Los Animales de Colombia

13 de mayo 2017
Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

Interestingly enough, I haven't seen a lot of wildlife in Colombia.  I went on a few hikes through the jungle, but didn't see anything other than birds.  There are definitely a lot of cool-looking birds here, and some weird-sounding frogs I've heard but not seen, not to mention some malicious squirrels.  Here's an animal update from the past several months.


Lulo la Gata

20 de septiembre 2016
Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

You may or may not know that I adopted a tiny kitten back in September and named her Lulo ( #LuloLaGata ).  My mentor, Janeth, introduced me to her maid, whose cat had had kittens, and 6 weeks after their birth, was looking to rehome them.

Lulo and her siblings, Buca(ramanga) and unidentified brother (I wonder whatever happened to him).  They survived a harrowing moto ride in the pouring rain in this box.  They were very cold and very afraid.

I picked up each kitten to decide which one I wanted to adopt.  This little one gave me a hug, and that decided it.  Colleen and I wrapped her up in a towel and took her home.

So happy and so tiny!

My students have given me a lot of shit about naming my female cat with a male name (in Spanish, names ending in -o are male and names ending in -a are female), but I wanted to name her after one of my favorite Colombian fruits.  It's a fitting name, as she's a fruity cat.  Plus, with her green eyes and orange-tinged fur around the eyes, it's like her eyes are little lulos.

Lulo la gata y jugo de lulo

My students are always coming up to me with photos of cats that need homes and offering these cats to me.  They want me to give them names like Maracuyá and Guanabana so I can have a whole fruit salad of cats.  At this point in my life, one cat is enough for me.  It turns out this little nugget is quite the handful.


17 de noviembre 2016
Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

I woke up the morning of November 17th sans cat.  Usually, Lulo sleeps in my bed and starts meowing and biting me around 5 am when she thinks it's time for breakfast.  Her bowl was empty and she was nowhere to be found.  I go to the kitchen and fill her bowl, hoping she'll turn up at the sound of food, but no luck.  I start freaking out and look in every drawer, cabinet, closet, and crevice (she's gotten herself trapped in a few places, including my drawers of clothes).  No cat.  By this point, Colleen is helping me look, and we're both going to be late for work.  No luck.  We look outside a little bit, calling her name, but find no sign of the little cat.  We head to school and hope she'll turn up later.

I worry the entire day of school, hoping my little baby cat is ok.  I made some signs and printed out a bunch of copies to hang up around the building after school.  My 11th grade students told me they killed her because they don't like cats (they have a very grotesque sense of humor).  They then were trying to convince me to adopt a kitten one of them had and it would be the new Lulo, or maybe it would be Maracuyá.  I tell them all I want is my Lulo back.

I made a bunch of signs to hang up around my apartment complex.

I walk home with my signs and see no sign of Lulo on my way up to my apartment.  My Spanish is still pretty terrible, so I wait a bit for Colleen to come home and help me knock on doors.  Colleen gets home, also without a sign of Lulo.  We grab our keys, posters, and tape, and head out to canvas our neighbors.

The instant we walk out the door, we hear a very familiar meowing.  We look down the stairs and who do we see but our own little monster, little Lulo!  I sprint down the four flights of stairs, grab her, and run back up and inside the apartment.

We deduce that what must have happened is she jumped out the kitchen windows (a good 5 feet from the ground).  It's possible she landed on the palm tree below the window on her way out.  I text my vet and he comes over to check out my baby.  He tells me there's nothing broken, no internal problems, just some bruising on her tailbone.  This little nugget fell four stories with hardly a scratch!

During this terrifying experience, I learned that cats can survive falls from very high up.  I also discovered that cats have nine lives, but gatos tienen siete vidas.

Unfortunately, some months later, Lulo's sister Buca (adopted by my friend Amanda) would fall out her 17-story balcony, land on a car, and not survive.  Amanda's students would then get her a hamster named Little Buca for her birthday to try to fill the hole in her heart.


