Bucaramanga, Colombia

Since I last posted:
-I ate a large ant. Pete ate a lot more, since he bought them, and they are even better when mixed with chocolate chips. They are quite pricey, $7000 pesos. They have a very protein-ish taste. Kind of similar to a roast beef sandwich, I think. They are like an inch long with very puffy two-part bodies (ewwww), and I suppose they must be popular in Bogota because many little restaurants display a sign proclaiming that they sell them. They are NOT my favorite snack.
-We learned to take the TransMilenio bus in Bogota. Their main in-city transportation system, only costing $1400 Colombian pesos to ride as much as you want. ($1650 to the dollar--this takes some adjusting to in calculations since it is not the easiest to divide by).
-Went to a huge salt mine outside of Bogota. We tried to take the train, but found out it didn´t run on weekdays. Oh well, saved $20,000 Col! We looked around the train yard, though, and Danl considered buying one......................
-We took a 10.5 hr bus to Bucaramanga, our first bus ride of the trip. Gracias a Dios, we actually made the bus and most importantly, we arrived safe and sound although we did get stopped by Colombian soldiers (that´s the good guys, though) and all the guys had to get off (and Dana--she didn´t know she wasn´t supposed to) and get searched. Meanwhile all the little girls on the bus blew kisses and waved to the soldiers as they looked thru peoples bags on the bus for drugs or whatever. Also, we went down the ´Pescadero´ to get down into Bucaramanga, which starts very high up and many hairpin curves later, we are down below... I was pretty thankful it was at night by that time so I didn´t have to see as well, although seeing clouds floating down below you hundreds of feet down is kind of disconcerting. The countryside is so, so beautiful though. One brother from Bogota (actually from Quito) who came with us was commenting on how beautiful Colombia was, but a very well-kept secret (perhaps guerillas help keep people away? haha)
-It´s really warm and humid here. We all got divided up among the families here, so Dana, Lana, Sal, and I are here on the third floor of this house living with this cute little family in a cute little apartment!!! But tonight the conference starts and I think we might be going off to some farm for it!
-So, in case I don´t write again for a while (which is most likely), we are staying here the weekend and then heading over to Venezuela! I have no clue when I will post from there. Chau!
-Aaaaand thank you for your prayers. Buses are awesome but probably the most crazy part, especially out here where it rains and everything is so soggy.....gorgeous, but very soggy.

Rest Day

We are still in Bogota until Wednesday, mostly because the bus that gives tours of the city is closed on Mondays, so we have to wait till Tuesday to take it. Today is shot day for people without Yellow Fever vaccinations. We are having fun!! We moved to another hotel; we fill up the 5th floor. The elevator doesn´t work so we have to go up a long spiral staircase (which is fun for us, but we are impressed by Danl and Rubio, who carried our 10000 suitcases up it while we had fun in the park yesterday visiting with everybody...).

Bogota

Everyone made it to Bogota safely...I´m not quite sure just HOW the B.s made it, but they did. Today after breakfast we walked around the city passing out calendars, bookmarks, texts, the book of John, and tracts. Actually that´s pretty much what we did all day, wandering around and getting to know the city. A lot of people don´t want the stuff we´re handing out, but then we met some others who were Christians or were really interested, or who wanted more to hand out to other people. This city has a lot of similarities to Quito, but at the same time it´s really different from anywhere I´ve ever gone before,---the people especially in the way they act. Oh, and accents are different.... Anyway, we got introduced to Colombian food at lunch, which was typical fried plantain, egg, rice, carne asada, and then these gigantic frijoles plus a masamorra thing that was not the same as the Peruvian stuff, this was like corn in oatmeal. After lunch we got to meet one of the brothers, Pepe, who is a jeweler. He took us to his shop and showed us how gold is refined, so we could see what it means when the Bible says God refines us. Now we are back hereat the hotel hoping to have a Bible study with two guys we met on the street who had been held captive for 4 years by FARC. So far they haven´t showed up, so everyone is napping. The altitude is higher here, so it´s cold and rainy today. Right after meeting tomorrow we are hoping to relocate since this hotel is quite )a little too) luxurious. Actually the dollar is really weak here so we were a little surprised at some prices. However, $2 for lunch is pretty good, huh. Mmmm that´s about all I can think of so far! We plan to stay in Bogota till Tuesday early in the am. Thanx for all your prayers!

F.Y.I.

Sal, M, el Rubio, and Dave plan to fly to Bogota and meet CDBAND and Pete on June 20th. There we will spend the weekend and then take a 9-hr bus ride to Bucaramanga. More later!!