August 31--Part III--Coffee Plantation & Home

We toured Coloma Coffee Plantation, nestled in the mountain town of Fusa.

The coffee bushes are not in a field along rows like we thought they would be. They are all bunched up together along little curving paths. Seems inefficient for picking, according to our American mindset. But we are sure they know what they are doing!

Coffee Growing 101: You take a bean (not the kind at the grocery store) and plant it in soil mixed with sand. It takes 2 months to grow to this height. Notice that the bean grows up through the soil and is at the top of the plant. This was so cool.

It then looks like this.

Then it is transported once it is this size.

And it is planted. This is Jorge Rico, who taught us all about the coffee. These mature plants are about 25 years old. They prune them to stay this size b/c the coffee is better this way.

The plants produce these flowers, which eventually turn into....

Green coffee beans (look closely).

When the green beans turn red, they are ready to be picked. Since it is not coffee season, it was very hard to find a red bean.

We let Lucia pick the red beans and she was thrilled. We always tell her how famous Colombia is for coffee. It was heart warming to see her pride in coffee and Colombia.

Our little treasures.

The plantation church.

There were many machines that we looked at that processed the coffee. This was one of the last ones, where we could smell the delicious coffee smell.

Coffee from the plantation.

Coffee and coffee liquor awaited us at the end of our tour. Lucia preferred the taste of the liquor in her coffee (probably b/c there was no cream).

Us Kirkland girls love our coffee!

On the way home, we stopped by one of the roadside places to get one of these hanging food items. They are everywhere. This place looked very dirty, so I did not eat any. Brian and Lucia did and said it tasted like cheese biscuits.

Back to the Dodge Dart-- Jorge got a natural gas engine put in his car to help cut down on pollution. So he took us to the station and we got to see how to fill a car tank with natural gas. This was very interesting.

Silas says, "HOORAY we are home!!!" He kept doing his arms like this and it was cracking us up. We figured he must be able to tell we were almost at our hotel. It was a great day and we are so glad we went. After being in the hot mountains and polluted city, the first thing we did was take a shower. It never felt so good to be clean!

August 30--Out & About on Sunday

We went for a walk on Carrerra 15, which is closed for runners, bikers, walkers, etc on Sundays. Our first stop was at Baby Ganga.

This store is Baby Ganga, sort of like Babies-R-Us, but much smaller and waaaaay more expensive. Baby items in Colombia are about 3x more expensive, or even more. For example, the microwave sterilizing bags we bought in the U.S. were $5. Here they are $30. So there is not much we can afford at this store. But we really needed a teething ring for Silas, who chews his hands constantly.

From Baby Ganga, we continued on a walk down Carrerra 15. Exercising seems to be very popular here. It is a great environment for us. 

It wasn't too long before a slight drizzle and a cool breeze called us in. 

We stopped by Dunkin' Donuts for a drink and to get warmed up. This picture shows how Silas likes to spend much of his awake time-- standing up. 

When we got back to the hotel, we were surprised to find that the tables were all decked out with Colombian pottery for a special meal. The hotel was hosting a party, and we got to benefit! This is Herman, who works here. He is great to talk to and is very helpful for us.

We ate with a couple from Norway who is here adopting their son, who you can barely see in this picture. They have been here about 1 week.

Keva-- this is the Colombian pottery we found in Beaufort that our coffee mugs are made out of. Come to find out, this is special pottery made about 3 hours from Bogota in a dangerous area. How cool that it is also sold in South Carolina. It may cost an arm and a leg here. This soup was delicious by the way.

Mystery dessert. We couldn't figure out what this was. It had a cheese consistency but no taste. We figured it must be a very special dessert since is was served with this meal. But none of us could finish eating it.

After nap time, we went to the "Dog Park" for Lucia to play and Brian to run. This park has more dogs in it than you can imagine. Really. And none of them are mutts. We have seen nearly every breed imaginable... beagles, boxers, goldens, yorkies, bulldogs, afghans, great danes, chows, german shepherds...shall I go on! It is like an AKA show. It looks like folks in Bogota take their dogs very seriously. And most of the dogs are not on leashes, but they are so well behaved. It is very different, and we like it.

August 29--So we don't forget...

This is our hotel room...so we don't ever forget (right now that seems impossible!)

This is take from the entrance door.

This is where I am sitting to write on the blog. Notice the windows. We have 3 very large windows in our room, which is terrific. The only down side is that the sun sets on our side, so our room heats up incredibly hot every afternoon. By 5:30, the sun is hidden by the Direct TV building (our view from our windows). In order not to cook in this room, we open up the door and all the windows to create a breeze. We hope our hotel neighbors don't mind!

Lucia's bed.

Silas's bed. Notice the noise maker. It is essential to drown out the street noise.

This is the chair Trisha feeds Silas in. It is our special chair and I already have many wonderful moments with him in this very spot. And a lot of spit up to boot!

This is just about everything we brought down here with us. There is great storage here, which is good. I think I would go nuts if the stuff was hanging out in the room with us.

Bathroom. Notice the blue thermos and bottled water. The thermos holds hot water that we mix with the bottled water to make Silas's bottle the perfect temp. This keeps us from having to go to the kitchen each time we need to fix a bottle.