23 de noviembre 2016
Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

It wasn't long before Lulo got herself into more trouble.  The morning of November 23, I woke up and reached for my phone (terrible habit, but one that most people in this day and age share).  I went to unplug it from the night's charge, and found that the cord was in two pieces.  My little derp had chewed through it overnight, while it was charging.

Of course I had to do some #catshaming

However, her hunger for electrocution didn't stop there.  A few weeks later, she gnawed enough of Colleen's Macbook charger to prevent it from charging.  Colleen brought it to the IT guys at school and they MacGyver'd it to work.  I also bought her a replacement cord over Christmas break (man those are expensive, damnit Lulo).


16 de enero 2017
Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

Over Christmas break, I needed someone to watch Lulo, as I only plan to subject her to the terrors of flying once - when I return to the United States at the end of my Colombian adventures.  I asked my maid Marcela (Yes, I have a maid.  Every 2-3 weeks she comes to clean my house and do my laundry for $50.000 COP, or $17 USD.) and she took Lulo to her home, as well as Courtney's cat Leo, Amanda's cat Buca, and Amanda's dog Lila.  She texted us updates about the animals every few days.

Moto-gatas

About a week after Lulo returned home from her Christmas break (she was so happy to see me!), it was time for her spay appointment.  My vet came and picked her up; she was going to stay the night at the animal hospital for her early-morning surgery.

The next day, I was out shopping and looked down at my phone - I had several missed calls, texts, and voice messages from my veterinarian.  I listen to the voice messages and am a bit puzzled...my Spanish is getting better, but I still have trouble understanding things over the phone.  I call him back and he's talking very fast with a lot of excitement in his voice.  I hear "quatro sopresitas" (four little surprises) and he says he'll send me a picture.

Quatro sopresitas.

I look at the picture and ask him incredulously, "¡¿Ella está embarazada?!" and he tells me that yes, she was pregnant.  He was already inside and saw what he thought were her kidneys, but then noticed that there were four extra ones.  He looked closer and realized they were four fetuses.  Since he was already inside (spaying is an invasive surgery in which the vet removes the uterus and ovaries), he just removed the fetuses, turning the procedure into a combination spay/abortion.

He informed me that at her age of 5-6 months, she is at the developmental stage of a 10-year-old human.  She is a small cat, and still a kitten herself, and it was not medically wise for her to bring kittens to term.  Chances are she would have died, and the babies probably would have too.  (My 11th graders still called me a murderer, despite this information.)

After keeping her under watch for a few hours, waiting until she woke up from the anesthesia, he brought her back to my home.  Poor Lulo had a cone on her head and was still pretty drugged up.  She drunkenly zig-zagged her way to my room, where she just kind of fell over and laid down pathetically exhausted.

The babies were about the size of ping-pong balls (for comparison, Lulo's head is only about the size of a tennis ball) and took up much of her abdomen, so with them gone, she looked emaciated.

Pobrecita

The vet came back a few days later to check on her and give her antibiotics, and he instructed me on how to clean her wound and told me to put bacitracin on it to speed up the healing.  Despite the cone, Lulo kept trying to bother the stitches, so I had to watch her for that.  She had to keep her cone on for about 10 days, and by that time the stitches had some time to start dissolving.

After I took off her cone, I noticed it was made from some old x-rays.

When I first found out she was pregnant, I messaged Marcela, but she had no idea when this would have happened.  The vet said the babies were only a few weeks old, placing the conception during Christmas break.  Marcela's only cat is a female, Buca is female, Leo is male but was neutered several months prior, and she said the animals never left the house.  Lulo is a sneaky little bugger, so I'm betting she found a way out, and while she was out, a gato found her and had his way with her.  Personally, I didn't even know she was old enough to be in heat, and Marcela hadn't mentioned her going into heat, but I guess she hit puberty pretty quickly.

