Headed home

Wow. It's actually here. For 2 months I've had the date of April 3rd in my mind as the end of my trip but it always seemed soooo far off. And now it's here. And I have to go home. And I don't want to. It may sound strange, or even perhaps a bit cold, but I don't get homesick... ever. That doesn't mean that I don't miss PEOPLE but that, during my two months here, I can honestly say that not once did I wish I wasn't here or wish to be back home instead. I don't know if that's normal or not, but that's how I am. BUT, now that the moment is actually becoming a reality, that it's nearly tangible that I'll be back in my own cushy bed at this time tomorrow (and that I'll get to have a HOT shower!) and since I've been in contact with my friends/family about making plans for this weekend and the coming week (it still seems totally surreal to me that THIS weekend I'll be hanging out with people in PA), I am getting really excited to see everyone! Especially the kiddos. I had a conversation with my sweet niece Alison via IM last nigth and it made me REALLY miss her... and all the kids. They're good stuff, I say!

As for my last day in Bogota, I spent it dreading the trip home, organizing my stuff and buying coffee. Lord only knows how I will manage to carry what feels like 150 pounds of coffee beans but no doubt I'll find a way and it will ALL be worth it once I'm home and drinking a fabulous cup of cafe with the official seal of Juan Valdez on it.

This evening Lina had a meeting to attend so one of her friends that I had met previously, Cristian, took me out. We went to a cute little outdoor place in a historic section of town that I hadn't seen before. And I had a brownie! It's been a mighty loooong time since I've had a brownie and it was goooood. I also had a glass of hot, steaming wine. Mmmmm.

I've made a few observations since I've been here. Of course, I have forgotten half of them (why, WHY don't I write things down?!) but here are the ones that come to mind at this point:

1. Here they have a soup man. Think of the ice cream truck but instead of a truck with ice cream and tinny piped-out music, it involves a guy on a bike riding around town tooting a bicycle horn vending piping-hot, homemade soup. Not sure why, but it cracked me up.

2. Because cell phones are very expensive here and most people can't afford them, some very ingenious people have come up with the idea of "selling" their cell phone use on the streets. Everywhere you go, you see people just hanging around, with a sign advertising the price they will charge you to use their personal cell phone per minute. The first time Lina used one, I wasn't really paying attention and all of a sudden I see her walk up to a stranger and he just hands her his cell phone and she starts chatting away. I couldn't for the life of me figure out why a complete stranger would just hand over his cell phone and I just stood there, incredulous at the kindness of the Colombian people. And then I saw money being exchanged.

3. From Lina's own lips, if you are told something will take one month (for example, if you place an order from a store or for a service to be done), it will take at least three. Time seems fairly irrelevant here, as it was in Chile. It seems the same rules apply here in that if you invite someone to your home for dinner at 8, you would be shocked if they showed up before 8:30... and you sure wouldn't have anything prepared until then. Yeah, I can dig the way time works down here.

4. I've already mentioned the 'pico y placa' thing (the driving restrictions) and the system of paying all of your bills in person at each office. But they merit mentioning again since I can't get over either of them (and because Betty spent a couple hours this afternoon going around to the various places to pay her bills so it made me think of it again)!

Also, the random picture of the food is of the breakfast I had most mornings here: FRESH squeezed orange juice, eggs, FRESH bread from the neighborhood bakery, arepas (a traditional item here made of cornmeal: oh so good), caldo soup and coffee. Sho' beats Corn Flakes!

I dig Colombia. And, mostly, its people. Lina and Betty couldn't have been nicer or more welcoming and hospitable to me. They went out of their way to accomodate me and offer me a great experience while I was here. They provided me a place to stay, cooked for me, drove me around, took me to their country house, showed me how to make the Colombian hot chocolate and arepas (oh so good) and they gave generously of their time to spend it with me and include me in their lives. It just seems innate to them to be hospitable and to make guests feel both completely honored AND like a part of the family, all at the same time. It's a great quality to have. I will certainly miss them... but I will just as certainly be back to visit them! For now, back to Lancaster....

A trip to the country...

Beatriz (Lina's aunt) has a fabulous house in Villa de Leyva, a super-quaint, cobblestone-streeted little colonial town about 4 hours outside of Bogota. The plan was to leave Sunday morning at 9 am, sharp. We left at 1 pm sharp. I, still apparently being in somewhat of American mode, was ready at 9 am sharp. Will I never learn? Because of COURSE if the plan is to leave at 9, you don't even think of leaving the house unti nearly 11. And then you have to stop to drop something off "on the way" at a friend's house and hang around and talk for a half hour. And then you have to "pop in" to visit someone at the hospital. So we were on our way only four hours later than planned... made me laugh.

