Peru gives US Citizens a 6 month tourist visa (if you ask for it when you come into Peru) which means that we need to leave the country every six months to renew it. We came to Peru initially thinking we might do tourist visas or we might try to get residency cards. But you can only get the cards if you have a job or reason to be here and Dave's teaching job fell through (long story for another post- but it's fine that it did). So, we've been doing the border run route.
For our first border run, we elected to go to Colombia to visit Nathalie, the au pair who lived with us the 13 months before we moved here. So many things came together to make this great trip. In Colombia, things like school start and end dates are a lot more fluid than in the US. So when we were looking to buy our tickets, we didn't actually know for sure when Nathalie would be out of school for break. We opted to buy tickets for about the right timeframe that were the cheapest price and hoped for the best.
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| Our family and Nathalie outside a museum in Cali |
We got everything together to make our original flights, but when we got to the airport they first delayed the flight then cancelled it due to weather. It was rainy season here, and we didn't know the insider information that one should never schedule an evening flight out of Arequipa during rainy season. They tend to cancel in rain or fog (it's just a little airport). So....back home we went in a taxi but not before waiting over an hour in line to be told they couldn't get us out for four days at least, maybe five, because too many flights had been cancelled the day before and our day to get everyone out fast. Our whole trip was only eight days long. Ultimately, they agreed to change both our departure and return date and I had a chance to talk with Nathalie before rebooking. That all worked out well because we were able to change our itinerary to get us out of AQP in the morning instead of the evening and about a week and a half later which coincided with Nathalie's school break.
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The long line to get rebooked. We were dead last
(not realizing what was happening as quickly as the natives.) |
We ended up having 11 hours in Lima instead of just one hour to make our connection to Bogota so we took the girls to the zoo. (Any neighbors reading this, we used your gift money to go on the zoo adventure!) It was fun to see Andean animals like the condor (quite an ugly bird) and the jungle area felt so different than desert Arequipa because of the vast number of trees!
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| Condor (in captivity at the zoo) |
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| The jungle zone of the Lima zoo. It was fun to walk among trees again. |
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I don't remember what these are. I'm not what you'd call an animal expert. [Jaguars per comment below]
However, I spent 2 of 8 days at zoos and 2 more days traveling so I give myself a gold star. |
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| Dave and me in the center of the Lima zoo. |
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| The girls with a photo op turtle. |
The total flight time was only about 4 hours, but it took us three flights and a full day to make it to Cali.
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| Little A was a good traveler....she was a lap child but there was an extra seat on this flight. |
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| Snoozing in the Bogota airport as we waited for the flight to Cali. |
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| Nathalie welcomed us with a sign and a bunch of pictures of the girls! |
We spent a week with Nathalie's family. Her uncle has a house next door to her family that he wasn't using and allowed us to use. Her mom loves kids and spoiled the girls with tons of attention and made us delicious Colombian food. We were able to see a few tourist sites like the Cali Zoo and also got a nice intro to day-to-day life for Nathalie.
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| Nathalie's mom- loves kids and feeding people. |
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| A new flavor of Pringles! |
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| Picking fruit from their yard. |
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| Riding a bus down the mountain. |
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Cooking. Their kitchen is partially outdoors
and the house is right on the side of a mountain. |
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| Just one of our yummy meals. |
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| The girls playing outside in a cast iron bathtub that doubled as a pool. |
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| The city of Cali at night. |
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| The city- daytime view from Nathalie's house. |
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| Nathalie and the girls at a cool exhibit at the Cali zoo. |
Nathalie was such a wonderful blessing to our family and we are so happy we were able to visit her on her home turf. She is the best living representation I know of following the Apostle Paul's instructions to be content in all circumstances. She was so well adapted and present when living with us in the States and now that she is back home she has adapted and is content there as well. I'm so glad that the girls had the opportunity to have her as an influence in their lives.
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| Miss M enjoyed washing some laundry by hand. |
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| Birthday dinner for Nathalie and her sister |
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| Mauricio (Nathalie's boyfriend) teaching M and Dave origami. |
We love you, Nathalie! Thank you for hosting us.