My count is that she's used up about 4 of her lives so far: (1) covered in fleas in the cold wet box on the moto ride to school, where I adopted her, (2) when she fell (jumped?) out the fourth-story window and was lost for nearly an entire day, (3) when she ate an active charging cord and was likely electrocuted, and (4) when she was impregnated as she barely began puberty and had a combination spay/abortion.  We've gotta be careful, as she's a Colombian kitty and they only have 7 lives (or does she have 9 because she's being raised by an American?  Is it nature or nurture when it comes to superstitions?).

Anyway, flash forward to today and Lulo is a healthy little cat (though not as little as she once was!) and enjoys normal cat things, like chasing/eating bugs, meowing at nothing and sprinting quickly to other rooms, and trying to eat all my food (including but not limited to: meat, vegetables, cereal, oreos, popcorn, and more).  She's also extremely smart - if I forget to lock the window, she knows how to (and does) open it (luckily she hasn't jumped out again); she slides open my closet doors to hang out with my shoes; she opens the pocket door to the hall bathroom just enough to get a paw in, then grabs the rug and pulls it through the crack, using it as a tool to finish opening the heavy door.  As my Oma would say, she's a little stinker.

But she's my little stinker!

The Kamikaze Bird

3 de febrero 2017
Colegio Panamericano, Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

One sunny day in February, I was sitting at my desk during one of my planning periods, working on grading some papers.  It was hot, so I had all my windows open and my ceiling fans on high.  My classroom has two walls of windows, so it makes for a nice cross-breeze.  There's a tree right outside the window that's behind my desk, so sometimes I work to birdsong.  It's a pleasant way to work.

Or at least, it was.

As I'm working, I suddenly hear a huge THUMP and a bird lands on the floor not even two feet from my chair.  I scream and look at it; its eyes are open and it's opening and closing its beak, and then, it closes its eyes and beak and I watch the life fly from the bird.

Needless to say, I freak the fuck out and run out of my room, panicking.  I try to tell the secretary what happened, but Spanish is difficult in my frightened state.  Through a combination of stuttering Spanglish and sign language, I get the point across.

I'm still hyperventilating, so I go tell Colleen what happened - she has a class, but it's only a few students due to a field trip.  She and her students all come look at the bird, and I notice that an entire wing landed a full 6 feet away from the rest of the bird.

These little doves are called abuelitas - little grandmas

Maintenance comes to collect the carcass, and the cleaning lady cleans the floor, but by the time my next class begins, there's still feathers EVERYWHERE.  I tell my students the story, and explain why the windows on the tree-ward side of the classroom are now closed.  One of my seniors looks up at the wall and asks, "Miss, is that blood?"  I had an entire class of 10th graders in my room for an hour and no one noticed that I had a big splatter of blood and guts up on my wall near the ceiling where the bird must've hit after being thrown from the fan before it hit the ground.  I tell the cleaning lady and she calls maintenance, and they say they'll come back and clean that after school when I no longer have students in my room.  So I get to stare at it the entire rest of the day.

Interpret the blood spatters how you will.

For months I've been terrified to open the windows on that side.  Birds still get in through the vents above the windows, the skylights, the windows on the other side of the room, and the door, so it's a dumb fear.  I've only recently started to sometimes open those windows again on really hot days.  I get sad every time I see one of those little abuelitas walking around.


The School Squirrels

13 de mayo 2017
Colegio Panamericano, Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

Colegio Panamericano has a thriving squirrel population.  Part of the reason these squirrels are doing so well is that the kids feed them.  These squirrels have no fear and will come right up to you while you're trying to enjoy your empanada.  I had one nearly climb onto my foot before I ran away (squirrels aren't my favorite).

They're kinda cute, until you're afraid they're going to attack you.

