Week 4: Daily Life in Filandia (posted by Wade)

Filandia has been the perfect place for us to live for three weeks. It is a town of about 12,000 people, perched on a hillside surrounded by pastures and coffee farms. Filandia reminds us a bit of Harbor Springs, Michigan in that tourism keeps the town prosperous and busy. Except instead of Lake Michigan, Filandia has the Andes mountains -- and a lot of great music pouring onto the streets.

The views are spectacular and the tourist infrastructure means that there are plenty of good restaurants and outdoor activities. Yet authentic Colombian culture still balances out the waves of visitors.

We have settled into a routine here in Colombia's coffee country. Every few days we venture away from Filandia for a day trip. When not exploring the wider region, the Morris girls busy themselves with schoolwork, exercise, and cooking.

Jane, Annie, and Eliza have found some great coffee shops to quietly work on Math and their research projects. We have also used Filandia's public library for schoolwork, and even a really nice lady to tutor Jane in Spanish. 

Most the girls' time is spent on their Colombian research projects. Jane's research project is about Colombian literature. Annie is studying the broader significance of Colombia's street art. Eliza is learning about Colombia coffee industry. They are turning their research into an essay, which will eventually become a Zoom presentation for their grandparents.

To get some exercise, some days we go on hikes, other days we run up a steep hill a few times, and on others just a Peloton class. My favorite activity that we do to stretch our legs, though, has been basketball. Filandia has one of the most scenic courts that I've seen, just on the edge of the town and overlooking the countryside. On the court, I transform into Coach Dad, running drills and taking on the girls in one-on-three matchups (they have yet to score a point).

Just one more week in Filandia and then we are off to Cartagena!

Week 3, continued: In Filandia With a Broken Arm (posted by Eliza)

Earlier this week, we went to a coffee amusement park called "Parque del Café." The amusement park is 148 acres that contains three ginormous roller coasters, two rides in which you got soaking wet, and bumper cars and boats.

I couldn't go on any of them because of my cast. They said nothing about broken arms and casts on the website, so we assumed it would be okay. When they said I couldn't go on any rides, I was very disappointed. Then mom had a brilliant idea -- I got to be the "Director of Fun." Basically, the Director of Fun could make anyone go on any roller coaster no matter how motion sick they felt. That idea backfired on mom when I made her go on the roller coast called "Krater."

As I said before, it was a coffee-themed amusement park. So of course there would be a show about coffee. It turns out it was a musical. I really liked the part where they fought with machetes. Of course, this was fiction because we do not think that people sang and pranced about while picking coffee beans. But it was still very fun.

A few days later, we went to a real coffee farm where the hills were super steep. At the coffee farm, I learned that they did not want to use pesticides so -- once a week -- someone checked every single coffee bean to see if bugs had infected them. We also learned that the average age of a coffee farm worker is 55 and one of the workers is 80 years old. A lot of young people don't want to work on coffee farms because it's so hard and the wages are low, so young people think they can do better in the cities.

At the end, our tour guide gave everyone three small cups of coffee and coffee cookie, but Jane and Annie didn't want there's so they gave their coffee to me. There was another kid who gave her's to me, also. So later I felt pretty sick.

Just yesterday, I got my cast off. We had to travel an hour on a bus to a city called Pereira. On the bus ride I threw up because we were on steep, curvy mountain roads. The doctor was very nice and he used things that looked like Tatta's gardening tools to get my cast off. My left arm looked like a skeleton because it had shrunk during my time that the cast was on.

Overall, it was a great week.

Week 3: Independence Day (posted by Annie)

We started off the 20th of July, which just so happens to be the Colombian Independence Day, with a somewhat clear sky and all the beautiful buildings decorated with red, blue, and yellow.

As we walked around town to admire all the decorations, we saw men and woman getting ready for the parade.

We also saw cars being weighed down by over-the-top decorations, which obviously was a main attraction to the tourists. 

Since we figured out that the parade did not start until 1:30 pm, we decided to go to a cafe, play a few games of Quixx, and get hot chocolate and espressos.                                                                                     

 After coffee, Eliza and I took more pictures of the decorations, whilst Jane and Dad read books.

 Finally, it was time to wait for 30 minutes for the parade, but luckily for us, the people also waiting kept us entertained.

 Then it was time for the parade!

 When (we thought) the parade was done, the girls headed home, but Dad stayed and watched something amazing; he saw "jeeps popping 360 degree wheelies, while propped up by weight in the back. Then the driver climbed out on the front hood to pump up the crowd. It was awesome."

 At 6:00 pm, there was a whole town dance party and fireworks. It was an amazing day and fun day to celebrate Colombian independence!