Oh, was it a busy day. We made one last trip to the leather district. Henry was busy so Gabriel took us, as well as Megan, Juel, Maria, Benji, and a German couple who adopted a little boy named Sebastian. The poor Germans didn't know what they were getting into. We went back to the shop that made our jackets and went to town. In the end he negotiated really well so Mom and I were pretty happy with our purchases. We went to a few more stores and found more to buy, of course. When we were done I wanted to head over to the shoe district to find a pair of boots for a girl I work with. We went in the first store, found Jill's boots, found a pair for me (Woo Hoo!) and we were on the road. We went back to the motel to drop off all of our stuff then went to Hard Rock for dinner. The waitress we had last time fussed all over Murphy. I think she is a nice girl. Just really out there. We got a few things there and headed home. It was mid afternoon by this time so we tried to pack some more stuff. We ran out of time again as Cecilia came over at 4:15 and said goodbye. Then we left at 6:00 to go to Bolivar Square to see the lighting of the Christmas tree. Carmen and Henry arranged the trip and it was wonderful! It rained a little on the way. As we got closer we saw lots of people walking. Henry drove the van up to some guards and said that he had Americans along and they let us drive past the barriers and get closer. We had to walk just a little ways to the square. It was close to 7;30, which was when the lighting was supposed to happen. Once they light this huge tree (made of wood and as high as the buildings) they light the rest of the lights in the city. When we got there we found out that they'd moved the lighting to 8:30. So we weren't going to stay. We had a busy day ahead of us and we all had kids there. But in the end, they lit it at 7:30 anyway. They had a band there and the mayor got up and spoke and then they counted down just like on New Years' Eve. They lit the tree and it was beautiful. Henry and Carmen guessed there were between 80,000-100,000 people there. Once the tree was lit, they shot off fireworks. Murphy loved it. I had her in the front pack and she just stared at the fireworks the whole time and never got scared. It was so neat to be there. On our way back to the van, Carmen and Henry bought us a traditional Colombian drink that a woman was selling. It had lots of fruit and was really sweet. Sort of like apple cider but much better. As we were walking, policemen pulled up on the street and made a barricade and pretty soon someone important drove by. We don't know who but it was kind of neat. It was a great experience and a nice way to end our trip.
So when we got back to the motel, we had to frantically pack. We weren't even close at this point and Mom made me shut off the lights at 10:30 to go to sleep. We said goodbye to Megan, Juel, Maria, and Benji and are going to bed. So tomorrow will be an early morning! We're excited but definitely ready to go!!
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