Museo del Oro

At last, the last full day in Colombia. We have been here a month. Tracey was a little tired and didn't feel like any more adventures. However, there was one last thing on my list of must dues, while here in Bogota. I took a taxi across town about 20 minutes without traffic. I made it just in time for the english tour. I haven't been this lucky the whole trip. Me and a couple from England had a tour through the whole museum. If you are a history buff, or interested about the early colonization times, then this would be well worth your time. Gold "oro", was very valuable to the various inhabitants. Not only for the monetary value, but for the spiritual value. The ancient civilizatons believed that the sun was the "all powerful", god, and the shamens were very powerful and used various plants "coca", and different allows of metal ie. gold, copper, and silver to grind down into powders to inhale to tell the future. This was used before battles, and other important events to accurately forsee the future.

After the tour, I walked around the nearby shops, then waved down the first taxi I could see. Little did I know, that my last day here was about to take a very different turn. Traffic seemed to be getting worse. The horn honking was picking up. After about 15 minutes, and only going 6 blocks, I made my best attempt at asking how long it would be before getting to the adoption house. The driver, which did not speak english, said about an hour. A few minutes later, I noticed many people holding picketting signs up in the road. The local public school system was striking.Traffic went to a dead standstill. We started going the opposite direction and then there was a loud thump that I could feel on my rear passenger door. My first Colombian taxi accident. We had been hit, at first it seemed bad, but after my driver got out and stared down the other car. The car backed up. My driver didn't even look at the damage right away. We drove a few more blocks, then he pulled over. He shook his shoulders and got back in. It must not have been too bad, or the driver didn't own the taxi and really didn't care. After an hour more in the taxi, we finally got closer and I started recognizing buildings and the grocery store "Pomona" that we have been using. I told the driver "aqui, aqui". He pulled over, I paid him the 15,000 peso's, and walked the last 3 blocks to the house. Again, I just looked up and said, thanks God for getting me home in one piece. I walked in to our room, and got that oh too familiar look from Tracey. I tried to explain, but she didn't really want to hear my excuses for taking up half the day. After about 15 minutes, I brushed off my taxi jitters, and we called another taxi and went to the mall. Nothing like a trip to the mall to get out of the dog house.

After shopping, we caught another taxi, and home in one piece. We had some good laughs with our French family friends, took plenty of pictures, and exchanged emails. Bags packed and paperwork in order for our very long day of travelling home to Montana in the morning. We leave the house at 6am. Leave Bogota at 930. Land in Atlanta around 330pm. Hopefully, get through immigration and customs with out difficulty, then connect to Salt Lake, then home to Billings around mid night. Well, better get to bed. We are excited to bring our son home, and some great memories and pictures of our adventure.