Trees, the Colombian Wisconsin Dells & the END!

After our spectacular news on Friday, we had to squeeze in two things we had hoped to do before leaving the country.  Thankfully Jorge was ready for us to drag him about the countryside at a moment's notice.

Visiting Trees at la Laguna de Guatavita
More than just the site of the legend of El Dorado, la Laguna de Guatavita is also the site of Lucy's legacy tree.  We planted a tree at this national park four years ago when adopting Lucy.  Jorge Rico had just started his tree planting spree which now numbers 380 or so.  Unfortunately, Lucy's plaque has been taken out by a rogue cow, but will soon be replaced.  The current leadership at Guatavita aren't so keen on Jorge's tree planting, so we're going to have one planted at another site.

A slow growing native tree, the Cucharo seems to grow about as fast a human child.  

Last time we were well acquainted with Jorge's bright green Dodge Dart, but since we are 4 + a gigantic stroller, we now qualify for the minibus.  Sorry to all family members who don't even get a choice of sitting in the front seat.

Another shot with the iPhone panoramic mode.  A nice view of the Colombian countryside... and the minibus.

Parque Jaime Duque
OK.  We love all things campy and a little bizarre, so this place was built for us!  Afterward we got an unexpected tour of the countryside because of not one, but two detours.  The whole ordeal took an additional 2-3 hours (who's counting anymore?) and took us into a very poor neighborhood high on the mountainside.  The big detour was due to a downed light pole and took out the power to the entire mountainside, so it was an interesting view of life.  Nobody seemed particularly surprised by the situation.

Let's just say that Jaime was a bit of an eccentric. 

Agra and pre-Colombian artifacts.  Who knew?

Of course, gotta love the spinning coffee cups ride!

We didn't make it to the dinosaurs, but we think you could climb into their mouths.  We do this by our cabin in Hayward, only with a giant muskie.

The zoo was the highlight, really, with many more South American species than we have in our zoos.  The birds were pretty entertaining, Jorge is communicating with this particular variety of parrot. 

The Process
She's officially OURS!  We have been running constantly finalizing the rest of our paperwork.  We signed Sentencia on Monday morning, so that was done.  But nothing is quick or simple.  Copies took us about 3 additional hours before we were able to leave.  We had hoped to get Josie's birth certificate yesterday after we had copies in hand, but the woman at the registrar said her computer wasn't working.  When she showed us the screen, it looked a lot like signing in would fix the problem...  oh, well.  That wasn't anything that would hold us up.

See the piles of papers - that's what it means to be waiting.  Not sure at what stage, but these are families waiting for something to happen.

For those who get Bogota Family Court 6, everyone was wonderful.  The office manager was one of the nicest, efficient people we have met.  GO COURT 6!

Today we headed back to the registrar and finished applying for Josie's updated birth certificate.  Andy and I headed back around 10:00, but Annette returned later in the afternoon to get - yes - copies.  With that done, Annette, Josie and I headed with a pile of paperwork to the Colombian Passport office to apply for her Colombian passport which we will pick up tomorrow morning.

Once the passport is in hand, then we have to complete the process with the US government.  Embassy doctor will need to see it before we can get their finished paperwork, then we need it uploaded to the US Embassy so we can get an appointment for Thursday (finish the immigration process and get Josie's Visa to the US.)

We are assured that unless there is something COMPLETELY out of left field, we will have no trouble coming home on Saturday!  So I declare, we will arrive in Minneapolis on the 7:40 PM on Delta 1528!

We're coming home :)!