Mexico Preview

A sneak preview of our trip to Mexico ... land of enchiladas and refried beans (= delicious food!!), of friendly people and gorgeous cities ... I'm soooo ready to live there again!

In San Miguel de Allende ... Santi's face is priceless!

Lunching at the Taverna del Leon in Mexico City

Pics taken with iPhone Hipsmatic application

Pereira & Bogota with Mamu & Papu

More pictures of when Mamu and Papu where here visiting.

Hmmm ... let me think about that Mamounette.

My head of curls ... look at that baby face!

Talking about the crisis in Haiti.

Picture by Mati

Self portrait

I'm ready for the hike!

At the Parque del Cafe

Chilling with dad

Do I hear HAAAANDSOOOOOME?????

Fun with Mamu

At Panaca with los abuelos while Mama and Papa are in Cartagena

At the club ... Cheers!

BOOOO!

These Crocs are Santi's favorite shoes ... because "mami" (as he calls Mati) has the same ones!

WOW ... Popi did what again????

Valle del Cocora with "Mamu & Papu"

We are enjoying some weeks with "Mamu" and "Papu", as Nico's parents have been renamed by Santi, and on this occasion we took them to the Eje Cafetero, by far one of the prettiest areas of Colombia and perhaps my favorite spot here. Everywhere you turn, the eye feasts on the spectacular panorama: plump hillsides teemed with banana trees,coffee plants, or guaduales, the local term for bamboo.

Especially beautiful are the rolling hills in the Valle del Cocora, the cradle of the national tree: the wax palm. It's an ideal site for hiking, which is what we did. It was a great hike for all and the trout lunch afterwards was delicious! (YES, there are a lot of pictures of the wax palm!!!)

"George Clooney" and Mateo

La Palma del Quindio can grow up to 60 meters!!!

One happy hiker :)

For Mati, the two hour hike was easy thanks to Papu ... they wouldn't stop doing all sorts of silly things, like kicking horse poop down the hills (obviously Mateo found this the most hillarious of all!!) or telling outrageous stories!

Wonder where Mati gets his clowning around from?

Laguna de Guatavita

Back in early January, we decided to hike to Lake Guatavita, a sacred lake for the local Muisca community. We went with another couple and their two boys, who are roughly the same age as Mati and Santi. It was a relatively easy hike, except for the heat; Mateo managed to do it all by himself while Santi loved riding in the backpack.

Here's a bit of background history on Lake Guatavita:

Laguna de Guatavita was reputedly one of the sacred lakes of the Muisca, and a ritual conducted there is widely thought to be the basis for the legend of El Dorado. The legend says the lake is where the Muisca celebrated a ritual in which the Zipa (named "El Dorado" by the Spaniards) was covered in gold dust, then venturing out into the water on a ceremonial raft made of rushes, he dived into the waters washing off the gold. Afterward, trinkets', jewellery and other precious offerings were thrown into the waters by worshipers. A few artifacts of gold and silver found at bottom hold proof to this claim; however, to date, the numerous trips to the bottom of the lake have yielded no more than these.

Mateo and Abel

Lake Guatavita

Two men and their babies

The Pereira-Henrikson Family

The Bossut-Ugartes! :)