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! :)

Waking Up to Hugs!

Santi's awe and admiration for his brother grows every day. He LOVES being just like Mateo, doing everything Mati does. One of Santi's favorite things is to wake Mati up from his nap.

On this occasion, when Santi saw his brother sleeping, he immediately went over and laid his head on Mati's stomach; he silently stayed there for a good five minutes, gently patting Mati's belly.

Two Wise Men

An adult is one who lost the grace, the freshness, the innocence of the child, who is no longer capable of feeling pure joy, who makes everything complicated, who spreads suffering everywhere, who is afraid of being happy, and who, because it is easier to bear, has gone back to sleep. The wise man is a happy child.

- Arnaud Desjardins

I feel so fortunate to live the life I do: to have two little men constantly remind me to be engaged in the moment, to bring my guard down and be foolish, to savour their innocence! I'm so happy to be a citizen of OUR imperfect world, where there's tons of laughter and love, drama and tears, impatience and a never ending reminder to have patience; where the MOST important thing, after receiving an enormous share of hugs and kisses, is playing with cars and trucks and trains and airplanes, pretending to be cheetahs, leopards, tigers and lions, or dressing up as Buzz, Lightning or Knight and fighting the evil forces. So, with all of this, all there is for me to say is:

When I grow up I want to be a little boy. ~Joseph Heller, Something Happened, 1974

Mateoisms

El sabado fuimos a Panaca y al llegar Mateo y yo tuvimos la siguiente conversacion:

Mateo: "Mama, quiero orinar a la vaca."

Paty: "Que?? No te entiendo."

Mateo: "Quiero sacarle la leche a la vaca del zizi."

Paty: "AHHHHH. Ordeñar!!!!"

Corona del Mar

El Golfo de Mexico

Sometime between our trip to Spain and our trip to Aruba, Santi developed a fear of the ocean, specifically the waves. Nico decided to grab the bull by the horns and walked down the shore with Santi, showing him there was nothing to fear. Well, who knows what changed (again) in Chiqui, he was absolutely loving the water and would have thrown himself in if Nico wasn't holding his hand. (Oh, and the water was absolutely FREEZING, my feet hurt and were red from walking along the shore!) We slowly peeled back layers of clothing, until ...

... he ended in just a diaper. The rest of clothes = soaked.

Newport Beach

Another fun thing we did this trip was reconnect with an old friend of mine from high school, Liliana. We met up in Newport Beach with her three children and husband and enjoyed a sunny, but rather chilly afternoon.

I always feel that there are never as many pictures of Santi as there are of Mati, so in this occasion, I concentrated on capturing our "frijolito" in action.

On the run

With Isabel, Liliana's eldest