Action Jackson the Super Traveler: our trip to Colombia

We had many firsts this last week: Jackson got his first passport stamp, in Colombia (if you don’t count in-utero, in which case he’s already also been to Indonesia, Singapore, Japan, Italy and Germany),

he went on his first plane ride,

he attended his first wedding,

he had his first babysitter,

and he wore his first tux.

We are happy to report that all of it went incredibly well.

AJ was a super baby: he was happy, he only cried when hungry, wet or tired, and most of the trip he slept. In fact, it’s fair to say that he was better behaved on the trip than he normally is at home. We’re not sure if it was a developmental thing, if it was the altitude, if he found Colombia more relaxing than D.C., or if he has wanderlust like his parents and prefers to sleep anywhere but his own bed. No matter what the cause though, we’re all for it!

The occasion for going to Bogotá was to attend the wedding of our friends Catalina and Boris, who wanted to tie the knot in her country of origin (Boris is from France).

Our pal Amanda is also friends with them and was on the same flights and shared a split room with us, which was awesome.

It’s extra nice to have three adults to one baby on your first flight! It was an incredible international wedding plus extravaganza. Since Catalina works for the UN, there were people from all over the world in attendance — literally — so to make sure people got to know each other and see a bit of Bogotá, Cat and Boris arranged a ton of activities for the wedding guests to attend and a bus to drive us around. Never have either of us gone to wedding that was so elaborate and had so many activities associated with it. There was a traditional Colombian gift giving ceremony on Thursday night (we arrived that afternoon) at Catalina’s aunt’s place. It included meeting many family members from both sides, a live band (!) and catered hors d’œuvres. We had a great time and left around midnight.

The wedding took place on Friday, and one of the fun things Amanda and I did in Bogotá was go to a fancy-schmancy spa to get our nails, hair and make-up done for the wedding. For the record — in case any of you are ever there and need to go, the spa was:

D’NORBERTO Cl 109 #17A-28
Colombia – Distrito Capital, Bogotá
Telefax : +57 (1) 620-4701
Conmutador : +57 (1) 620-2388

The total for me – which included extra hair and nail treatments to make everything softer – was $100. Super cheap!
We called ahead and they had informed us that we needed four hours to do all of the beauty treatments, but in the end we only had two hours, so when we got started — after Amanda, who, thankfully, speaks Spanish, explained what our dresses looked like and what we wanted to look like at the end — we were set upon by a team. I had someone on my hair, my hands and my feet. Amanda didn’t get a pedicure, but she got a haircut so she didn’t have the foot person, but she had more attention to her tresses. Seriously, it was kinda funny having that many people with white coats standing over you working to make you beautiful.
I think we both turned out pretty hot — despite the fact that it was more makeup than either of us had ever worn, and it looked pretty intense under the bright lights of the spa (fortunately, it looked good under the low lights of the wedding). I even got fake lashes to go with my eight coats or so of mascara. On a related note, after the wedding the priest who married them and his buddy came up to me to tell me that they had discussed it and that they agreed I was a beautiful woman. I figure if a priest hits on you, you must be doing something right 😉

Amanda’s hair and makeup guy informed her that they thought American women didn’t wear enough makeup and didn’t look good until they had a Colombian makeover and were always impressed with how they looked afterwards. You be the judge 😉

The wedding itself, of course was beautiful, as we knew it would be. A black tie event extraordinaire. The whole event included 3 bands: one for the hors d’œuvres; one during dinner, including an opera singer; and then a big brass band to play salsa for the after-dinner dancing. The food was incredible, the speeches were lovely and the dancing was fantastic.

In order for Mike and me to enjoy the wedding while still making sure our progeny was safe, Cat’s mom had arranged for us to have a nanny at the wedding venue so we could check in with the boy, feed him when needed and make sure he was happy and entertained while we schmoozed with the international guests and ate our five-course delicious meal. The nanny watched him for 7.5 hrs and it was $45 total – including the $10 tip I gave her. Oh, how I wish we could get such a nanny here in DC for that price!

On Saturday, Cat’s parents arranged a bus tour for us to visit the Salt Cathedral of Zipaquirá