La Tigra

As far as I know, there was no violence yesterday.  We took off at 9:30 in the morning, stopped at Jose's favorite deli for meats, then went up into the mountains to La Tigra.  La Tigra is a National Park in a rainforest above the city.  Lourdes and Jairo have a house there, which Walter lives in.  They also have  a big space for his church, and a building for a kitchen which is still unfinished.  It is the highest mountain of all the mountains.  Usually there is a great view, but today was cloudy, so the views were obscured.

Looking out over the ropes course from the house

Looking over the house on the left, the salon further below, and the unfinished kitchen on the right.
On a less cloudy day, there is a beautiful view of surrounding mountains.

The road to get up there has been improved significantly so it is no longer hard on your car.  Karla drove on the way up, practicing her driving on a day when there was less traffic, due to Labor Day.

We marinated the meat, then relaxed for a while, listening to groups screaming their way through the ropes course in the back of the property.  A group of the kids from the city were visiting for the day.  They finished the ropes course, then had a meeting in the salon.  Afterward, they played soccer for hours until their leaders dragged them to a waiting bus.

Karla with beef and sausages from the  deli

We set up a grill in the kitchen space and had a big barbeque with some local friends.  After the kids from the group left, our guys played soccer for about an hour.  Karla took a nap and I played with the kids and their nanny, a sweet, fun girl named Paola.  We painted a jewelery box with Dana Sopia, played fútbol (somehow I managed to split my big toenail right down the middle - OUCH!  Sleeping hurts most.) and hacky sack, and ate strawberries from fields on the side of the mountain.

Strawberry Fields Forever

As it started to be later in the day we woke up Karla and drove down into the city for a real game of fútbol with with church team.  Karla and I went to watch, but really we spent the time catching up on all that has happened in our lives in the three years we've been apart.  I did watch the game - Jose scored 3 goals!  They won, 5-1.

As we drove through the city, to and from the game, we were pleased to see no evidence of manifestaciones.  The streets were a little crowded, but with kids playing fútbol, since there was very little car traffic.  It was a fun day with friends, and a great treat to get up into the mountains.