Happy Kid Play Land!

We spent all day in the park in Bogotá.  This is no ordinary "down the block" sort of park, it's on scale with Central Park in NYC or Regent's Park in London.  Parque Simón Bolivar is the place families flock to on Sundays in Bogotá, with their dogs, frisbees, tents, canoes, and more.

We walked amongst oceans of people playing, thinking to ourselves, really, this is what Sundays are about: chilling, relaxing with family.  This place had huge spanses of green, a gigantic lake, and 3 different huge playgrounds all with 5+ swingsets.  It was like any cool playground on steroids.  


We watched parents of a 5 year old girl playing hopscotch.  3 teenage boy cousins came over, and they all got totally into their game.  They were doing it for real too, where you throw a rock and have to jump over that square.  The teenage boys all height and no coordination were tripping all over the place, and the cute little girl with pigtails was totally in heaven.  The game easily lasted an hour.

Oh, and families truly set up tents in the park and "camp-out" for the day.  I mean it's a great idea really.  A place to put your picnic, change a diaper, take a nap.  Why not bring a tent to the park?

We spent some solid time watching kids (& adults alike) feed Cheetohs these 1-2 feet long fish, some were those cool orange goldfish.  Sick of the fish?  Ride the train through the park or rent a paddle boat.

This park had further perks including a mini-library in the park!  I mean, how freaking cool is that.  You're like I'm tired of playing soccer, I think I'll read some Don Quixote.  The picture above shows a father reading to his 2 year son - I got to hear the sound ambulances make, "wee-uuuh weee-uuuuuuh".  There was also this once a year book exchange, where no money is allowed, just swapping used books for other used books.  Brilliant really.

As if it couldn't get cooler from there, Kyle got some delicious street food.  The arepas are delicious - these were corn bread pancake sort of things with ham & cheese melted and butter slabbered all over the outside.  Yummmm.  Can also get yourself a "Super Dog" Combo.  With pop is < $1.


 I'd never seen so many smiling kids, adults, and dogs for that matter, in one place.  The whole time I just kept calling it Happy Kid Play Land, because eveyone looked like care-free kids chasing eachother, playing soccer, relaxing on blankets,  and just enjoying life.  If you're not near Bogotá, I hope you can find your nearest park and enjoy the day, even if it's in the snow, it's really incredible how fun can just slow life down.