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| Our wonderful villa |
Whoever invented the fall break was a genius! Typically, in the school calendar, the time between the start of school and Thanksgiving (or in Japan, until Christmas) is the longest stretch of the year. There may be a one or two three day weekends but somehow those get balanced off by other events, responsibilities or in-services. However, the fall break provides a week off right in the middle giving a much needed and much appreciated holiday, letting the students and faculty return revitalized and reinvigorated.
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| Another view with the signature tree - El Saman |
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| The view from the porch where we ate our meals |
For our holiday, we went to the coffee region of Colombia, slightly ironic since we don't like coffee. We didn't know what to expect but what we found was a villa where we were staying complete with help, cooking and cleaning for us. It was complete with beautiful views and hiking trails. We took day trips to a canopy tour (the canopy tour had seven separate zip lines over coffee, banana, mango and plantaine plantations), a coffee plantation (where we dressed as traditional workers, went out picked the beans, shelled them, roasted them, ground them, cooked them and finally drank the result - even though we don't like coffee), a rafting trip on bamboo rafts and to see famous trees - the Cocora. In between times we played games, read, sewed, napped, swam and relaxed. In all it was a fabulous week and we are ready to get back to school!
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| El Saman at night - they shine a green floodlight on it making it look a little spooky at night |
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| Karen on the canopy tour. |
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| The view from one of the stations on the canopy tour |
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| The coffee plantation, dressed as traditional workers |
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| Another sunset. We had these every night. |
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| The city of Finlandia - on the way to the trees |
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| The cocora trees - some growing as tall as 400 feet |
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| Stairs leading up to an outlook of the Cocora trees |
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| Building the bamboo raft |
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| Our raft! |
