Another Full Day

View of the cable car heading down the mountain

You mean I'm going to ride in that?

Do I look nervous?

First View from the top

Guadalupe hill covered in misty rain clouds

The fancy bathroom

Inside the fancy bathroom

 

Bogota's tallest building, it flashes lights and advertisements

Diego asleep in the cab, he sleeps with his eyes partially open

ICBF name tags, can you tell who it is by the picture?

Diego's case worker

funky plant in the garden at ICBF

People watching soccer in the street

I'm going to die....

view of the city going up Monseratte

Tire vs. pot hole = no bueno

Our awesome driver Rene

Sweet baby Diego

Tuesday was a busy day.  Our taxi driver arrived at 10:30 and drove us to the ICBF office where we received Diego last week.  We had our integration meeting with the child psychologist.  She asked us how Diego was doing and how we were doing as well.  She asked all kinds of questions about his behavior, his eating and sleep habits and what kinds of activities he likes to do with us.  Diego had lots of fun playing with the toys while we visited.  At the end of the meeting we asked some questions about Diego's history.  He has a huge scar on his right leg that wasn't in his records and we also asked about his glasses. They brought us a bag that had his glasses and the toys and blanket we sent to him.  We were also given some pictures of Diego when he was a baby.  It was so nice to receive those.  Soraya was interpreting for us and she told us that the psychologist we were meeting with was the case worker who met Diego in the hospital just after he was born.  She entered him into the child welfare system and she is very happy that he now has a family. Our meeting went well and then it was time to head further north to the doctors office.  We arrived early and so we walked around the local mall for awhile.  We found a sewing store and were able to get needles and thread and some safety pins.  Many of the clothes we brought for Diego are a little too big and now I can do a little sewing so they won't fall down.  He is such a skinny little thing.  Our next stop was to the doctors office for a T.B. test.  We waited for a while before it was our turn and the soccer game was starting.  The crowds outside the building were loud and crazy. They had big screens broadcasting the game in the streets.  Ben took Diego back for his test.  He only cried for a minute until they gave him a sucker.  He came out with a blue tongue and a smiley face on his arm.  They circled the spot where the needle went in and drew a smiley face so that they know where to check and Ben said they sang a song to go with it.  After the test, we talked with our taxi driver and asked if he could take us to Monseratte.  He said no problem.  There was hardly any traffic because of the game so we made it there pretty fast.  Monseratte is a mountain at the north end of Bogota, there is a church built at the very top.  We rode the cable car up the mountain which was kind of scary.  I held tight to the bar and had a hard time looking out the windows.  The cable car was really fast and only took a few minutes to get to the top of the mountain. It was raining pretty good by the time we got up to the top, but there weren't many people up top.  The view was amazing!  From the top you could see most of Bogota.  It was fun to pick out some of the places we had been recently from way up high.  We could see Bolivar square where we visited last week.  It was full of people watching the soccer game on a giant screen. The cheering was so loud in the city that we could hear it all the way up on the mountain top.  In the distance we could see the statue of Guadalupe.  We walked up to the church and walked around inside.  We walked around for a while and then decided to have dinner at one of the restaurants.  We walked into the San Isidro restaurant and immediately felt under dressed.  It was very fancy with lots of glass and crystal on the tables.  I was very worried because Diego was hungry and when he's hungry he throws fits and all I could see was lots of glassware crashing all around.  They sat us in a room overlooking the city.  The rain stopped and the clouds cleared for a while and we were able to see the city.  The best part was when the sun set and the city lights came on.  The city is beautiful at night with all of the lights on.  The church has colored lights on it that change to different colors, I think I liked the green lights best.  We took a lot of pictures and then got in line to ride the cable car back down.  The cable car seemed to fly down the mountain.  We talked with one of the men on the car, he was from Venezuela and spoke very good English.  It was fun to visit with him.  When we arrived at the bottom our taxi driver was waiting for us.  We loaded up and headed home with two very tired kiddos.  Majo fell asleep immediately and Diego was in full on melt down mode.  As we were getting close to home, our driver Rene turned the corner and hit a pot hole the size of a small country.  It was a huge bump.  Then Rene said the tire had blown. He was able to pull over to the side of the road, but with the crazy traffic, it was scary to watch him out in the street.  Ben got out to help him and they finally got the tire off.  I got out with Diego so that Rene could get to the spare tire.  He couldn't figure out how to get it out.  We finally decided that it was going to take a while and so Rene signaled for a taxi to drive Sarah and I and the kids home so that we could get them to bed.  We piled in the taxi and Rene gave them our address.  We weren't too far from home, but we were very turned around.  We finally made it home only to realize that my keys were still in Ben's pocket.  Diego was so exhausted and upset.  Sarah was nice enough to let us hang out in her place while we waited for Ben to get back.  Sarah is great, she if super nice and fun to visit with.  Not only that, but her daughter is darling.  Ben finally made it home.  Rene couldn't get the spare out, so he took the tire over to a store and they fixed it for him.  We were finally able to get Diego to bed.  The poor boy, we had been gone all day and he was just worn out.  He went to sleep really fast and slept through the night.  It was a good day, full of fun and adventures.