Colombia, South America

We are in South America, visiting Ellen's son Matt and his fiance, Nohora Garcia. We are staying at their finca (farm), about 9 acres on a mountainside near Medellin Colombia. They have dubbed it "La Bella Fonte", 'beautiful fountain. Above are some of the many waterfalls on the finca. There are tons of brick walkways around up and down the steep slopes...Very tropical looking trees and plants and full of flowers. A beautiful environment!

View of the main house at the finca. Sunken lliving room w/fireplace, master bedroom up, second bedroom and small apartment on main floor. Beautful open dining room leading out to tiled patio.

View of the alley and lake from the patio.

Tim Ellen and Nohora in Cartagena posing in front of a Fernando Botero sculpture. This city is the oldest in Colombia, and the old city is actually inside a walled fort to protect it from pirates.

Matt and Nohora at the beach near Cartagena

Matt Ellen and Tim at Las Cascado near the finca

Not so fair weather

We are still in Livingston, at the Escapees Park (the original). The weather has not been bad (like the cold and snow in Iowa), but it hasn't been that good either. After quite a while with below freezing temps at night, we are now having overcast skies, and light rain, with more to come this week. I shouldn't complain I guess.

We went to the Livingston Christmas Parade last weekend and enjoyed that. It was a quite long parade, with vehicles of all types bedecked with holiday lights. We were amazed at the crowds that watched, considering Livingston is about 5300 people. I guess a lot were there for the fair as well, as there about 75 vendors set up the next street over from the parade route. We did sample some fudge and some salsa, but it amazing how much stuff that was for sale we don't need. Living in an RV makes shopping unnecessary.

We skyped with two daughters these past couple of days too. Erin and Jenn got their Skype working and that was fun. We have been doing this with Matt in Colombia for a good long time.

My Packers keep rolling, annihilating Oakland on Sunday....still undefeated!

Livingston TX

Howdy Pardners...

We're not exactly deep in the heart of Texas, but about an hour north of Houston. We are staying at an Escapees Park, their original, 'Rainbow's End'. Escapees is a national RV group of which we are members.

We are here via the invite of Larry and Rose Miller, who we met in Minnesota this last summer. It has been nice visiting with the Miller's. They have shown us around and we've dined out with them a couple of times.

We have looked at several homes here, and saw a couple of nice ones. The houses here all have RV parking shelters with full hook ups, which is nice, then you have a guest house for visitors, plus you never have to winterize your RV. But alas, the prices feel too high for what you were getting. Plus Livingston is okay, but not a town we want to be 'close to'...only 5500 population...limited shopping and facilities.

We are staying here through our trip to Colombia though, as we can leave the RV hooked up to electricity for $5 a night while we are gone.

Time to wrap Christmas presents so we can get them in the mail in time for delivery to Iowa and Minnesota.