A few weeks ago, I saw a few boys from elementary feeding a squirrel.  One boy was hand-feeding it and petting it as it ate.  His friend then threw a bottle cap at the squirrel, and when I yelled at him for (1) cruelty to animals and (2) littering, and told him to pick up the cap and throw it in the garbage, he seemed scared to approach the squirrel.  Nevertheless, I persisted.  He tried to walk away, but I kept telling him he needed to pick up the cap and respect the environment and the animals that live in it.  He was still afraid, as the squirrel was still there, looking for more food.  Eventually, the boy that was hand-feeding the squirrel walked over and picked up the cap, just so I'd stop and they could leave.

Last week, a few of the teachers were sitting at the bottom of the stairs to the high school, below a tree, deciding where we were going to go to celebrate the beginning of our three-day weekend.  Pieces of fruit keep falling from the tree above, and we look up and there's a squirrel sitting up there throwing these down at us like little bombs.

Earlier this week, Nestór, the physics teacher, told me that recently there was a squirrel sitting in the little tree right outside the science rooms.  The students looked out the window and screamed - the squirrel was eating a bird!  It was eating one of the little abuelita doves, spitting the bones onto the ground as it gnawed down on the flesh.

These squirrels are vicious little buggers.  I feel I have cause to be afraid of them now.

Noviembre y Diciembre en Colombia

5 de febrero 2017
Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

Several small things happened in Colombia in November and December that I haven't gotten a chance to write about, so I figured I'd smoosh them all together in one post in the interest of getting to more recent stuff (while still reminiscing!).  So, here's a bunch of small(ish) blog posts all in one.


25 de noviembre 2016
Colegio Panamericano, Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

In most of Colombia, US Thanksgiving isn't a thing, which makes sense.  They start decorating (and having sales) for Christmas before Halloween is over.  However, due to the amount of North American staff, Thanksgiving is a thing at Colegio Panamericano.  The week prior, we were told to head to the main office to get our Thanksgiving present from the school.  I had never received a Thanksgiving present before, so I was excited!

It's a Bluetooth Speaker!

The box for the speaker advertises that it uses "Beats technology," which makes it sound like it's made by Beats.  Unfortunately, as noted by the "S" where you'd find a "B" on Beats, it is not.  When turning on, changing modes, or connecting devices, the woman's voice that guides you has an accent that is a mix of British-English, German, Japanese, and robot.  It's actually quite an interesting feat to get all those sounds together.  Interestingly, the + and - buttons do not change volume, but skip tracks and change radio stations.  There is not a volume adjuster anywhere on the speakers.  This is fine when you're listening to your phone, but there is only one volume for radio - loud.  All that being said, it's always nice to get unexpected gifts, and the speakers have pretty decent sound!

In addition to the gifts, Colegio Panamericano throws a hell of a Thanksgiving party for the staff.  On Friday (we had school on Thursday), school gets out a few hours early so all the teachers have time to go get their hair and nails done and put on their suits and elegant dresses (Shout out to Kelsey for helping me with my makeup!).  The party began promptly at 7, which in Colombian time meant 7:45 or so.  Each guest was handed a cocktail on their way in, some sort of strong but tasty fruity thing.  Waiters walked around offering glasses of sangria and scotch when it looked like your drink was getting low.

Beginning of the evening - only 2 drinks (and one half-hour) in!

After a few drinks, dinner was served.  They did their best to give us a traditional American Thanksgiving meal, and man, did they deliver.

Yum.

Once everyone had gotten some food, they started announcing winners of the raffle every so often.  This wasn't a little basket-o-food raffle - they broke out the big guns.  Everything from food processors to tablets to TVs were given away as door prizes, with a few winners picked every half-hour to an hour.  While we all anxiously waited to see if we'd be the next lucky winners (Kelsey won a tablet!), we danced to the live band (and when they were on break, the DJ).

All dolled up

After dinner

Around midnight, people walked around handing out masks and silly string and it got pretty crazy.  I left a few hours later, but the party was nowhere close to finishing, and they hadn't even given out all the prizes yet, but it was time.

Party time!

27 de noviembre
Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

That Sunday, all the expats had our own (low-key) potluck Thanksgiving.  We met up on the roof of Ryan and Kate's apartment building, which is gorgeous.  It's got a pool and a great view of Floridablanca.

