Day 2-July 7

We started the day out rather adventurous with some new kinds of fruits...they actually weren't that bad!

We chose to be traditional tourists today and headed out for a day of exploring. Old catholic churches seem to be quite popular around here and we visited two of them, which were quite interesting, especially the numerous confession booths.

.:.confession booth.:.

.:.church in the distance.:.

.:.another church.:.

Fact: they always portray baby Jesus with spikes in his head. (sorry no picture...)

We walked by the presidential palace...nothing too different about it, except for the oddness of the no-walking-on-the-sidewalk-beside-the-palace rule. :)

.:.the palace.:.

.:.with the palace guards.:.

.:.little kids with bright arm bands going in for a palace tour.:.

After walking a bit through the rain (it seems to rain alot here!), we arrived at the police museum, where we received a tour from a 18 yr old Axillary Policeman who thought wearing a wedding ring was cool. :P

.:.basically says if you want to be happy for a day, get drunk. if you want to be happy for a year, get married. If you want to be happy your whole life, become a police officer..:.

.:.the first criminal.:.

Lunch was at a little shop along the road, where we had a traditional fruit salad (did you know, cheese is actually really good on fruit salads?), and arepas, which are cornmeal cakes with cheese inside. We also had a drink called avena, which tasted like christmas in a cup. ;)

.:.Arepa.:.

.:.Avena.:.

Next we stopped at a few shops and found "touristy" things for sale. We also found dinnerware made out of nuts, such as brazil nuts and almonds.

Something interesting: Along the streets some people dress as statues and stand perfectly still. If you toss some money in a bucket, they suddenly come "alive" and do something for you.

This "statue" had a fake rat on its shovel, and when we dropped some money in the bucket it pretended to throw the fake rat unto N, who screamed and ran. :P

the statue and a random little boy who was pretending to be a statue also...

That evening Uncle needed to get a haircut, so we went to the "peluqueria" or barber shop. While there, Auntie, N and R chose to get manicures. This was N and R's first manicure!

Fact: Some Colombian men get pedi/manicures!

R seems to be the most interested in studying Spanish..... ;)