way I can cover that. So I'm going against my better judgement and deleting all of these unread posts. I hate doing that because I know there are some wonderful Christmas and New Years' photos and stories. But I am only one person with limited time! So - I am now asking you to please respond to me with anything you think I should know that I have missed. Or if you've got some really cute photos of your younguns on Christmas morning I'd love to see it! Please brag to me so that I won't miss anything (without having to search through almost 1,000 posts)! Thanks for understanding!

It's good to be back.

Feliz Navidad!

Can't wait to tell you about all
of our adventures here in Colombia!

Romancing the Stone - Part III

I only had a few pictures on my computer of our trip to Colombia so now I'm out of pictures... but I have to tell you this 'at-the-time-it-was-horrifying but now-it's-kind-of-funny' story about our return home.

We had a late afternoon flight out of Manizales to Bogota. We said our goodbyes to his family and got in line at the ticket counter. His family, thankfully, stayed to make sure we boarded the flight safely.

We had a minor problem at the ticket counter. The lady wanted to charge us more because our bags were considered overweight for domestic flights but we our tickets were bought together as an international flight. Lucas had a little argument with the woman and she had to bring her manager over. We eventually got our luggage checked with no extra fees.

Shortly after this minor setback, an airline representative stepped out with a big bullhorn and made an announcement (in Spanish, of course) which I soon found out meant our plane was delayed in arriving. Since they don't have lights at this small town airport and we would no longer be able to take off before the sun had set, our flight was delayed to the next day.

BIG PROBLEM!!! How was I supposed to get home? I had tennis practice and classes to get back to (at the time I was still in college)! I had my family at home worried sick while I was in a foreign country! I wanted REAL American food and to step foot on American soil!!! Yes, I started panic mode!!

There was much discussion about what we would do now until the airline finally figured out this was a big problem and found a way to shuttle everyone from Manizales to Pereira (look it up on the map on Part I) and we could make the last flight of the evening out of Pereira to Bogota.

So they make us form a line to sign up for the shuttle bus. Lucas and I, of course, are the first ones in line. I'm telling you - I was ready to get home! The airline representative hands Lucas a clipboard with a paragraph at the top of the sheet and lines going down the rest of the paper. We are to sign our names and pass it along for the travelers behind us.

Lucas, being the analytical little engineer that he is, will not sign the paper without first reading the paragraph above (which is a very smart thing to do but can be timely - in matters of closing on our house or signing up for auto insurance - and dangerous - as it was in this case). The representative was not very happy with Lucas for reading. She wanted him to just sign and pass. I was encouraging him to do the same at this point. He kept reading. She then jerks the clipboard out of his hands before he can finish signing and passes it along to the next travelers.

I'M LIVID! What does this mean? Are we not getting on the bus?!?!?!? What's going on? Everyone is speaking in Spanish and it is making me very frustrated that I can't comprehend!

We wait, thinking maybe after everyone signs it we will sign it and just be the last ones to board. BUT, no! She says she is calling the passengers by the list on the clipboard and anyone's name not on the list will not be traveling to Bogota. 'OH NO SHE DIDN'T'!!!!!

She begins to call names off the clipboard as Lucas, I, and his family become very upset with the way things are unfolding. Next thing I know, Simon (Lucas's brother) has grabbed the sheets of the clipboard, ripped them into shreds, and thrown them into the air!

OH, God! We're going to jail!!!

Then, a group of military men walk up - WITH MACHINE GUNS STRAPPED TO THEIR BODIES - and then I think "OH, God! We're going to die!!!"

Seriously, I'm flipping out right now. I'm sitting against the wall, knees pulled into my chest, crying like a little baby when a woman handing out free 'samples' of Aguardiente walks up. Aguardiente is a Colombia liquor..... and let me just tell you, it knocks your socks off. She offers me a free shot of the liquor. I gladly accept and throw it back between my fits of sobbing. She tries to calm me down and speaks very broken English with me. "It be okay. You not from here, No? Un otro?"

I nod. She hands me another free 'sample' of the liquor. Oh, thank the heavens for that woman because I'm not sure I would've made it through that debacle without a little liquid courage. Haha!

Somehow, we are given permission to ride the van as long as we sign one of the worker's statements about what happened. Lucas agrees to sign the statement as long as he can write what 'really' happened. The manager doesn't like this idea... of course not. He decides it is best to cut his losses and get us on that bus and away from Manizales. I agree. That was a good decision.

Whew!!! Let me just tell you. That van ride to Pereira was AWK-WARD! Everyone was looking at us like we were some kind of hooligans. I'm sure it appeared that way..... really all I am is a bratty American who must get back to my hamburgers and chicken fingers. Ha!

If my parents only knew then what we were going through!! We told them what happened..... after I had arrived home safely.

Soooooo.... our travel to and from Colombia last time was not the biggest success. I really hope we don't encounter similar problems but this time - if we do - I'll have my camera snapping shots away incognito so that you all can share my fear!! I'm going to have to get a shot of one of these military men so you can seriously know my fear when 5 of them approach our group. Yikes!!!

This concludes my mini-series 'Romancing the Stone'. I hope to be reporting some up-to-the-minute stories with you soon! I can't wait to share my journey with you!!