Happy Kid Play Land!
Written by Bessie on Sunday, November 09, 2008 in Colombia
Feelin' normal
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.Feelin' normal
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.
And it kept getting cooler from there, because there was a Youth Festival going on with 6 pretty popular Colombian rock bands. We met up with a couple of cool friends that me met through CouchSurfing, and rocked out for about 5 hours.
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.
Comments on "Happy Kid Play Land!"
Ya, there are A LOT of cool things about Botoga...it's not like anything you would expect! For instance, it's cold!
We have spent many hours walking in Central Park, NYC. You are right that it has a similar feeling of peace and contentment and family fun with a huge water feature. Like NYC the surrounding population of urban cave dwellers craves the outdoors and nature amid the action, pollution, noise and "haste of pace" which the city creates in their lives. Topping the peaceful day with ample fast food and a concert with friends made it MAGICAL. What a healthy change from long bussssss rides and one-donkey pottery and craft towns! Thanks for all of the cool photos. Great to see Kyle eating and smiling! Ahhhh wedded bliss! Peace and Love.........
Ah....shades of Grant Park on Jazz Fest weekend......minus the playground. A little less crowded than Obama mania night......no grass in sight that evening!
This is pretty darn cool. If only every city had something like this.... what a great way to build a sense of community. I never would have thought that in the middle of Bogota would be such a great place! This is definitely NOT the picture of Bogota, Colombia that we are used to seeing.
by Kristine at November 10, 2008 05:33 PM