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Trip to Colombia (kinda long)
Overall the trip was a lot of fun and everyone was really nice. Pretty much the trip was a whirlwind, and we barely had time to catch our breath. I'm so glad that I have plenty of time to sleep and recover.
Here's a (not so) quick breakdown of the trip:
Saturday: DH got us to the airport 3AM, 1.5 hours before the gate even opened for us to check in, so the day started a bit rough. The rest of the travel was fine . There were 30+ppl to greet us at the airport, and we got to take the 2 hour (scenic route) drive to Medellin in DH's bro's (JF) school bus (he runs a humanitarian non-profit, and uses the bus for delivering supplies around the country) We were able to take a little nap before we went to our Welcoming party, at a bar called "Dulce Dios Mio", a crazy place that was super fun, if very unPC (according to US standards). We stayed at DH's mom's house, which was fairly primitive to my eyes, but totally fine.
Sunday: We were able to sleep in a little, and went for lunch at a local pizza place. Then we spent the rest of the day going around visiting family. We had dinner at 9pm, and got to bed around 12.
Monday: We went to the hotel that DH used to work at (owned by some of his cousins) and had a nice reunion lunch with some of his old friends at the hotel. Then the cousin that runs the hotel took us to her family's country house about an hour outside of the city. We met up with a bunch of family and stayed up most of the night talking. Several of the DH's cousin?s kids are older teen-20's, and were happy to have an opportunity to practice their English (thank heavens). There were about 20 ppl total, and we all spent the night (there was plenty of room, this place could probably sleep 30 easily)
Tuesday: We spend most of the day in/around the pool. One of the aunts and the housekeeper cooked up a storm the whole time we were there and we ate huge amounts of amazing food. My favorite part was being served bowls of fresh tropical fruit by the butler/footman. I could seriously get used to having servants. 
We went back to the city around 5. Being so close to the equator means that the days are pretty much 12 hours long all year, from about 6am-6pm. It's not a big deal to be driving around the city at night, but being way out in the country at night is tough, primarily because the roads in the country can be pretty rough, so it's better to drive them in the daylight.
Wednesday: 2 aunts and DH's mom took out to do the touristy thing. We saw the botanical gardens, aquarium (about the size and composition of the Tropical Fish wing of the ATL Aquarium), and went to Pueblita Piasa, which is on top of a little mountain in the middle of the city that they've turned into a park. The Pueblita Piasa is a replica of a traditional Colombia village. It was cute, but touristy. The 360-view of Medellin was awesome. After all this, we just went back to mom's house for a light dinner and bed.
Thursday: DH's brother took us to the offices of his non-profit for a tour and to hang out a bit while he did some stuff. Then mom and bro took us to a local mall (which are big deals in Colombia, major hubs of social activity), and then we took the Metro (first and I think only one in Latin America) to the Metro Cable, which are tram/cable cars up the mountain. The cars have cut the commuting distance of ppl that live in the neighborhoods up the mountain from 1.5 hours to basically 15 minutes. There were more great view of the city from them (Medellin is in a valley, and the city takes up pretty much the whole valley). We went to an aunt?s house for dinner, again there were about 12 additional family members there.
Friday: We headed out of town again, to a couple of old, picturesque villages that are common tourist/vacation places for Colombians. They were SO CUTE! San Jeronimo and Santa Fe de Antioquia (an-tee-o-kee-a). We stayed at a little hotel in Santa Fe, and basically the family had booked the entire place. The 2 aunts and DH's mom had planned a hell of a party for us. First, they arranged to have all the moto-taxi's in the town for a parade/tour of the town for the whole family. There were about 12-15 moto-taxis, decked out with balloons, and we bombed through the little streets honking horns and waving at all the bemused locals. We stopped in one square to look at a statue and have ice cream. While there, the local high school band came marching through, yep, just for us. Then we finished our moto-taxi parade and headed back to the hotel. Awaiting us by the pool was a brass & drum band that played for us before dinner. Most of the family was up and dancing (including us). After dinner by the pool, we went into the party room, where they had a DJ set up. After a slide show of some old family pictures, the dancing started, and kept up until 3am. The aunts came prepared, and everyone was wearing some sort of silly hat/wig/craziness. There was much silly string and foam bombs too. (Can you tell this family knows how to party, and they actually like each other! )
Saturday: After breakfast, they had arranged for a horse-drawn carriage ride/tour for DH & I around the city. Then we went back to the hotel and spent a couple of hours at the pool with the family. After lunch, everyone packed up and headed back to the city. We took the scenic route and got back around 6:30. Then we headed to the other aunts house for a last family dinner. There were over 40 ppl there. In case haven't noticed, this family is huge and they love and miss my DH very very much. (They were happy to meet me too, but this was all really for him)
Sunday: We finished packing and headed to the airport.
Re: Trip to Colombia (kinda long)
Yeah, you would have thought we were rock stars, the way we were treated. Everyone was so nice. And I've heard since that the family liked me very much and was impressed that I wasn't overly overwhelmed with all of them. We both definitely look forward to going back as soon as possible, probably next year.
When he left 8 years ago, Colombia was still in the midst of the turmoil of the drug wars, etc... He'd been to the US several times before that, and had decided that the US was a great place to build a life, that anything was possible here, and it was safe.
Seeing how much the country has improved has made him a bit wistful about going back (or perhaps having a vacation house there one day), but he's still set on living here, and one day becoming a citizen.
heh, yeah, I got about half way through tagging them yesterday when FB froze up. I had a bit of a tantrum when I lost everything and didn't want to start over. I should do that.
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