Day 27 - The first flight

Today we paid the bill for the three and a half weeks we have stayed at the hotel in Cali with full pension and laundry service. They promised us a 5% discount if we paid in cash, so we said "why not", and while Jelena packed our bags, Ulf took Jakob on the arm and walked the 350 meters up the street to the nearest ATM.

There he took out several million pesos, all in 10 000 pesos bills, which was the biggest note the machine would give him. (The stupid machine would only let him withdraw a maximum of 400 000 pesos per transaction, so when Ulf finally had enough, a rather long line of impatient people had formed behind him, and they were pointing at their watches and glaring at him as he walked away.)

This amount of money was impossible to fit in a wallet, so Ulf filled his pockets and the lining of his trousers with wads of money, and walked quickly back to the hotel, suddenly very conscious of the fact that he was every mugger's dream. It went well, but his clothes were soaked with sweat and he had to take a shower as soon as he reached the hotel. (Not just because he was nervous about being robbed; the facts that he had to carry Jakob all the way and that it was 35 degrees outside, as always, probably also contributed to the perspiring.)

After paying the bill, we gave gifts (mostly money, plus cute personal cards that Jelena had made) to half the staff (the ones who had helped us the most) and said goodbye to all the other families at the hotel. Then we went to the airport.


Jakob did not mind flying, and the whole flight went very well. At the hotel in Bogotá we met the Dutch family who had left Cali three days before us, and five or six other families with children they are in the process of adopting. We spent a pleasant afternoon and evening with them at the hotel terrace, because the weather did not encourage us to go anywhere. Shortly after we had checked in, it started to rain. But we had almost forgotten what cool evenings are like, and enjoyed it very much.

Jakob immediately found some new friends among the other adopted children, so he seems to like it here. But most of all we are looking forward to coming home. Our current Estimated Time of Arrival at Bergen Airport is Wednesday at 5 PM!