I normally hate car trips but this one was fabulous. Through lots of little villages and up winding mountain roads with unbelievable scenery. I didn't take my eyes away for even a minute, literally. There were a thousand things I wanted to take pictures of but it's kind of hard to do when you're careening around a switchback on a mountain at what feels like 70 miles an hour! And, also, the vast majority of the pictures I wanted to take were simply of the people we passed along the way. It was everything that you would think of when picturing tiny little towns in Colombia: people dressed in the old traditional garb (people not wearing it for fashion but for real practicality... these are people that can pull off cowboy hats without even a hint of looking like they don't TOTALLY belong in it); there were cows and horses and goats and sheep grazing randomly all along the edges of the highway, groups of little old men leaning against buildings, wearing their ponchos and hats and shooting the breeze, little boys leading donkeys down paths, farmers hoeing their fields by hand, sweet-faced little kids running around in their mini-ponchos, run-down little towns full of people hanging around at the outdoor tables at the town restaurant, little old ladies carrying buckets of water up hills, dogs sleeping in the middle of the streets (you just swerve around), herds of cows crossing the roads... amazing. But there is somehow always an odd feeling of being rude when wanting to take a picture of a person and so, being hesitant, I missed a thousand pictures that would have fit right into National Geographic... and I will always regret it!

Once in Villa de Leyva, Lina and I went out late that night to have some hot chocolate at one of the little outdoor places that surrounds the main plaza. Totally charming. While we're there chatting, all of the lights go out in the whole town, every single one, and no one made even a slightly surprised sound or a comment, no "What's going on?", not even a slight breath of a pause in the conversations. Everyone just kept on talking as if nothing at all had happened, as if we weren't all suddenly sitting there in complete and pitch blackness. And eventually the lights just came back on, and no one even blinked. Pretty funny.

Monday morning I woke up to the sounds of Kenny Rogers BLARING from the stereo. Yes, that Kenny Rogers. Somehow I never expected to be woken up by "The Gambler" while in Colombia. Turns out Betty is a big fan. Who knew Kenny Rogers still had any fans?

Then we took another road trip, about two hours to another little town named Nobsu. Equally amazing drive and equally quaint town. But of course, because it's my personal curse, we started having car problems as we were nearing it. We stopped into a mechanic's and, also of course, when he got in to drive it around it didn't show any signs of the problem. He couldn't find anything wrong with it. Some things are the same worldwide, eh? So he poked around, fiddled with a few things and then sent us on our way with his phone number in case we had any more problems that day... all for free. On the way back through, Betty stopped and bought him a little gift as a means of thanks. I thought that was cool... and classy.

That night back in Villa de Leyva we had dinner at "Don Jorge's" little restaurant. It's Betty's favorite restaurant there and she and Don Jorge have known each other for about 15 years. It's the type of place where you walk in and say (or, rather, yell out through the little window into the kitchen) "Do you have dinner tonight?" and he says either yes or no and, if it's yes, you ask what he has. And that's what you have. It's kind of like going over to your grandparent's for dinner, because they're only making one thing and you have to eat it and everything, and I mean EVERYTHING is homemade. No lie, I ordered a glass of fruit juice (maracuya, mmm) and it took him like 10 minutes to get it, which I couldn't understand. Until I looked back in the kitchen and could actually see him making it... not mixing up a powder or opening a bottle, but squeezing the fruit. Whoa, to die for. And Don Jorge not only makes the juice, but he waits on all of the tables and takes the money (for which there is no bill and no receipt, he just comes back to your table at the end, glances over what you had and adds stuff up in his head) and helps with the cooking. We had 3 amazing, homemade dinners of chicken, fish and beef as well as salad, potatoes, plantains, rice and fresh-squeezed fruit juice for what worked out to be just under $11. Total. We went back for every subsequent meal.

And then we went home and listened to Kenny Rogers together. It's worth mentioning that we're not talking about Kenny Rogers CDs or even tapes here, but actual records... Betty's a serious, long-term fan! Funny that she has loved him for all of these years without being able to understand even one of the words. So we listened and I translated and now she loves him even more ("Lady" is her new favorite, now that she knows what it says).

Today we took it easy and hung out in the town this morning, having breakfast at Don Jorge's and doing a little shopping. And then another amazing scenic drive home. Remember that thing I mentioned the other day about how certain people aren't allowed to drive at certain hours on certain days? And how I thought it was a great idea? Right about 5 pm tonight as we were coming back into Bogota and Betty remembered that today she's "pico y placa" (on driving restriction) and we then had to kill 2 hours sitting outside the city limits until she could drive again legally in the city, I started to rethink my position on the whole thing.

So we found a little chicken restaurant in which to kill time and Betty ordered the bowl of soup at right. What you're seeing is a bowl full of chicken broth... and chicken hearts and livers and necks and... ready?... chicken feet. See those two little pointy things sticking up towards the back of the bowl? Those are little chicken claws! Yeah, I've been pretty adventurous with my eating here but not THAT adventurous. It was about all I could do to take the picture!