Had a late breakfast, research on internet, check out at noon and moved to “El Recinto del Pensamiento”. By 2 pm I was taking a tour of the ecological park with a very nice young guide named Laura (pronunciation in Spanish = La o ra). We started with the medicinal garden, then took the chair-lift up the mountain to view different plants, birds, butterflies etc. By the time we got to the butterflies it started to rain, so we made a run back to the bird house. Before we got there it was pouring, by the time we reached the house there was pouring rain and thunder claps. It even hailed for about 5 minutes, the size of the nails on my pinkie finger. To them this was very unusual.
There was a group of young students (10 to 12 year olds) stuck in the house with us. Laura explained that they came from poor families and were given free access to the park that day. They had never met a foreigner and were very excited to talk to me and ask me questions about where I was from, if I was married, what was it like to fly in a plane, how big is Niagara Falls, and on, and on, and on. There were at least 32 of them crowding around me for about 20 minutes. I showed them some of the pictures I had on my camera of Nevado del Ruiz, but were quite disappointed that I did not have photos of Canada, or of the plane ! It was so cute. I really was bombarded by them and the three guides at the house had to try to control them. Forget it; these kids had endless questions. I had to try to get them to ask questions one at a time so that I could hear the question and answer it, but they were all talking, and screaming at the same time. I guess I was saying “Ah, si !” often, because they started repeating it to me. I was laughing so much I had a hard time. One kid said I must be rich to be able to travel and have two nice cameras. I explained that I wasn’t rich, but that I had worked for 38 years and this trip was a present to myself. One boy, the tallest in the group, offered to marry me ! That brought on even more laughter from the group. I took a picture of the group, but that took at least 5 minutes to try to quiet them down. They all wanted to see the picture I had taken of them. Two of the little girls were especially friendly and not shy at all. They even spoke the few words of English they had learned in school. The rain finally stopped and they left the bird house. Finally some quiet, and all the hummingbirds came back to the sugar water feeders. Well, try to take a picture, or film a close up of these tiny little flyers. They move so fast I didn’t think I’d be able to get any good pics, but I did. Even a long tailed hummingbird. There are over 80 varieties and one of the three guides is a professional photographer and ornithologist and he showed me a gorgeous book that featured some of his photos. If any of you are interested you can Google “Hector Julian Sanchez Ospina” or check out this link on flikr
There was no question of using the chair-lift to get back down, so the three guides asked if I would wait until 4 pm and they would walk down the trail with me. Sounded good to me, more time to enjoy all those hummingbirds which were constantly bombarding each other and using the 10 feeders that surrounded us. The trail was all on cement tiles, at times quite steeply sloped instead of being placed as a staircase, and I was worried I would slip and fall, but we made it down safely, even crossing the raging creek (after all that rain, it had doubled in size from when I saw it from the chair-lift).
View from my room !I went back to my room to get out of my wet clothes and relax before dinner. By 6 pm I was starving since I had not eaten anything since breakfast. I was the only person in the dining room, they dine much later. The lady in the dining room offered me a magazine to read. My Spanish reading is really improving because there weren’t many words I did not understand. Article on J.K. Rowling and another on Prince William & Kate Middleton (Principe Guillermo ! ? ! )
By 7 pm I was back in my room. What a great day. The setting here is very nice, however it was the kids that made the day special. I will cherish it for a long time.
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