Hello everyone. We made it safely to Bogotá arriving at five in the morning at the El Dorado airport. We took a taxi cab to the hotel that I booked as we boarded the plane from Houston to Bogota. It was very difficult to get sleep on the plane sitting upright. Nonetheless we arrived having had a little bit of sleep.
The following picture shows the Denise waiting in the hotel for us to get a hotel room. Since we arrived at the hotel very early in the morning and we could not check in until the afternoon they wanted to charge us $65 for the room until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. We proceeded to ask the Bell Hop if we could just change our clothes because we wanted to go to the Mormon Temple. At that point the Bell Hop spoke up and said I am Mormon too.
After changing our clothes, we proceeded to walk quite a ways..... almost a mile to the temple. The temple is guarded by tight security. They were packing heat.j. I was surprised. Again, we arrived very early to the temple. We arrived at 7:30AM. The first session was at 9:30. So we sat in the waiting room greeting patrons who were coming to work or doing other ordinances. They were all so kind. My Spanish is not good. But I can understand a little...which makes the people think I understand a lot...so they speak fast. So I do not get anything. We met with the temple president who is from SLC. Wonderful man. Anyway, here are some pictures of the temple.
While walking back, we passed this man pulling his garbage truck over the highways overpass.
We walked back to our hotel arriving at about 2. They let us into a room...and we proceeded to crash on the bed for about 3 hours. After waking up, showering, brushing my teeth and using deodorant....we went down for dinner in the hotel. It is a greek restaurant. It was a bit pricey...but very yummy. After dinner, we just came back to our room and facetimed with our kids.
Day Two....
Today, we got going at around 9 AM. The hotel provides a yummy buffet breakfast within the price of the hotel. We are paying $100 per night. Which is pretty good for the nice area we are in. Anyway, I wanted to take Denise to some tourist sites by using the newer bus system. It cost us about .90 each to board the buss. And it took us within a half mile of our first tourist trap...the train/tram to Monserate...a Catholic Church that sits on top of a mountain overlooking the city. The half mile was up a hill, which was challenging. But we made it. The next pictures are going up to Monserat using the train, walking around up there, then taking the tram down. No...actually, it is of a llama that Denise wanted to ride up on. Our ride up and down was filmed on our better camera. But those pictures cannot be emailed yet.
Here is a panoramic shot....
Well, after coming down, we walked a bit to the gold museum. Really nice. Has gold exhibits pre-Colombian periods. We have photos...on other camera! Bummer.
Well, after the museum, the fun began. We had to get home. Today is their Independence Day. And downtown was buzzing. Getting on the bus home was like I remember it here....people jam packed in. The photo below was taken when we could move our arms and snap a picture. It does not do the crowding justice that went on getting out of down town! Welcome to Bogota Denise!
By the way, I am wearing my Weber State shirt and I am taking pictures of Waldo all over. I will win this contest!
We are wasted and done for the day. Tomorrow will bring another adventure. Denise will get to sit through 3 hours of church and not understand a single word. But you know, she is my spiritual giant...the spirit will translate for her!
Adios!
Day Three...
Interesting day. We woke up. Got dressed for church. Went downstairs to a nice breakfast. Then the day began. Kelber Noguera, a man that went on splits with me as a missionary, picked us up for church at 8:30 AM. he was not a member and I did not know that apparently. In a discussion, I asked him to describe his baptism to the family not knowing he was not a member yet. Anyway, church was really nice. It was difficult for me and Denise to understand much. They asked me to say a few words at the end of High Priest Quorum...which is fine...I only know a few words. They then asked me to close the meeting with prayer. I have not prayed in Spanish for over 35 years. At the end of the meeting, we were invited for dinner at Doris Pulido de Barrera's home. Her husband and she presided over a mission in Guayaquil Ecuador. They are wonderful people. He has worked for the church for 28 years. He oversees the Distribution Center here in Bogota. They provided us a 'Colombian' meal...a meal that I had every day in Colombia while serving as a missionary. It was really good. We stayed with them for about 4 hours...all of us speaking Spanglish. It was mind draining...but fun. After our visit, they returned us to our hotel. We have been taking it easy the rest of the day and evening.
Tomorrow, I have hired a member of the church, a former Bishop, to take us to Zipaquira to visit the Salt Cathedral (Catedral de Sal). Look it up in the Internet. I am also hoping that he will take us to barrios where I served in Bogota on our way to the airport. I was here 9 months serving in Modelia, Salitre, and Kennedy. Kennedy is now one of two stakes in Bogota. Anyway, we hope to get on a flight at around midnight and if all goes well...be in SLC by noon Tuesday. We shall see.
Some pictures. I will show a few then describe it.
This is Kelber standing next to me. He is the brother-in-law to Doris and husband to Patricia Pulido. He served as Bishop for 9 years. He is currently in the Bishopric.
Next to Denise is Patricia, Kelber's wife. Next to Patricia is Doris. She helped me plan this trip. Doris's husband is standing next to her. He taught our High Priest lesson. The young man behind him is Kelber's and Patricia's son. He spoke in Sacrament meeting on faith and doing missionary work. He is studying to be a sports journalist...like his older brother.