Betcha none of your Thanksgiving celebrations had this view.

Figuring out what to wear really tripped me out - usually when I think "What do I wear to a Thanksgiving party?" the answer is a sweater...

In addition to the gorgeous weather and beautiful view, everyone brought delicious food to share.  A fantastic time was had by all and we had to roll ourselves out of there!

Another Thanksgiving dinner that couldn't be beat!

Nuestra Familia de Colegio

7 de diciembre 2017
Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

The eighth of December marks the Feast of the Immaculate Conception (aka the Impregnation of the Virgin Mary), and it's a pretty big deal here in Colombia (and one of Colombia's many national holidays).  The Eve of the Feast of the Immaculate Conception is a big deal as well - Colombians get together with their families, light candles, pray, and enjoy each other's company.

Noche de las Velitas, or Candle Night, is one of Colombia's Christmas season traditions.  In the weeks leading up to the event, every store and street vendor sells packs of colorful little candles so you can stock up.  Each family gets together and lights one for each member of their family and for loved ones who have passed away.  They pray for everyone, eat, and enjoy the evening.

On this night, Courtney and I went over to Amy and Denise's apartment.  On my way there, I saw families lighting tens and hundreds of brightly colored candles.  It was pretty beautiful.  The four of us sat on the balcony and lit candles for all our people and had some delightful conversations.  Rather than the traditional buñuelos, we ordered Domino's for a little taste of home to go with our wine. It was quite a delightful evening.

Floridablanca is #lit

8 de diciembre 2017
Piedecuesta, Santander, Colombia

On our day off (on a Thursday right before finals), my host family invited me and a few others to their house for a party.  Vero and her friend Ximena picked up Colleen and I, and we headed out past Piedecuesta to where my host father calls "the boonies" and where their gorgeous villa is located.  Colleen's host family and one other family also joined the fiesta later.

This place could be a hotel.

This house is HUGE and was built to my host family's specifications.  The master bathroom has a bidet, and the bathroom between the fitness center and the workshop has a urinal.

No excuse not to work out.

The kitchen is enormous - two ovens (one doubles as a microwave) and a giant island in the center.

This is the kitchen of my dreams.

In his fitness center, my host father has one wall dedicated to a map full of pins of places he's been (he used to be an airline engineer before he retired).  I hope to one day have that many pins on my map.

I want to be a world traveler.

In their giant yard, they have a huge outdoor cooking pit (probably mostly used as a paella pit).

Time to make the paella

My host father Luis is from Spain, and his wife Luz Elena is Colombian.  Their daughter Samara was born (and lived her first 7 years) in Florida.  Luis loves the United States and is hoping to move the family back there soon.

We had quite the Spanish smorgasbord - we started off with pan con tomate - like Spanish bruschetta - which was made by cutting tomatoes in half, grating them (with a cheese grater) so you get all the juice without the skin, grating in some garlic, and adding salt and olive oil.  You then spoon it onto some nice fresh bread.  They had gotten some kick-ass garlicky bread, apparently from Mas por Menos, a grocery chain!  It was so delicious and I think I ate a whole loaf by myself.

Next on the menu was tortilla española - Spanish omelette. We sliced up a bunch of potatoes and onions into thin-ish slices, and then in a deep cast-iron pan, Luis heated up about 2-3 inches of olive oil. He cooked the potatoes and onions a while in the oil, then added several eggs and scrambled it all together. After it had hardened enough, he used a plate to flip it over and finish the omelette on the other side. When finished, this concoction was about 3-4 inches deep. We cut it into little cubes and snacked on it (and I think I probably ate almost half of this delicious dish).

Next, Luis headed out to the grill to start work on the paella, while the rest of us had a little descanso on the porch. Colleen and I actually curled up on a hammock and a bowl-shaped chair and took a little siesta.

