Here's a pile of us: Daniel, Oren, me, Olivia and Sophia, Karen, Dani, Joacquin, Artie and Ethan.









We had a big family lunch on Saturday. Karen and her family came over to Genie and Dan's house.
Left to right: Sophia, Genie, Olivia, Daniel, Oren, Ethan, Joacquin.

Much of our visit was spent visiting relatives, many cousins that Oren an Ethan had never met!
My youngest cousin, Karen, has moved back to the Bogota area with her three children. We stopped by to see them one afternoon after school and we had onzes with them (A large afternoon snack).
Joacquin is 9, Olivia is 6 and Sophia is 3. Some of the neighbor kids drop by because the food is so good at Karen's house!

We stopped at a small food stall on Montserrate for a typical snack.
I could recognize most of the food- corn, potatoes, plantains, some sausages but there were definitely some mystery foods... The drinks were different too.
Oren was game to try the blood sausage which he said was delicious. It had some rice in it.

Bogota!

We adjusted to the change in climate and altitude quickly upon arrival in Bogota. My Aunt Genie and Uncle Daniel took us to a spot up high on the eastern side of the city. It is called Monteserrate and there is a church and several shops and restaurants. It was a beautiful day and we had a great view of the city!

Visiting Flor de Mayo

We headed out of Monteverde with plenty of time to spare because of the landslides and road closings. We arrived in Alajuela in the afternoon. We spent the next morning visiting Flor de Mayo, a private home where many birds have found refuge and where macaws are bred. It was a very upclose and personal visit!

Flor de Mayo

We sent a day in the San Jose area before we left for Bogota. We visited a bird sanctuary called Flor de Mayo in Alajuela. The people started this place as a refuge for macaws but now they bread and rescue a variety of birds.

Mother Nature

Another six weeks of school went by really quickly and we planned to go to Bogota.
Unfortunately, there was a major storm that brought rain, rain and more rain plus landslides. We were lucky to escape unscathed but we needed to reschedule our trip from a Friday departure to a Sunday departure.





It's hard to imagine the power and damage of the rain and this particular landslide.
This is a one lane road.
The landslide completely covered the road an killed a local man who worked at the post office. The road was closed from Thursday morning when the accident happened until Saturday morning.

The earth that covered the road was mostly pushed over the edge of the road, down the cliff below.