The lady behind Denise is Cecilia Pulido. She lives with Doris and her husband. She was not feeling well today and did not attend church. We are in Doris's home.
I am standing at the front of the chapel...which no one enters by. The interesting thing is the park behind us. In between meetings, I walked to a window to look out over the park. We were on the second floor. My eyes caught a man across the park with his pants down to his ankles. It was obvious that he had just finished going #2 by a tree and was completing the paperwork. I had my IPAD...but not the presence of mind to snap a picture. This is why every window has bars, doors with double locks, and policia on every corner. You find homeless almost every where.
Well Denise survived not being able to say much. I survived having to talk Spanglish all day. Bring on tomorrow!
Day Four...
We got up and had a fairly lazy morning in our hotel room. I worked a bit after going to breakfast. Around noon, we checked out of our hotel and said good bye to the front desk staff. They were awesome. We were picked up by a taxi driver, who was a friend of Kelber's. He had agreed to drive us to Zipaquira....to the Salt Cathedral...then back to Bogota by 5:00 PM. We hired him for 5 hours. Our driver was awesome. He was not a member of our church as I thought...but he had a lot of interest in talking about our church. We discussed lots of topics as we drove out of Bogota towards Zipaquira.
The drive was quite beautiful.
Zipaquira was a normal small Colombian town. We drove through as school was letting out. So it was quite busy in the streets there.
We ended up at the Catedral de Sal in plenty of time. It is pretty amazing. They had changed it a lot since I was there 30+ years ago. The next photos are in and out side of the mine.
The trip back to Bogota and to the airport included a pass through Modelia...the first barrio in which I served. Boy has it grown and changed. I did not recognize it at all.
The trip back to Bogota, Colombia was wonderful. It was truly a dream come true for me...to return to where I served my mission. I never thought I would be able to do that. And...I hope to get back there again some day to adventure outside of Bogota.
The following picture shows the Denise waiting in the hotel for us to get a hotel room. Since we arrived at the hotel very early in the morning and we could not check in until the afternoon they wanted to charge us $65 for the room until 3 o'clock in the afternoon. We proceeded to ask the Bell Hop if we could just change our clothes because we wanted to go to the Mormon Temple. At that point the Bell Hop spoke up and said I am Mormon too.
After changing our clothes, we proceeded to walk quite a ways..... almost a mile to the temple. The temple is guarded by tight security. They were packing heat.j. I was surprised. Again, we arrived very early to the temple. We arrived at 7:30AM. The first session was at 9:30. So we sat in the waiting room greeting patrons who were coming to work or doing other ordinances. They were all so kind. My Spanish is not good. But I can understand a little...which makes the people think I understand a lot...so they speak fast. So I do not get anything. We met with the temple president who is from SLC. Wonderful man. Anyway, here are some pictures of the temple.
While in the temple, a man welcomed me after the session. He is 5 years younger than me. He remembers going on splits with me after he had joined the church. He said I scared him to death when I asked him to offer a discussion to a family and to challenge them to baptism. I asked him if they were baptized. He said he was too scared to remember. He is coming to pick us up and take us to his church tomorrow.
We walked back to our hotel arriving at about 2. They let us into a room...and we proceeded to crash on the bed for about 3 hours. After waking up, showering, brushing my teeth and using deodorant....we went down for dinner in the hotel. It is a greek restaurant. It was a bit pricey...but very yummy. After dinner, we just came back to our room and facetimed with our kids.
Day Two....
Today, we got going at around 9 AM. The hotel provides a yummy buffet breakfast within the price of the hotel. We are paying $100 per night. Which is pretty good for the nice area we are in. Anyway, I wanted to take Denise to some tourist sites by using the newer bus system. It cost us about .90 each to board the buss. And it took us within a half mile of our first tourist trap...the train/tram to Monserate...a Catholic Church that sits on top of a mountain overlooking the city. The half mile was up a hill, which was challenging. But we made it. The next pictures are going up to Monserat using the train, walking around up there, then taking the tram down. No...actually, it is of a llama that Denise wanted to ride up on. Our ride up and down was filmed on our better camera. But those pictures cannot be emailed yet.
Alternative ride up the mountain!!!
Primary ride up the mountain....
Looking back from tram back at the city....
But here are a few looking out over the city. Unfortunately, all our good photos are on the good camera.
Bogota...a large, beautiful city....
Me and Waldo hanging out above the city....
Here is a panoramic shot....
Well, after coming down, we walked a bit to the gold museum. Really nice. Has gold exhibits pre-Colombian periods. We have photos...on other camera! Bummer.
Well, after the museum, the fun began. We had to get home. Today is their Independence Day. And downtown was buzzing. Getting on the bus home was like I remember it here....people jam packed in. The photo below was taken when we could move our arms and snap a picture. It does not do the crowding justice that went on getting out of down town! Welcome to Bogota Denise!