It felt like we were on vacation

After an hour our two, the paella was finished - complete with mussels, shrimp, octopus, calamari, lamb, chicken, and rice. The pan was probably about a 2-foot diameter, and it was their smallest paella pan.

Dayum

Even with about 10 adults and 4 kids eating, we only got through about half of the paella. I was all ready to put my pickiness aside and eat the seafood, until the little octopus on my plate waved at me as I carried my plate to the table. I picked at it and ate some of the land-dwelling animals and the rice, but I couldn't bring myself to get over it and try the seafood. It'll be my challenge for next time.


9 de diciembre 2017
Colegio Panamericano, Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

The next day was an odd one at school, since we had just had a day off (that for me and Colleen felt less like a 4-hour party and more like a 3-day weekend).  We had a half day at school because the students had to finish preparing for their Christmas show that evening.

Kindergarten, elementary school, middle/high school band, and the senior class had been working hard for the past month on their dancing, singing, and musical performances.  The seniors had been taken out of class for much of the previous week to finalize their choreography (their dance was superhero themed...not sure how that relates to Christmas).  It was quite a to-do.  On top of all these performances, we were also treated to a mini-concert by Ivanna, winner of La Voz Kids Colombia, a 7th grader at our school.  Man that girl's got pipes.  Here's a video posted by the school about the event:

In addition to the performances, the school was also hosting a silent auction of paintings made by students and their parents, with all proceeds benefiting a foundation that helps underprivileged children.  I put my name down on several cool pieces of art, and I got a text a few days later that I had won one!  Plus, it was painted by one of my seniors, Camila, so that was extra exciting.  They also threw in another painting that they had forgotten to display (a 9th grader named Maria Jose), so now I have two beautiful pieces of art by Colegio Panamericano students.

On the left is Maria Jose's, and the right is Camila's.

10 de diciembre 2017

Mesa de los Santos, Santander, Colombia

On our last weekend before we all left for Christmas break, Rosa and I jumped on a bus and headed up to Mercado Campesino in Mesa de los Santos for a bit of Christmas shopping.  The bus from Piedecuesta made a bunch of stops to pick up and drop off people, sometimes seemingly in the middle of nowhere on the side of a mountain.

We finally got there and got some breakfast of arepas de choclo, platanos con guava y queso, y cafe.

These are likely my favorite food in Colombia.

We wandered around, looking at everything from homemade pasta to salves made from marijuana and coco leaves.

All these meats just out in the open air...the stray dogs and the flies really liked this aisle.

Market buddies!

Baby chiva!

Spending some time with the local wildlife

We made several lists of more things we need to eat next time we're there, including fried quail eggs on a stick.  Unfortunately, our first meal filled us up too much to have anything other than Colombian-made German beer and fresh coffee that was roasted and ground specifically for our cups.

And the man roasting the coffee wasn't too hard on the eyes either.

As we waited almost an hour for our bus that was supposedly supposed to come every half hour, a trio of young people came up to us and asked if we knew the name of God. Rosa said she didn't think of God as having a name, and I guessed Yahweh. Apparently we were wrong, and they dug out the bible passage to tell us his name was Jehovah. We were trapped waiting for the bus and did our best to seem uninterested, but they kept telling us about their church in Bucaramanga and how we should look them up. The bus eventually (finally) came and we hopped on to head home.

11 de diciembre 2017
Bucaramanga, Santander, Colombia

The next evening, after hanging out with Dan, Colleen, and Kelsey, Rosa and I went to Parque San Pio to look at the lights and shop a bit more.  Bucaramanga went above and beyond in its Christmas decorations (starting in October).  Lights everywhere, especially in the parks.  Of course, Bucaramanga is known as the City of Parks, so, really, everywhere.  Luckily, most of the light displays are made from recycled materials like plastic cups, so it's actually pretty green.

Happy as a sunflower!

