Aqua Park

During our time here at Hotel Pension Stein we have had the pleasure of becoming friends with other adoptive families. We have gone on outings together, ate meals together, celebrated birthdays together and grown our families together. The family we have spent the most time with is Toni and Jose' from Southern Spain. They have a son, Manuel, whom they adopted from Colombia 6 years ago at age 8 months. They are now adopting another son, who is 8 months old. Yesterday our families went to an aqua park together. It was fun to be in a big pool or a wave pool. There were also waterslides and some other water attractions. All had a good time and were ready to come home after 5 hours there. Jack, Rosita, Evan and Papa all went down a 150 foot sliding trapeze that drops you from about 10 foot over a pool. We have never seen a ride like that at any American water park. Liability concerns I am sure. The rest of us used the wave pool a lot. Kimberlyn and Rosita have improved their swimming abilities significantly.

After time in the pool we went and rode on a few carnival type rides, like a little roller coaster and bumper cars. The ride from the hotel was an hour long and we never left the city of Cali! It was warm in the vehicle and traffic is just CRAZY. There are many diesel vehicles down here and a few two-cycle cars. Many motorcycles are two-cycle. With bumper to bumper stop and go traffic all the way to the water park and back, you can imagine the smell of exhaust all the way there. Kinda like running a diesel truck and a lawn mower in your garage with the door closed for 10 minutes and then sitting in there and breathing it for a while. Most of the cabs do not have air conditioning in them, so you have to ride with the windows open to keep some air moving over you.

I would hate to need an ambulance in this city. They get to move faster than traffic, but not by much. We saw ambulances in an emergency situation a couple of times yesterday. A line of motorcycles follows after them since the ambulances creates a little space for them to get thru traffic faster.

As I said before, lane markings don't mean much and motorcycles aren't required to occupy a lane. They can weave in and out of traffic, pass between cars and at stops they all move to the front of the line of stopped vehicles. Most of this maneuvering by motorcycles takes place within inches of the cars and trucks and usually at 30+ mph. Needless to say you don't see many drivers talking on cell phones while driving. It is much too dangerous for them and others to do so. Seat belts are required by law for all passengers, but most don't wear them. Helmets are required for all motorcyclists and scooterists and they all wear them.

The worst part of our time at the water park was the bugs. I got bites over 100 times on each of my legs and have the pictures to prove it. The bugs were a small, black, gnat-type insect that is apparently mostly teeth because each bite drew a small amount of blood. Not sure why I was such a delicacy for them. Everyone who is not from Cali was bitten up (I was the worst), but the Calienos, only one or two bites. I wonder what the bugs bite when there aren't any foreigners to dine on.

We Americanos were very popular at the park yesterday. There were many students there who wanted to talk to us and practice their English. Syd met many people her age and even went off with them to different slides and pools. What a great experience for her. It was also good for our Colombian daughters to see other kids wanting to use English. So far they don't have much desire to learn or use any English. That will be changing soon.