By the way, I am wearing my Weber State shirt and I am taking pictures of Waldo all over. I will win this contest!
A presentation at the Gold Museum....
Waldo and I as we walked up to Monserate....
Well, we made it to the hotel safe and sound with all our clothes, money, valuables, etc., still attached to us. After resting a bit, we went for another walk...to Bogota's most modern mall...Unicentro. I used to go there to bowl...so my journal says. But do you think I can remember that? On the way to the hotel, we stopped at El Corral...probably the most expensive burger joint on the planet. I think I paid $24 for a steak sandwich, a yummy burger, French fry, medium soda, and a bottle of water. Nuts...but what do you do? When in Rome......
We are wasted and done for the day. Tomorrow will bring another adventure. Denise will get to sit through 3 hours of church and not understand a single word. But you know, she is my spiritual giant...the spirit will translate for her!
Adios!
Day Three...
Interesting day. We woke up. Got dressed for church. Went downstairs to a nice breakfast. Then the day began. Kelber Noguera, a man that went on splits with me as a missionary, picked us up for church at 8:30 AM. he was not a member and I did not know that apparently. In a discussion, I asked him to describe his baptism to the family not knowing he was not a member yet. Anyway, church was really nice. It was difficult for me and Denise to understand much. They asked me to say a few words at the end of High Priest Quorum...which is fine...I only know a few words. They then asked me to close the meeting with prayer. I have not prayed in Spanish for over 35 years. At the end of the meeting, we were invited for dinner at Doris Pulido de Barrera's home. Her husband and she presided over a mission in Guayaquil Ecuador. They are wonderful people. He has worked for the church for 28 years. He oversees the Distribution Center here in Bogota. They provided us a 'Colombian' meal...a meal that I had every day in Colombia while serving as a missionary. It was really good. We stayed with them for about 4 hours...all of us speaking Spanglish. It was mind draining...but fun. After our visit, they returned us to our hotel. We have been taking it easy the rest of the day and evening.
Tomorrow, I have hired a member of the church, a former Bishop, to take us to Zipaquira to visit the Salt Cathedral (Catedral de Sal). Look it up in the Internet. I am also hoping that he will take us to barrios where I served in Bogota on our way to the airport. I was here 9 months serving in Modelia, Salitre, and Kennedy. Kennedy is now one of two stakes in Bogota. Anyway, we hope to get on a flight at around midnight and if all goes well...be in SLC by noon Tuesday. We shall see.
Some pictures. I will show a few then describe it.
This is Kelber standing next to me. He is the brother-in-law to Doris and husband to Patricia Pulido. He served as Bishop for 9 years. He is currently in the Bishopric.
Next to Denise is Patricia, Kelber's wife. Next to Patricia is Doris. She helped me plan this trip. Doris's husband is standing next to her. He taught our High Priest lesson. The young man behind him is Kelber's and Patricia's son. He spoke in Sacrament meeting on faith and doing missionary work. He is studying to be a sports journalist...like his older brother.
The lady behind Denise is Cecilia Pulido. She lives with Doris and her husband. She was not feeling well today and did not attend church. We are in Doris's home.
I am standing at the front of the chapel...which no one enters by. The interesting thing is the park behind us. In between meetings, I walked to a window to look out over the park. We were on the second floor. My eyes caught a man across the park with his pants down to his ankles. It was obvious that he had just finished going #2 by a tree and was completing the paperwork. I had my IPAD...but not the presence of mind to snap a picture. This is why every window has bars, doors with double locks, and policia on every corner. You find homeless almost every where.
Well Denise survived not being able to say much. I survived having to talk Spanglish all day. Bring on tomorrow!
Day Four...
We got up and had a fairly lazy morning in our hotel room. I worked a bit after going to breakfast. Around noon, we checked out of our hotel and said good bye to the front desk staff. They were awesome. We were picked up by a taxi driver, who was a friend of Kelber's. He had agreed to drive us to Zipaquira....to the Salt Cathedral...then back to Bogota by 5:00 PM. We hired him for 5 hours. Our driver was awesome. He was not a member of our church as I thought...but he had a lot of interest in talking about our church. We discussed lots of topics as we drove out of Bogota towards Zipaquira.
The drive was quite beautiful.
Zipaquira was a normal small Colombian town. We drove through as school was letting out. So it was quite busy in the streets there.
We ended up at the Catedral de Sal in plenty of time. It is pretty amazing. They had changed it a lot since I was there 30+ years ago. The next photos are in and out side of the mine.
Denise found a miner boyfriend....
Inside the mine....one of the stops as you headed to the main chapel.
The main chapel.....
Outside the mine.....
The trip back to Bogota and to the airport included a pass through Modelia...the first barrio in which I served. Boy has it grown and changed. I did not recognize it at all.
Modelia Homes....
The trip back to Bogota, Colombia was wonderful. It was truly a dream come true for me...to return to where I served my mission. I never thought I would be able to do that. And...I hope to get back there again some day to adventure outside of Bogota.
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