Botero's lady is admiring the tree

Cheesy Christmas-card-esque photo

It's like a fairy forest

Of course I needed a photo of this... #mathnerd

2,562 Mile Romance

17 de octubre 2016

Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

This past week was October Recess - a full 10 days sans students (with 2 professional development days interrupting the middle of the week) - and my fantastic boyfriend Noah came to visit!  He was supposed to arrive late Friday night (7 de octubre), so I stayed up past my bedtime (I've been going to bed recently around 9 or 10 pm...one of the fine benefits of having to be at school at 6:30 am) to wait for the taxi to pick him up from the airport.  I was sleepy yet excited!

However, it turns out he missed his connection in Bogotá (not an uncommon experience) and the next flight wasn't until 6 am the following morning.  So, after chatting with him (until his phone died... Bogotá has got to get some outlets!) and making sure he had a safe place to sleep and a ticket for the morning flight, I re-ordered the taxi and went to sleep for a few hours.

Thankfully, he and the luggage all made it safely the next morning (8 de octubre)!  The taxi drove me there, waited for us, and drove us back, all for $50,000 pesos (let me know if you want his number, he's very reliable)!

Made it safe and sound! We're both more than a little bit sleep-deprived, but so happy!

So we went back to my place, and after meeting Lulo La Gatita and giving her a good pet, we went to go have some Santanderean breakfast at Tony's Desayuno.  After some arepas, jugo for me/granizado for Noah, and huevos, we were ready... to nap.

Later in the afternoon, after a day of napping and otherwise chilling, we headed out to find Jesus.  Or is that Jesús?  In any case, we took a taxi out to El Santísimo, the tallest statue of Jesus in Colombia, and depending on whether or not you count the height of the base, possibly the tallest statue of Jesus in the world (yes, taller than Christ the Redeemer).  El Santísimo is 33 m tall, 37 if you count the base.  Christ the Redeemer is 30 m tall, 38 if you count the base.  (Noah doesn't think the base should count.)

We took the teleférico up the mountain  - Noah felt like we were entering Jurassic Park.

 Once we got there, we took our obligatory selfies and walked up the steps to see Giant Jesus up close and in the flesh - err...stone.  He's quite a sight to behold, I gotta say.  Though the sun was out when got there, night quickly fell like a bad powerpoint presentation.  There was no sunset.  Only darkness.

This guy?

I hope I'm not acting holier-than-thou.

So it turns out you can go up and see the world from Jesus's point of view, so we paid another $5,000 to take the Jesus-vators up 40 meters to get a better look at Bucaramanga (because being on the top of a mountain wasn't high enough).

Not the way to heaven.

Hey everybody!

We spent some time up there admiring the view and wondering what the antennae on Jesus's middle finger and head are for (I think they control different messages for different people), and watched as some teens tried to break their way onto the roof of the observation deck (seriously, aren't you high up enough already?!) before we made our way back down.

After our descent, we caught a light show projected onto a fountain, which was actually pretty cool!  They synced up the music with the movements of the water and the colors and the images and it was just fantastic!

Not my video, but the only videos I took were less than 10 second Snapchats.  

You'll just have to come see it for yourself!

We ate dinner at a restaurant with a clear view of the Holy Armpit, and got to watch the light show a second time while we ate.  We then made our way back down the teleférico and back home to get a good night's sleep.

9 de octubre

Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

The next day, we decided to walk around Floridablanca, in an area I'd been meaning to explore but hadn't yet had the chance.  We stumbled into a dimly-lit small-aisled market, with people selling everything from candles to fruit to meat to tools.  One vendor had an entire pig skin hanging out to dry.  After holding our noses for a while (all that raw meat doesn't smell great), we walked back out and continued our explorations.  We eventually ended up finding the Botanical Gardens (Jardin Botánico Eloy Valenzuela).  I had heard great things, so we went in!

There were of course many beautiful plants, but perhaps the most exciting thing (to me) was the wildlife!  They had an aviary FULL of beautiful parrots, a pond full of ducks, and of course TURTLES wandering everywhere free-range.

WHAAAT. Check out this dude.

