Colombia!

We had a long weekend, so I went to go visit an old friend, Jeny, from Camp Storer in Bogota, Colombia. It was so much fun! Bogota was huge, crowded, and kind of dirty, but also had plenty of charm to it. I only had two days there, and they went as follows:
Day 1:
-Visit the kindergarden where Jeny and her mom work
-Go the center of town to walk around for a bit and feed the pigeons in Plaza Bolivar
-Help paint the walls of a children center that Jeny and an organization she's a part of is starting
Day 2:
-Visit Jeny's university
-Get her visa for the US paid for (she's nannying with Au Pair for a year in Chicago)
-Go back to the center to see the Museo de Oro
-Party in the streets of Bogota's center
-Dance in the discotecas

As I said, despite being crowded and dirty, Bogota is awesome and the city definitely has a ton of attitude. Museo de Oro was a really well done museum, and included an exhibit about archaeology, which made me happy! On Friday night, the city shut down a main street and it was flooded with performers, vendors, and people out to have a good time. Every type of Colombian music can be found in downtown Bogota at night and it was so much fun! Bogota also has a ton of living sculptures who do a dance and let you take their picture after giving them a coin. At the discoteca, Jeny told the people at the door that it was my birthday so I could get a free drink. My name was flashed on a board that said "Feliz Cumpleanos" and I had to dance the Macarena and other Colombia party songs on stage with everyone else who had a birthday that day too. It was hilarious. There was also a live reggaeton band, which made me so happy because I LOVE reggaeton!

On Saturday, we went to Villa de Leyva with Jeny's parents and her friend who owns a hotel nearby. It was so gorgeous! The streets are all cobblestone and the buildings are white and have a backdrop of the Andes mountains. We got in kind of late on Saturday, but still went walking around and had a glass of vino caliente - hot wine. It was red wine with cinnamon on the rim of glass among other things mixed in. Delicious. The next day, we went shopping in the botiques that line the streets of Villa de Leyva and went to see a huge fossil of an aquatic dinosaur from when Colombia was underwater. After that, we went to Raquira which was an incredibly colorful town full of handicrafts. It was very short, but we crammed a lot into out weekend out of the city!

Some side notes about Colombians. They are super proud people and LOVE Colombia! They relish in their culture musically, gastronomically, and artistically and speak elegantly and highly about it. When they describe things, they use adjectives like "divino" (divine) and "estupendo" (stupendous) and they address each other as "corazon" (heart) and "mi vida" (my life) often. It was so fun to listen to them talk to me about their country. Also, the Colombian flag is everywhere - the colors red, blue, and yellow are incorporated into buildings, clothes, jewelry, art, and housewares. They have tons of food and drinks that are typical to Colombia... most of them are soups and sweet things. My favorite sweet was Miloja... Think crispy dough like ice cream cones with layers of cream and caramel and my favorite drink was the vino caliente.

Overall, the long weekend in Colombia was way too short and I hope I'll be able to go back for longer!