The view from our window. It is hard to see it from this picture, but there is an "ally' that runs directly in front of our window, which is how we get to Carulla (grocery store). The street that you see is packed every rush hour, bumper to bumper. Traffic is crazy here, and very slow moving.

August 29--Feeling Better

Dr. Clamencia came by today and gave us clean bill of health, for the most part. Brian has a few more days of medication. But overall, we hope we are over a very long week! Lucia is relieved that she can now touch Silas and have some sweets.

For lunch, we went to the Parque 93 area and ate at La Taqueria, a Mexican restaurant. It was only the 3rd time we have eaten out in nearly 3 weeks. It was a nice change.

Doesn't Silas look like a big boy! Hard to believe he is 4 months. Of course, he could only hold this position for about 10 minutes and he was completely tuckered out, not to mention that it was very close to nap time.

While Brian went for a run, I took the kids to the book store for story time. Lucia was very happy to get back there and see Alejandra, who works at the store and handles the story time. She also speaks fairly good English which helps.

BTW, I am learning that I am not a fan of the sling. It cramps up Silas's legs and it puts him a sleep position no matter the different positions I try. At least it is comfortable for me. But I really wish I brought the Baby Bjorn.

Never too early to begin a love for books!

Lucia loves all the book selections. She picks out many of the books for Alejandra to help her with. She also enjoys just reading by herself. One thing is clear...She likes for me to sit away from this area on the couches so she can have her space with the other kids. I like her independence. She comes to check-in every now and then and then runs back to read.

We tried a different way of bathing Silas tonight. Thought he looked cute! But we need to work out the kinks of making it comfortable for him if we use the sink again.

August 28--Luci loves Pepto!

Today has been pretty uneventful, and we consider this a blessing. Brian and Lucia are feeling better, but we stayed at the hotel and rested all day. Brian and I realized that this whole week has been at the hotel. Kind of a bummer when there are so many adventures to take. But is was the best thing, of course, to help everyone get well. We are really hoping the sickness has passed. Dr. Clemencia will be coming back by tomorrow morning to check in on us. She is very mindful of us, and we are grateful. She was also happy to find that we brought Children's Pepto with us, b/c they do not sell it in Colombia. Lucia is also very happy about this b/c she loves the way it tastes and can't wait to take it at every meal.

Silas has upgraded to the highchair! He was in a bouncy seat when we ate. But we have been doing lots of tummy time and "sitting up" and "standing". His muscles have strengthened so much in the past couple weeks. It is nice to see his face at the table while we eat.

By the way, someone mentioned to me that we have not posted his age. Silas was born on April 13. He is 4 months old. Lucia was born on April 6, so they are four years apart.

August 27--Doctors still make house calls

Today has been long. Last night, Lucia began feeling sick and threw up. She was such a trooper, especially b/c this was the first time in her life she has thrown up. Late this afternoon, her temp went up to 103.3. Lucia being sick like this is new territory for me b/c until now she hasn't been sick like this. I was feeling quite helpless and nervous. We called the doctor this afternoon for help.

The pediatrician is very nice here, and she came to our hotel tonight at 8:00. She took good care of Lucia (and Brian, who is still not feeling well). She seems to think that Lucia has a stomach virus and Brian has a respiratory virus. Double whammy of germs floating around in our little hotel room (and Carulla does not sell Lysol spray). So tonight Brian and Lucia are sleeping on one side of the room while Silas and I are sleeping on the other, even though this only places us a few feet apart :) We are hoping and praying that Silas and I do not catch either one of these viruses! 

On a lighter note, I think I may have designed a Bumbo seat for us to use in our room. Okay, so it is just a high chair with a soft towel and some toys, but it is great for Silas to practice sitting!

Looking back--Adopting Kaylee

When we told Lucia that we would be adopting again (about a year ago), we told her that she would be able to get an American Girl doll. Her doll has been sitting in my closet since February. The Sunday morning that we left for Atlanta for our trip to Bogota, we had her baby's adoption day. We enacted it just like it would go with Silas. Lucia got all dressed up, and her husband "Mr. Rubber Duck" (yes, on her own she married him last year and talks of him constantly) and their baby, Isabel, were there for the adoption. Brian video taped it. I pretended to be the adoption worker. I gave her adoption papers for her and Mr. Rubber Duck to sign. And then I took her outfit into another room and dressed her baby in it. I then walked her baby in and presented her to her new family. It was very sweet. And we hoped that it would prepare her for how Silas would be adopted.

Lucia named her baby Kaylee and she is with us on our trip. In fact, she came with us to Silas's adoption day. Lucia has a dress just like hers, so they were dressed alike. She loves her baby. Lucia held on the Kaylee during the adoption, but when she had a chance to hold Silas, she pushed Kaylee aside and said she wanted to hold her brother. I found that very sweet.

August 26--Another day at the hotel

We stayed around the hotel today and were getting a little bored. Lucia has colored about 1000 pictures and was a little antsy. So we played "tattoo artist" and she colored my feet. If you are wondering, no we don't do this at home! It was just one of those days :)

Brian took Lucia on a date--"Donuts for Dads" (like they do at her pre-school.) Fortunately for us, we stay right next door to Dunkin' Donuts and Baskin Robins. Believe it or not, today was the first visit there.