January 17 2010 Bogota -- Turistren!

We had a really interesting day today taking the Tren Turistico (tourist train) from Bogota north to Zipaquira and back. The girls were generally in good spirits -- with a few "feas" and "invidiosas" thrown in there for variety. I am still working on my Zen Mistress Madrina approach. Today, not quite as successful. As I sometimes feel in the classroom, why don't the kids just do exactly what I tell them to do immediately when I tell them to do it?!? This applied to showering this morning and getting ready to leave. But, though they were on their own schedule, we did walk out the door exactly when we needed to get to the station on time.

Us waiting at the Usaquen train station and the train arriving:






On the train they had live musicians coming through the cars every little while -- 3 different groups! The girls enjoyed playing with their Barbies when they weren't listening to the music.






First stop was Zipaquira -- we had an hour to walk around before the train was due to head south again. We walked to the main plaza, where there was a beautiful church, and had a snack before going back to the train station.




The next stop was Cajica, where we had 2 hours to find a place for lunch and walk around. We ate at a lovely Italian restaurant which had a very pretty outdoor garden. Comedic high point of the meal: me falling in slow motion off my chair! I think one leg was in a hole or off balance or something (really, it wasn't the wine -- I had only had 2 sips at that point!) so when I leaned to my right, sloooowly over I went! It didn't hurt, just a little embarrassing, and it gave us all a good laugh.

This is the church in Cajica.



And one last picture before we boarded the train to come back!