Lovely Little Colombian Vaca

I am here in the lovely country of Colombia and it feels like I just left. The parasite that I contracted right before I left here (and dealt with at home two days after I arrived in the U.S.), has decided to revisit. It is an awful, miserable thing to be chained to the nearest bathroom, but alas, better here with my cousin Claudia and her husband Gonzalo to force chalky-tasting medicine down my throat, then in Peru (in who-knows-what-city) alone. Ah, what a gift in disguise.
So I arrived in the Bogota airport, much like the last time, except minus two people (to help me carry my ridiculously heavy and excessive luggage). The Bogota airport is so humorous to me because unlike any airport I’ve ever flown into, the entire gaggle of people waiting to greet passengers must wait outside. One steps through Customs and the security luggage-check area to find a sea of people, faces smushed against the glass wall to the outside, fighting to get a peek at those on the other side. It really is like something out of a movie. Last year about this time, when Tanya, Julie and I stepped into the chamber before the sliding glass doors to the outside, we were petrified of being trampled and also of never being found. I had never met Claudia at that point and so I resorted to carefully ambling through the doors. I pushed through the outstretched arms and screams of over-excited families and friends trapped behind railings (guarded by policemen dressed like Colombian army generals), and meekly called her name. Thankfully a man (Gonzalo) snatched the three of us up pretty quickly and I turned to him and chirped, “Claudia?”
This time was different because I was alone, struggling with my monstrous luggage and was able to spot my cousins first, squinting through the crowd with allergy-ridden eyes. I found them and basically slept for the next 24 hours, fighting off what I have come to discover is most likely an “amoeba,” which, believe it or not, does not leave the body when fought with sleep or starvation (I’ve barely been able to eat). I’m totally fine by the way.
Today is Claudia’s birthday and so yesterday we drove down the mountain about an hour from Subachoque (the tiny pueblo where they live, an hour outside of Bogota, where it is freeeeezing) to the slightly larger and much hotter pueblocito of villete. We are staying at a nice hotel with a swimming pool where there is no lifeguard and children run, scream, play tag and splash with abandon. There is a king size bed in Claudia’s room and two twin beds in mine and I am still convincing those two that it is probably best if I take the king size for myself (and my symptoms). I only walked around the town today for a bit (en route to purchase my pink “strawberry” medicines) but I saw three things of interest in that time:
1. I stood outside the drogueria fighting back nausea (while Claudia and Gonzalo chit-chatted with the pharmacist) and stared open-mouthed as a woman plopped down on one of those very common motorbikes. Behind her, her husband (I’m guessing here) propped a child -- who looked no more than one-year-old -- on his feet (he could not stand alone) and climbed on behind him with one arm on the child’s waist. Both parents had helmets, the baby did not (do they even make them that size?) Off they sped!
Sidenote: After recounting this story to Claudia she told me of a mother and child who were walking in Subachoque and asked by a passing motorist if they wanted a lift. The mother climbed on with her baby wrapped in a blanket in her arms and when she reached her destination, the baby was no longer in the blanket.
2. A mother breastfeeding her baby in the Plaza Central of villete. No trace of modesty (a blanket, less boobage, etc.). Freedom!
3. Walking down the street a flock of tiny birds clamored to the sidewalk (eating something) and minus about four brown ones, they were all bright bright yellow. They were canaries, but the scene was so out of place for me. I’ve only seen pigeons, seagulls and some black bird (hawks maybe?...Bree help me out here) do that! Dare I say it was … magical?

Other than that, this vacation has been very relaxing and quite lovely with time spent in deep almost-Spanish conversations with my cousins, reading by the pool and writing in my coveted chocolate brown, suede-bound journal Will gave me for graduation. Life is beautiful except for the tummy rumbles.