Colombian Update

At the mall in Bucaramanga with Laura, enjoying the view of the city and the nice weather for Xmas.


Some of the super awesome public Christmas illumination that I talked about in my last post. This is still in Cucuta (from a while back)


Preparing the hayacas, the traiditional Colombian dish that I spoke about in my last post. This is turning into the Rothe Amundson Xmas Letter, calling people up to quiz them on previous posts so that they can understand what is going on!

To start things off today I think I will mention that I love Colombia, and there is a 0% change that this will be the only time I visit this country. Any family members should take note of the fact that Lauras parents have offered an open invitation to come back and arrange a trip for my family and their family to go to the coast, and let me tell you, the Colombian coast is most definitely worth going to Colombia for. I have so far only been in the interior of the country so I cant vouch for the coast from first hand experience but Colombia is amazing. For those of you who recieve the Rothe Amundson Xmas Letter, note the misspelling of Colombia (Columbia). Now to the updates on what I have been doing...

Since my last entry I spent a few more days in Cucuta, Lauras hometown. We celebrated her moms (Carolinas) birthday on the 19th and we spent a lot of time hanging out with her friends and immediate family. I quickly snagged a Colombian boyfriend, hes pretty cute but only really lives up to 3 week boyfriend standards, although he did gift me a pretty dandy beaded bracelet of the Colombian flag. Other than that, we continued praying La Novena every day and on the 23rd at about 5AM Lauras parents woke us up and we drove with a incredibly packed sedan to Bucaramanga. Both sides of Lauras family live in Bucaramanga, another Colombian city of about 700,000. In order to get here we had to traverse a 5 hour long mountain roadway that was recently cleared from the horrible mud slides that have been plaguing Colombia. There have been really heavy rains all over the country for pretty much all of December and they had led to a lot of flooding and mud slides. One whole town, Gramalote, in the northern part of the province (Norte de Santander) where Laura lives, completely disappeared. The rains caused the whole mountain that the town sat on to shift and it is now a disaster zone. There have also been floods show on the news that are very reminiscent of the scenes shown after Katrina hit New Orleans. And what most amazes me about all of these disasters and the images shown daily on the Colombian news is the fact that I read bbc.co.uk and I am seriously disappointed in the fact that they have 2 articles from December that mention Colombia and the rains/flooding but they have incorrect facts and dont even mention the worst disasters. However, airport closures across Europe and the USA are definitely front page news.


Above the clouds during the drive from Cucuta to Bucaramanga.

During the drive from Cucuta to Bucaramanga there were so many mud slides that had been cleared from the roadway that I lost count. Also, newly formed pot holes and parts of the road that had litterally fallen down the mountain side and left 1 lane where there a few weeks ago were 2 lanes. We did make it to Bucaramanga with minimal problems as far as the road blockage goes (the one road between the two cities had been closed for the few days prior to our trip) but when we were entering the city we got stopped for almost an hour as two houses had just collapsed down the mountain at the entrance to the city and they were bulldozing them off the road.

We spent the 24th with both sides of Lauras family and we started out the evening with her Moms family. Every family buys a present for every other family member, so there were a LOT of presents to unwrap. Lauras parents even bought me presents, which was divine of them. They gave me a very cute pajama pant and tshirt set, a beach towel with matching flip flops, two Colombian soccer jerseys, an adorable tank top and a plain jane blue tshirt that will be easy to wear any day. And then on the 25th they even prepared me a stocking full of the watermelon flavored blowpop knock offs that I love so much! Continuing with the 24th, after we left her grandmothers apartment we headed to her great aunt and uncles from her dads side of the family around midnight. The first thing we did there was head outside while her Dad hid a figuring of baby Jesus that was wrapped in 140,000 pesos (about $70). After baby Jesus was well hidden we all were allowed to enter and rampage around looking for him, in order to claim the cash. Laura found him within about two minutes, so it was kinda a let down, as I was 1. looking to win, and 2. enjoying the whole weird traiditon of it. And the 25th was quite relaxed, they mostly finish celebrating on the 24th since that is when everyone exchanges presents and eats together, but we did spend the whole 25th with family as well.

A little about Lauras family, her mom has 2 sisters and 1 brother. Her oldest sister lives near Bogota and has 2 sons, Nico aged 19 and Daniel aged 6. They are both great fun and I really enjoyed their company. Her other sister has 3 kids, 2 daughters Gabriela 10 and Mariana 8. She also has a son, Jorge Mauricio aged 13 and I also enjoyed all of these cousins and aunts and uncles. This sister with 3 kids live in a town called Ruetoque, which is one of the top 4 compounds to live in if you are in South America. It is a 10 minute drive minimum up to the house from the front gate where you have to show an ID and have the guard call up to the house you are visiting before they will even open the gate. Her moms brother is younger, hes only 32 and he is recently married. On the 24th they announced that they are 1 month pregnant so that was pretty exciting. On her dads side her dad has 2 older brothers (just like me!!!!!) Walter and Amparo have 2 kids, Daniel 14 and Maria Paola (Mapa, yes that means map in spanish) 19. Their family is very nice and welcoming. This family also has a kick ass apartment and today we went to their cabin that is about an hour away, where we rode the two 4wheelers and the gokart around all afternoon. The other brother is weird, had 3 sons, two of whom are obese, aged 23 and 14 and the third who is SUPER SKINNY and aged 19. Anyway, moving on, we went to Lauras cousin (Mapas) friends house the other day and got there around noon. We spent the whole day in the pool and drinking the local liquor, Aguardiente (buring water or fire water, however you want to interpret the name). It is an anise based liquor and it is absolutely horrible, but all of the Colombians insisted that I drink it and I did, which led to an inevitably raucous and fun time, see Facebook photos.


Hanging out in the pool
(http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2070331&id=1280460131) is my first album that corresponds with my last post and (http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2071629&id=1280460131) is an album full of newer photos and there is another soon to come.

Today we took a day trip to La Mesa, a town an hour away from Bucaramanga where there is a Gondola that takes you across an impressive gorge into a national park where you can hike around a little bit, take pictures, and zip line (which I did obviously). These are the pictures soon to come and as I am currently too exhausted I will add more details in the near future. Have a great New Years Eve EVERBODY!