Monday - After two busy days, we took advantage of the day off for All Saints Day and rested.
Tuesday and Wednesday we had in person school. On Wednesday we went to the science lab that Dane teaches from (virtually). He was entertaining the kids with a taxidermied alligator and slides of various things under the microscope, etc. Meanwhile, a big storm whipped up. Thunder, lightning, strong winds. The video doesn't do it justice, but the school started leaking in several areas!
Thursday and Friday we did school at home. I came across Naomi "reading" in Spanish and took a video. She's really saying some Spanish words, but most of it is just Spanish sounding jibberish. I love that she's trying!
Our new food this week was a fruit called pitaya. I just now translated that and it is dragon fruit (the yellow variety). Now I know what dragon fruit is! We cut it open and scooped out the flesh and seeds straight into our mouths! Everyone gave it a thumbs up. We also tried a fruit salad that is sold as street food. I think watermelon juice is the base and then a bunch of ripe fruit is chopped up and added. Naomi and I especially liked it.
On Saturday we went with a group from the school to a site about 1 1/2 hours from Bogota. Guatavita Lake. We didn't stop in the town of Guatavita itself, but the original town of Guatavita is underwater. A reservoir was built in the 60s and the town was rebuilt on higher ground and the old town flooded.
Guativita Lake has it's own history. It's an interesting circular lake up in the mountains. After we hiked up we could look down into the lake. There are several theories about how the lake formed but no one knows for sure except God! There are stories of an indigenous tribe in the area that would bury their chiefs by decking them out in gold and then setting them afloat in a raft in the lake. The lake was their burial ground. There are also stories know as The Legend of El Dorado. There have been many attempts to find gold in the lake and the lake has suffered. There is a deep crevice in one side of the "crater" where earth and stone were removed in an attempt to drain the lake. It did drain out lots of the lake's water but was an unsuccessful attempt to find gold. Now the lake is considerably smaller than it used to be.
It started raining at the end of our adventure. When we got home we were cold and so had our first fire using wood we had collected from the compost area in our conjunta. Apparently the addition of the compost area is new. The gardeners use it to put clippings and cuttings in but residents don't use it. I went out after dark one evening to try to start discreetly using it. My under cover compost mission failed due to a large group of neighbors that had gathered outside holding a vigil for a neighbor who had died. I don't worry about being discreet anymore!
On Sunday we were planning on going to our first in person Spanish church, but were disappointed to find out they don't permit kids under 13 yet. So we had church at home, relaxed and then went on a walk in the neighborhood in search of the hike that we had tried to find previously but ended up on the urban hike instead. We found it! It was a pretty steep climb. Elise found a big tree to climb. We came across a sink hole that the kids explored. We'll be back...maybe next weekend!
Sunday also marked out first bout with GI issues. I think we got some bad salsa with our empanadas. The kids were fine and Dane and I are the only ones who ate the salsa. I won't say anymore about that except that it was relatively mild and we have been so very thankful for God's protection over our health thus far.
We didn't bring any toys with us except what Gran had packed in the kids' goody bags for the trip. The kids have had to make their own! Paper boats. Toilet paper rolls taped together with a plastic spoon taped on. Justus called that a bayonet. We have books, a playground and their imaginations. They don't get bored!
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