P-R-A-D-O

Uuuuuuuuuuuish. :)

First of all, that is a very Colombian exclamation if you'd like to pick it up.

Second, and more importantly, the reason I said it was that this weekend's road trip to Prado was honestly a trip to one of the top three most beautiful sites on this earth I've ever had the privilege of seeing.

We left Bogotá on Friday night, about eight o'clock. (This allowed us the freedom of driving without fear of being pulled over for pico y placa--the attempt at traffic control, a system imposed by the city for alternating days of who may drive, based on license plate's last number.) I was headed there with Mr. and Mrs. A, my friend (and tour guide) N, and two new acquaintances: K and his cousin B. Me and a bunch of muchachos, headed for an A family adventure.

It was a lovely drive to Prado--about 4 hours southeast of Bogotá. We piled our stuff and ourselves into the As' iconic Land Cruiser with Mr. A's beloved extra tricked out lights. He is a hoot...
Anyway, making our way to the south, we got to have some good conversation time, and see some lights, and live through a Mr. A driving experience. Wow. Mom and Dad, I am alive. Let's get that straight before I launch into a description of how fun it is to drive with the As. ;)
I was in the middle row of seats, in the middle seat. In Colombia, only the front two seatbelts are mandatory, while all others are basically superfluous. Fine by me. Way more comfortable. So anyway, nothing truly exciting happened until we started to approach the mountains, and had to subir, go up. Then, I soon realized just how fast we were taking the curves, and how Mr. A feels no need to avoid passing other cars while careening around curvas peligrosas, and how convenient all those extra lights he has really are.
When we were mid-way through the mountainous segment, upon having rounded a curve, Mr. A exclaimed that he had heard a piece of the luggage drop off the roof.

What?

He was for real. This man has the ear force of Dumbo, but with normal human-sized ears. He had just heard a soft backpack fall off the roof rack of the car, over the roar of a serious engine, while going at probably fifty-ish miles per hour around a mountain curve.

He ripped around a k-turn, and headed back, driving like lightning, and lights blazing. I caught sight of it, pointed it out with a little shout, and he swerved to the roadside to park, jump out, and grab it out of the roadway. Meanwhile, one passenger got out quick and got sick. All this at once. What chaos! It was certainly thrilling, to say the very least.

Then we were back on the road again, and pretty soon were through the mountains and continued on south. When we arrived at the town of Prado, we were whizzing past a fisherman statue when the wake board came loose from the roof and pegged the window closest to K. Thank heavens it'd been closed--both of our faces would have been rather in sorry shape with the sharp edges and blunt force of the thing. It was soon picked up off the ground and replaced inside the car, and we drove a block and a half to the hotel of the night.

Instantly upon getting down the mountains, we had noticed the temperature difference. I had been able to take off my super mega jacket and let the heat outside regulate my body temperature instead. Mmm exquisite. Upon getting out of the car, we unpacked the roof rack, got settled into our rooms, and passed out asleep.

The next morning, we packed up and got ready, and then went out to breakfast in the town of Prado. We also went grocery shopping and worked on setting up the boat with its recently re-upholstered seats. Let me tell you, thinking on the breakfast now, that passionfruit juice in milk (basically an idyllic smoothie) is sublime. Your tastebuds should now be jealous.

The rest of the day was spent in the following manner: driving to the port, getting the boat into the water, packing ourselves in like sardines, admiring mountains and water and sky and bird sounds, getting to the island, unloading luggage into our cabins, applying sunscreen and bug spray, getting out onto the water with the wake board, falling countless times in an attempt to conquer the board, swimming in warm fresh water with the two daughters of the cabins' caretakers (nine and ten years old, fabulously adorable), laughing, eating, joking, playing dominoes, playing Boggle, drinking fresh fruit juice, talking, laughing, swimming a 45-minute swim between islands with Mrs. A and the boys, more time on the lake and the board, eating well again, viewing the immense sky and the brilliant stars from the lake in the boat with everyone's (plus the girls') lovely company, and chilling in the exhaustion of a day well spent.

We slept well that night. And I was up by seven Sunday morning, due to my body clock saying enough is enough! You've had a luxurious nine hours, get your rumpus up!
I was happy to sit in the hammock and fashion some friendship bracelets as parting gifts that evening for the girls, all the while jaw-dropped in awe of the mountains and water and flora and fauna that surrounded me. I got the privilege of doing braids in the girls' hair, of playing early morning dominoes, of listening to the parrots around us.
Breakfast was the tastiest caldo de costilla ever, and we also had fantastic fruit, juice, eggs, and arepas. Mmmm. Then we spent some time doing private devotionals, and then I got roped into homework help with the nenas, M and C. I helped her with her Bible homework (from a secular school), showing C how to look up Bible verses, and then was able to segue that into sharing some of my own favorite verses--Jeremiah 29:11-13. Look them up.
Next, our group got back together spent our time thanking God for something for all the glory around us, and fashioning a semblance of a church service from each person bringing a little bit of something to share.  A very island, vacation style worship. Loved it.

After that, we were off on the lake again, swimming and skiing and wake boarding and teasing the bejeepers outta one another. I also winkled a neck massage out of a new friend...wake boarding packs a punch on the old shoulders. Lovely day. Lunch again was delectable, and so satisfying. More fruit, more juice, more plátano, more Colombian yumyum in general.
During a shortened version of Mr. A's siesta from the night before, I played dominoes with the girls again, and this time with B as well, and I believe I won.
After the siesta, we went into the boat again to explore a bit--the lagoons and sort of winding mountain-navigating rivers around the area. Incredible. Beautiful. Breathtaking. I saw a Heron--for those of you who know what that means to me, it was incredibly special to see one in this place. God keeps affirming things. How awesome that he can do that through his own creation for me!

Before I knew it it was time to return to the island to pack and have an empanada y avena snack before we bade our farewells, I gave the bracelets to M and C, and then we piled into the boat again. We dropped Mrs. A off at the port, and then the rest of us--muchachos, Mr. A, and I--headed to peek at the Waterfalls of Love. Awesome. I love the power of water. Also the ever-predictable need of the male gender to climb things that look dangerous and risky. Yes, the boys climbed up the waterfall-side path to get up to where the water fell from. There are some rather macho photos of those lovely goobers up there. Yours truly, photographer, as they had left me behind down below.
Toos soon our tour time was up, and Mr. A came to find us. The boys had committed the error of leaving me alone, he made sure they knew. I had had some inklings it wasn't the wisest thing...but I survived. Thanks, Señor!

Then we zoomed back to the port at top speeds. I had seated myself on the top of the back of the boat seat, arms spread wide like wings; closest I could come to the graceful white egrets I saw flying a few feet over the water multiple times over the weekend.
When we got to the port, we talked with the Marines for a while, then got the boat on the trailer, then packed that car back up, then leapt in, and we were off to the boat parking lot. Once we left the boat, we were headed back to Bogotá, a little after seven o'clock this time. I still enjoyed the night drive immensely; especially with Mr. A's crazy driving and all my new friends. And the stop for fruit salads, and (apparently) for being mocked by Mr. A. He is ruthless, and very funny. Our group had a really neat dynamic. It was a really precious time, from outset to finish.

The group, headed out to the island.

Mr. A and N in the hammocks.

I stole this stylish chapeau from Mr. A. 

PG didn't stop smiling the whole time he boarded. :)

K and B on the boat.

M and I. <3

C and I. <3 

Dominoooooooes. Or Papa John's.

Colombian pride hammock...zzzzz.... :)

Tricky Nicky.

Me in the wind.

Farewell, Prado.

I love Colombia.
xox