Sorry for the month-long hiatus in posting. We were very busy with sorting, packing, purchasing, and scheduling our lives. But we finally made it to Bogota, Colombia on Wednesday, the 3rd. Along the way, we learned all sorts of things that we thought we’d share with you.

1) No matter how well you pre-plan for the move, you still end up staying up until 2:30 AM most nights leading up to it. Life gets interesting when you have to stay up that late but still have a newborn to take care of and feed, which leads to exhausting days and nights.

2) As fun as it was to register for and receive all of that great baby gear on days when you actually have to utilize every piece you wish you never had any of it. Traveling with a baby is just so much work. Everyone kept saying to us “oh your trip is only 5 hours that shouldn’t be bad….BUT any time on a plane with a crying baby is too long. We looked like a circus caravan rushing through the airport.

3) You can take a lot of stuff on a plane with you if you actually need to. We decided to check 6 pieces of luggage, carry on 3 items for the overhead bins, and carry on 3 items for under the seats. As well as bring a car seat and stroller. All for the price of our tickets. You might think this sounds like an insane amount of stuff to bring on a plane, but when you might not have any other material possessions for 2 months, you bring as much of it with you as possible.

4) Each piece of checked luggage can only be 50 lbs, which we knew before we arrived at the airport. The only problem was we didn’t have a scale to measure any of them. So after taking 6 pieces down to the exercise room and weighing them, we knew it was going to be close. It was a miracle that on both legs of our flights, they all weighed in at between 48 and 50.5 lbs.

5) If you look back to some of our previous posts on driving styles in DC, you’ll know that we’ve seen some crazy drivers. DC drivers pale in comparison to those in Bogota. We’ve never seen anyone reverse on curve, uphill, at night, with our car comings towards them. Or realized that driving lanes are simply suggestions, especially for motorcyles. To name a couple. Surprisingly we haven’t seen any accidents in spite of the kamikaze drivers.

6) For those of you that don’t know, I (Kristen) do not particularly enjoy escalators or elevators. I don’t really like heights. Our social sponsor took me to the grocery store the other day and my fears were quickly brought the the surface when we approached an escalator type thing without stairs. Basically a steep, moving ramp. Now this doesn’t sound so scary but try going up or down it with a cart full of groceries and a baby. Our sponsor failed to tell me when we started up that the wheels lock to hold your cart in place. That small piece of information would have gone a long way in helping to dissipate my fears. Speaking of fear of heights our apt is not on the bottom floor…security…and the design of our balcony is enough to scare even a mildly cautious person. Jackson will probably never be allowed out there although the view is beautiful!

7) For such a beautiful city, Bogota sure is polluted. Growing up in Houston, I thought seeing a smog cloud was disgusting. But riding to work in the morning or looking out from our balcony and thinking you’re looking at a rain cloud but suddenly realize it’s a huge, thick polluted cloud sitting over the city, you wonder how it could be this bad. You have to wonder how such amazing tropical flowers and plants can grow here.

8) Colombian people, women in particular, LOVE babies. Jackson attracts such a crowd every where we go. People just gasp with excitement when they see him coming. At dinner on our first night here we literally had 5 or 6 waitresses swooning over him. As we walk past people they quiet their conversations to take him in! It is quite funny. In Bangkok, when I was young people acted more like we were aliens that they had never seen or touched. Here it seems more like just a love of babies…especially blonde ones.

9) There is no telling what you will see on a given day when you venture out. In one car ride we saw a horse drawn carriage..not like a Central Park carriage, more like a farmers carriage, a truck full of military men with machine guns, dog walkers with a dozen or so dogs tied to their waists, trucks with cattle, and thousands of unruly drivers. On Sunday’s one of the main roads is shut down for bike riders and runners to enjoy the city.

10) There is just nothing like friends and family. It was so much fun to introduce Jackson to our family and to enjoy visiting for a few days in Houston. The home-cooked meals were a treat too. We are going to miss everyone so much…to be honest we already are missing all of you! Come visit soon!

11) We have learned that anything packaged at sea level can and probably will surprise you by overflowing or squirting out when you open it. We had a salad dressing volcano last night! Some people pay for such exciting dinner entertainment.

12) Last but not least we have learned..or rather confirmed that Jackson is just such a joy in the middle of the chaos! He keeps us grounded since he needs routine. He has had a few rough days adjusting to altitude and pollution but I think he is adjusting and is back to his happy self. He is still growing like a weed. Sonia, our maid, is already quite smitten with him. I have a feeling he will be quite spoiled when Mommy finally leaves him alone with her!