El Penon

Our Principal's husband, Rafa, has connections with pretty much anyone in Colombia and so we often get offered really cool trips out of the city. (He is kind of like the Christian publicity guy of Bogota if you want to call it that- meaning, he brings people in from all over the world to speak, perform, and minister to people in the city, as well as having his hand in numerous ministries throughout the city in some way). My first weekend back after break, his family asked us if we wanted to go with them out of the city to a vacation house owned by one of these people he has some connection with, who had offered it to us, no charge.

The place we went was called El Penon. This is a gated (very gated and secure) community in Giradot, about three hours from Bogota, with a lake and fancy homes, all made of white stucco. It was definitely fancier than what anyone would expect out of a vacation for missionary teachers. These homes were ridiculous! No wonder the FARC took over this community and ran everyone out- yeah they did, but sometime in the past year or two they were run out of the territory. That's probably why they required us to stamp our fingers, take a photo, and do a small background check before we could go into the community.

The house we stayed in was probably one of the smaller ones, sleeping 11 people (we fit 16). Every house has it's own pool and mango trees in the backyard. We had incredible food, thanks to the maid who takes care of any visitors at the home, and fresh juices the sip by the pool. It was a fantastic weekend getaway filled with boat rides, games, a crazy photo scavenger hunt, bonding time for us teachers and the high school students who joined us, and large amounts of peaceful reading time. When we left to head back to the city, we brought with us sunburn and tons of mosquito bites!