Hello my lovely readers! If you haven’t seen all my recent onslaught of posts on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, then you may be unaware that I was recently out of the country!!! Yep, from January 18 through the 27, I was back in Colombia, South America visiting with Mr. Bingley’s wonderful family!!
This was my second trip to Colombia, Mr. Bingley and I made our first trip around this time last year and had a phenomenal time, which you can read about in my blog post from last year, Jane Austen in Colombia. Yes, I found Jane Austen all over Colombia and it was awesome!
Our trip and experiences this year didn’t differ too much from last years with the exception that we did more, ate more, and hung out with Mr. Bingley’s family more. Which is exactly how I wanted to spend our trip!
We got eat a ton of delicious fruit every day…in fact Colombia ruined tropical fruit for me! After devouring the most perfect and juicy pineapples, mangos, watermelons, and papayas day after day there is no way I can go back to eating the pale and picked-before-completely-ripened imports we get here in the states!
Some of the “deportes extremos” (extreme sports) we enjoyed this trip were CABLEVUELO (zip-lining), COLUMPIO EXTREMO (extreme swinging), PARAPENTE (paragliding), and my personal favorite CANOTAJE (white-water rafting).
Here is a little video of my paragliding take-off!
How I love Colombia! I had no idea how amazing, beautiful, unique, and fun this country was! I’m so glad I got to spend some wonderful time with Mr. Bingley’s family – his aunts spoiled us rotten with all their amazing cooking and food preparations! I love them all so dearly, can’t wait to go again next year! 🙂
In between all this amazing fun, we did spend quite a few hours on and planes and in airports, so I did manage to get in a lot reading time! 🙂
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Speaking of reading…Here is what’s on this month’s
Austenesque Agenda:
~ TO REVIEW ~
~ TO READ AND REVIEW ~
~ FEATURED AUTHORS VISITING THIS MONTH ~
Ginger Monette – February 7th
Kaitlin Saunders – February 17th
Should be a lot of fun!
What are your Austenesque/reading plans for February?
Oh your trip looked fabulous! I would love to try the ziplining but I’m on the fence about the paragliding though it looked amazing! It’s wonderful to visit family who live in another country. As for my plans for February…snowshoveling seems to be the main event as it was last month and the month before! It’s been a true Canadian winter this year! However, I have been able to get a fair bit of reading in…will be starting ‘Undressing Mr. Darcy’ and just finished book #2 by Lauren Willig ‘The Masque of the Black Tulip’. Also read the first two books by Maria Grace ‘Given Good Principles’. All 3 books were delightful and well written. Loved the humour in Lauren’s book. Well I better get snowshoveling…lol!
Thank you, Carole! I loved the ziplining, want to do more! Oh my goodness! I hope the snow lets up soon! That is great that you have gotten in some good reading! If it snowed here, I would definitely spend a lot of time under a blanket reading! 🙂
Looks like you had a lot of fun! Thanks for sharing!
That’s a fab reading schedule for the month. I’m looking forward to a few of those too.
I’m very excited about this month’s reads – I’ve been itching to read some modern adaptations! 🙂
So, do you speak Spanish, or do they speak English?? How did Mr. Bingley get to the States?
LOL! I speak a little Spanish (I understand what they say, but can’t really form great sentences on my own) and they (mostly his younger cousins) speak a little English. The only person who is truly bilingual is Mr. Bingley, who moved here with his family when he was 10. His mom and dad just retired back to Colombia 2 years ago, but they were here for about 16 years. 🙂
Great post! I am so glad you got to go and visit family again. Looks like you had a lot of fun and the fruit sounds amazing! Thanks for sharing!
Thank you, Suzan! We had a blast and I still can’t get over how wonderful and loving his family is! We are very blessed!
Thanks for sharing your amazing holiday with us, it sounds absolutely fantastic, although the extreme sports freaked me out 100% – rather you than me, Meredith, and you are a phenomenally brave woman!!!!!
The photos are superb and I know what you mean about the ‘ripened-in-the-warehouse’ taste, even though I’ve never been lucky enough to taste fresh Colombian tropical fruit (guess it should go on the bucket list!).
Speaking of lists, I love your ‘to review’ list (and it looks like you took your work with you on the plane). Can’t wait to read them and/or about them, so here’s to lots and lots of lovely 2014 posts 🙂
You are such a dear, Joana! Thank you! A lot of people are surprised when they hear I like to do these “extreme sports.” I don’t really think of myself as athletic or brave, I think what really attracts me about these activities, is that they take place outdoors in very natural environments. 🙂
Oh and I am very much missing the fruit. My mouth is watering right now thinking of the juicy pineapple we have eaten! 😀
I’m so glad you had a wonderful time in Colombia 🙂
I understand you with the fruit theme:pineapples and watermelons are delicious!. And you’re a brave lady doing ” los deportes extremos”. I’m so happy you’re improving your spanish. ” Enhorabuena” (congrats!). And speaking of books I’m looking forward to reading your opinion of Julie Klassen’ s novel.
Muchas gracias, