Bogota and the Suarez family!

I spent the last week of my trip in luxurious opposition to how I had traveled for the previous 7 weeks! Living in Bogota was perfect!

Instead of being alone, I lived with the wonderful Suarez family as their 4th blonde sister/daughter.
Instead of taking public buses/cabs/walking, we had a driver.
Instead of eating free hostal bread for breakfast, lunch, and sometimes dinner, we had a cook.
Instead of living at a hostal in a room with 10 bunk beds, I had my own huge room and bathroom.
Instead of paying for the hourly use of an internet cafe, I had a lap top and unlimited wireless.

How was I so lucky? I contacted my Aunt DK's friend, Luis Suarez, who worked and sometimes lived in Bogota when I found out that Steve was leaving and I would be alone for a week in Bogota. I asked him for advice on a volunteering program for me as well as a cheap hotel option. He said he could help me with both and when I arrived into the airport he arranged for the driver to pick me up and bring me to his office. There, I met his lovely daughter Tatiana who looks like she a beautiful 20 year old but is really only 17. Look out guys, she's going to be drop dead gorgeous when she is 20! Luis said that he had told me that he had found a volunteer opportunity for me but was having difficulty finding a hotel to my budget specifications. I had told him that normally, I spend about $7-10 a night on a hostal but would splurge in Bogota on a cheap hotel for $20-$30 a night. He laughed and said that was what he would spend on breakfast and could never find safe and acceptable accomodation for that price! Sooo he invited me to live with him and his family! Yay!!

I met his daughters and fell in love with them! Tatiana is the oldest then Vanessa who is 15 and Jessica who just turned 13. All are very pretty ballerinas who go back and forth in Spanish and English with ease. It was awesome to watch! I hadn't realized how much I missed family time and gossip time until I spent a few days with the Suarez family. We would have family breakfasts and dinners and I'd gossip with the girls about boys, school, traveling. They had just found out that they would be moving to Bogota from Fort Lauderdale which was a huge change. New country, new culture, new schools. I was sooo jealous! I wish I had been able to live in a different country when I was younger!

The Bogota apartment was gorgeous but on the weekend we went to the pool house over the mountains about 2 hours away. The weather in Bogota had been chilly and often cloudy but here it was super sunny and hot! We went swimming, tanned, and watched movies- what a life! :) On Sunday we returned to Bogota then took a quick drive up to the farm house about half an hour away. Luis used to go up there when he was young. It was your picturesque country house. We took pictures with cows, horses, and dogs. Talk about city girls in the country. We were prancing around like we'd never heard "mooooo" before! It would probably have been top on America's Funniest Videos (or is there a Colombia's Funniest Videos? haha I don't know)

My days were spent volunteering, working on the computer, or doing crazy things with my Suarez sisters. I volunteered in the very south of Bogota in a small area that only had dirt roads and Luis said he had never visited before. It was a very poor area and while it was safe enough during the day, at night it became very very dangerous. I worked for a kid's program there that watches children before/after school and provides classes and activities on the weekends as well. I helped them with their homework, played soccer, and made little playdoh pictures. It was great- after 8 weeks of only thinking about myself (where I want to go, what I want to do etc etc) it was really good to have a bit of time where I could think about and help someone else.

Unfortunately, I couldn't volunteer everyday because I had a lot of work I had to complete. I had just found out I was accepted in KAUST (King Abdullah's University of Science and Technology) in Saudi Arabia and I had to research this opportunity to see if it was something I wanted to do. If yes, I would have to be in Saudi Arabia by the end of this month. I also found out that I had to write essays for other possible fellowships and programs. It seems like I can never take a vacation from school work and too many things to do!

Now onto my favorite subject: FOOD! Colombia has this chain restaurant called Crepes and Waffles. It's phenomenal. They fill these crepes with so many wonderful things you wouldn't believe it. I happened to drop a hint that I loved this restaurant and during my week in Bogota we went three times!! :) So good! Maybe one day I'll try to bring one to the States.. Not only did we go out to eat though, Jessica and I decided to cook up something at home too. We tried to bake a cake. Key word tried. hahaha We didn't have a cake mix so we made our's from scratch. I could find all of the ingredients except for baking powder. I found a white powdery substance in the kitchen closet, tasted it and decided it could possibly be baking powder so we tried that. Unfortunately, it wasn't. Our cake tasted great- it just didn't rise. haha We did add a super good home made icing on top of it though so overall I say it was a success!

Anyway, this is getting too long! Bogota was great because I had a great time with the family I was staying with there! I was soo grateful for them helping me out and taking in a poor lonely blonde backpacker... I did have to say good bye to my Bogota family though and make my way back into the United States.

More Sunny adventures to be continued shortly... Saudi Arabia? London? South America? Hmm... ;)

Ecuador

I left Mancora on Thursday evening for a 4 hour bus ride to Piura, Peru to meet up with Audrey and take a 9pm overnight bus to Loja, Ecuador. Audrey had reserved the bus tickets for us but when we got there, the bus company had already given away our tickets and we were stuck in Piura! (I am only sharing this story 2 weeks after it happened so that my mom does not have time to worry about me being stuck in a Peruvian bus station) It was too late to try to get to Audrey's house an hour away and Piura is not a safe place to stay for the night so we found the only other bus company that went to Ecuador and booked seats on the last bus crossing the border. Instead of going to Loja, we changed plans and had to go to Guayaquil.

We crossed the border at 5am and except for an hour and a half wait to see the immigration officer and get stamped, it was smooth sailing. Problem free border crossing! Yay! We arrived into the gorgeous Guayaquil bus station at 9am and had breakfast at McDonald's there. A little home away from home. It was Audrey's first McDonald's hotcake experience. We didn't want to stay in the big city of Guayaquil and wanted to go to a midway point so that I could easily get to Quito and she could get back to Piura at the end of the weekend. We chose the cute town of Cuenca and hopped on another bus.

We arrived there around 3pm on Friday and checked into a gorgeous hostal that had a great view of the city from the 6th floor. We ate a nice Mexican meal then called it a night. On Saturday we woke up early and went to Ecuador's best ruins, Ingapirca, which was about 2 hours away. We learned about the Incas in Ecuador and saw something like a mini Machu Picchu there. There were a sun temple and a moon temple as well. On Sunday we took some local buses to 2 small towns a few hours away to go to their famous Sunday markets. The best way I can describe the markets is a huge farmer's market. There were sooo many fruits and vegetables!

On Sunday night Audrey and I said good bye and I took an overnight bus to Quito and she took an overnight bus down to Loja. I arrived in Quito early the next morning and checked into my hostal at 6am. After sleeping until 9am, I had breakfast and made friends in the hostal. A group of 6 or 7 of us took the local bus a few hours later and went to the Mitad del Mundo, the equator line. It's a big attraction in Ecuador and there are 2 museums on the site of the 0º-0'-0'' latitude. The showed us a lot of experiments on the line such as water swirling clockwise on one side and counterclockwise on the other and the easier ability to balance an egg on a nail when you are on the line than off of it. Fun times! 2 of the girls I was traveling with are sisters. One was 28 and the other 12. I told my mom that I will be kidnapping my 10 year old little sister in the next few years so that she can be my travel partner on my upcoming journeys..

We had dinner in the old town of Quito. It was a very pretty plaza and I wished that I had planned more time to stay in Quito and see more of the city! But I had a flight at 11am the next day to Bogota, Colombia..