The last day that Natalie was here we went downtown to the Candalaria District. We visited the Botero Museum, an art museum that was started when Fernando Botero donated over 100 pieces of his art. Botero is a Colombian arist, known best for his "larger than life" paintings of his subjects.
This was one of my favorite Botero pieces. It's simply titled "El Pajaro" (which in English is "The Bird")
Speaking of birds, after the museum and a lunch of traditional Colombian food at this tiny restaurant, we went to Bolivar Square. (Simon Bolivar is the man responsible for freeing Colombia from Spain in the Battle of Boyaca on August 7, 1819. Below is a statue of Bolivar which stands near the center of the square:)
The reason I said "speaking of birds" above is because that's what they should re-name the square to: Bird Square! There were pigeons everywhere!! A few minutes after we arrived at the square and took the photos that you see above, Carlos exclaimed with glee, "It's pigeon land!" He and Maria spent the next twenty minutes running amongst the pigeons in pure joy!
"The Bird Lady," as we referred to her as! (That's a huge bag of bird seed in her hands.)
A couple of days after Natalie flew back home, I decided that I wanted to take the kids to Parque Duque. I've heard that it's a lot of fun for kids, with a zoo and amusements rides, and I knew that it wasn't too far out of the city. (We passed it on our way to Panaca that first week we were in Colombia.) I invited our friends the Schrotenboers to come with us. (We met Becky Schrotenboer at the Colombian Connection dinner at the Tanners' house back in November that I mentioned in previous posts. Becky and Scott and their four year old daughter Ally arrived a few days before to adopt their new son, Will, from Los Pisingos!) We had a really nice afternoon together!
That's a squirrel...in an exhibit at the zoo...yes, you read that right! I found this to be hilarious so I had to take some photos!
Maria, Carlos, and Ally taking a break after all of our walking
The Schrotenboers had to leave the park early, but Carlos, Maria, and I stayed two more hours. We had a good time together, until we had problems catching the little train back to the front of the park to meet our driver. To make a long story short, after waiting over an hour for a train I assumed ran regulary (but there were no posted signs that I saw nor did I have a schedule or map or anything), and after I had a complete breakdown, we made it back to the hotel in one piece just before dinner. Just another adventure in Colombia!
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