Boyd Bear Tracks

I know Jon already wrote about our vacation, but I thought you might like to hear the "saga" from my point of view. Whenever we leave home it appears that life can not be boring (when we're at home sometimes it gets mundane, but just walk out the door and everything can change!).

We left for Girardot on Sunday afternoon so we could be halfway to Neiva on Monday. The trip wasn't too bad. We took a different road than normal, so it was nice to see some different scenery. Jon had asked a friend for a suggestion of where to stay in Neiva and he called the hotel and made a reservation.

We thought we would stop at the desert on the way to Neiva, but apparently from the road we were on you can only get there by going across the river in a canoe (not my idea of fun at this stage in my pregnancy)--then you would have to walk to the "tourist" spot in the desert (a loooong way). So, we decided to go another day.

Finally we made it to Neiva and then we spent several hours trying to find our hotel. I was looking for a nice big hotel looking building. Eventually, (after figuring out how to read the map and coordinate it with the address) we ended up downtown and then I really didn't see ANY big hotel looking buildings. Jon decided to park the car and walk around until he found the address. So we waited for him in the car (did I mention it was HOT?!). He came back and drove around the block and we parked in an underground parking lot of a building that didn't look like a hotel. Come to find out, they just use that parking lot. We had to carry our suitcases about half a block further.

And the hotel . . . I definitely would have missed it! It was just a doorway (like any other along the side of the building) with the name of the hotel above the door! It did open up to a kind of high ceilinged foyer. They even had a pool back in there (although Jon said it was very small and ugly). We got to our room which was like a little box built inside the big foyer (no windows) and it was somewhat warm. I tried to adjust the airconditioner but the buttons were broken. I asked Jon to let them know and ask for a different room. They told him that they had purposefully broken the buttons and that all the rooms were like that!

I was trying my hardest to be content and not complain, but after a couple hours of discomfort I broke down and cried and told Jon I just couldn't stay at the hotel for three days. He totally understood and we decided to look for another hotel the next day (after all we had made a reservation and paid for the first night). However, none of us slept well that night. It was like an oven in that room. The kids kept waking up and asking for drinks of water, and I just could not cool down! We had the bathroom door closed to keep the room cooler, but when I went in there it seemed cooler than the room! I was very glad to get out of that hotel!! And to top it all off, at about midnight a couple started fighting and throwing things around out in the foyer (which could be plainly heard in our room). The funny thing is, we're not sure that that's the hotel our friend recommended because the name of the first hotel (Matambo) and the second one we found (Matamundo) are so similiar. Oh well, maybe we needed to learn some flexibility, or patience, or something :-)!

The second hotel was very nice and the airconditioner actually worked! So it was a "vacation" after all and not torment! We had a good time seeing all the different scenery around Neiva. The desert, the cotton fields, the rice fields and the cattle (even up close walking down the road in front of the car). I was surprised to see rice fields in the desert, but really all of them were near the river so they must pump the water from there to flood the field.

On the way home, we stopped once to take a picture of a pretty flowering tree. Meanwhile, Jon turned the car off. When he went to start it again it didn't do a thing! We decided to jump start the car (since the road started to incline just a little bit ahead). The only problem was that I don't know how to jump start a car, so I was the one who had to push. Picture a five months pregnant woman pushing a car down the side of the road :-)!! Then to top it all off Jon says, "Jump in!" Now picture a five months pregnant woman running next to the car and attempting to safely get a foot in the car and plop her lumbering body on the seat :-)!! I kind of wish someone had been filming it. I probably would have won a prize for America's Funniest Home Videos! But, I did make it safely and we were able to go on our way again.

It was a very long trip home! The car did great on the straightaway, but once we had to go up the mountain it was horrible. It kept trying to die (no, I was NOT going to push uphill!!), and I think we went up most of the time in first gear. It took a long time and after that trip I decided I'm not taking any more trips until after the baby is born!! But, one thing is, we have quite a few comical memories from that trip and it may become the most memorable vacation we've taken! If we need to tell any funny stories, anyway. :-) So, now you've heard the "other side" of the story. :-) Hope I was able to brighten your day a little, I'm still giggling thinking about what I looked like running down the road. . .! :-)