After the botanical gardens, we went in search of Obleas, a traditional Santandarean snack that is essentially a wafer sandwich.  Traditionally, obleas are just filled with arequipe, a caramelly-dulce-de-leche sort of thing.  I ordered the Amor a Mil, which is filled with arequipe, cheese, guanabana, and strawberries.  It was tasty but didn't stay together well, so I ended up eating most of the fillings with a spoon.  Noah got the Amor de Tres, which is filled with arequipe, cream, and pear.  He really enjoyed it.  We then stumbled upon a town square with a market going on, where many people tried to get us to buy more obleas, ice cream, bracelets, or photos.  We declined and headed on home, quite pooped from our adventures.

10 de octubre

Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

Unfortuantely I had to go to work on Monday, but afterwards Noah and I had a bunch of people over for dinner (homemade tacos!) and board games (thanks for sending me stuff Mom and Dad!).  Everyone had a great time and really enjoyed the tacos.  We finally got some spicy in our system!  (Spice is not very common here.)  After eating and chatting and vying for the cat's affection, we played a couple rounds of Sushi Go Party and Cards Against Humanity, and (to my knowledge anyway) everyone had a grand ol' time.

11 de octubre

Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

I had to go to work again on Tuesday, so Noah was left alone for much of the day once more.  Luckily, he became fast friends with Lulo and she enjoyed napping on him.  After work, Colombia was playing Uruguay, so Noah and I joined a few of the other teachers at a bar to watch the game.  We were told to meet at Saxo Pub (an Irish pub, I think), but it turns out Saxo was gone and Das Leben (a German pub) had taken its place.  So we were quite the worldly group I suppose.  It was a pretty exciting game, and the two teams ended up tying (empate).

12 de octubre

Bucaramanga, Santander, Colombia

On Wednesday, we decided to adventure to downtown Bucaramanga and see what there is to see.  We walked around El Centro and bought some fruit from the market, and dodged all the people that were jumping out to try to get us to buy whatever they were hawking.  We saw a guy blowing glass on the street and watched him make a swan, which was pretty cool (and only $5,000!).  

You don't see that every day.

We checked out the painted hormigas, and Noah had his first Colombian hotdog!  ...He wasn't impressed and it may have also been his last Colombian hotdog.  Luckily, we also found a place with empanadas and big ol' fried potato balls full of stuff (Papas Rellenas), so the night ended on a good note.

13 de octubre

Floridablanca, Santander, Colombia

Thursday was Noah's last full day in Colombia, so we spent it mostly eating empanadas and doing other very Colombian experiences - drinking fresh juice, buying coffee and aguardiente, and drinking water out of a bag.

Not as easy as I make it seem.

Many things here are served in bags - water, milk, ketchup, jelly, mayonnaise...you name it.  More environmentally friendly!  We also tried the Colombian soda Pony Malta, which it turns out is disgusting (to my students who may be reading this, Noah says Dr Pepper is WAY better.  I don't even like Dr Pepper and it's way better than Pony Malta).

We had gotten word that a chiva trip was in the works, so we headed back down to Bucaramanga with a bag full of beer to make Noah's last night a great one.  There were only 11 of us, but we still had a BLAST!

We're adorable.

Our chiva tour took us up to a discoteca near the top of a mountain with a great view of the city below us.  It being a Thursday night, we were essentially the only people there, short of one elderly couple quietly sipping their beers.  We lit up the empty dance floor and had a great time before re-embarking and partying 'til the cows came home.


14 de octubre
Palonegro International Airport, Lebrija, Santander, Colombia

We woke up before the sun to catch the taxi to the airport for Noah's early-morning flight.  He was able to get in one last empanada at the airport, though, being airport food, it wasn't the greatest.  We had a mild freak-out when the departures board turned from en sala (turns out that means it's boarding time!) to cerrado while we were eating, but luckily all was okay at Bucaramanga's tiny airport and Noah made it on the plane and safely through all his connections.