Valentine's Day 2010 - Parque Jaime Duque!

Happy Valentine's Day to all!! We had a great day today. This morning, we went to the Children's mass at Cristo Rey which we really like -- they do a great job involving the kids and having engaging and fun music and even puppets to help with the sermon. It provided a teachable moment -- both girls were a bit cranky throughout and really didn't participate much, not even for the Lord's Prayer or the Peace. Wendy was openly rejecting for pretty much all of it, and Fer who usually joins in more was also not that involved. We had talked about getting an ice cream after and so once the Mass was over we sat with them outside to debrief. When asked how things had gone, Fer immediately said she hadn't behaved well and admitted the various times. Wendy, on the other hand, said she had been perfect and had done everything that she should. She then changed her story to admit the different problems once she got worried about her ice cream! So we decided to offer Fer an ice cream if she wanted one, because she did admit what had happened and she told the truth the first time, and we told Wendy that she would have to wait for a treat until the park, but that Fer might choose to share. Fer is so concerned about Wendy that she immediately started asking Wendy what kind of ice cream she wanted, etc. I got Fer to come with me to choose, and they shared it on the way home. It did seem to make an impression on Wendy, so paso a paso.

Pretty soon after we got back, we left for Parque Jaime Duque with 2 other families from the hotel, Manuel and Esperanza and Tomas, and a German family with a 2 year old boy. It was maybe a 45 minute drive out of Bogota, with some traffic as many people leave the city on Sundays for lunch and afternoon out with family.

These are some pics of the entrance hall and the view on entering the park.







As soon as we got there, we had a delicious lunch of traditional foods -- arroz con pollo for Chris, ajiaco for me (I lurrrrrve ajiaco! I have to learn how to make it) and both the girls had bandeja paisa, enormous plates of meat, rice, beans, fried egg, fried plantain, avocado and arepa! They were pretty psyched with their meal though of course we also had a lot of leftovers -- more for Papi!



After we ate, we took a few pics of the four kids outside, and then they went on a car ride right outside the restaurant. After that, we walked over to see the zoo, stopping at the "Taj Mahal" on the way.





We enjoyed seeing all the animals -- there was a big cats area with lions and tigers and a leopard, and then a big bird area as Colombia has an enormous population of different kinds of birds, first in the world, apparently.







Once we finished at the zoo, we took a little train over to the rides area and the girls enjoyed some rides.





We finished our day with a group photo by the entrance.




It was probably an hour back to the hotel and we all kind of dozed in the van. Once we got back we had a little time to check email, then time for dinner, showers (yes!), Kitty and bed! Tomorrow the girls will have their English lesson in the morning, and then we are going to the Botanical Garden. Don't know much about it -- I have to do some research online tonight -- but the most important thing is that it will be a day trip out of the hotel.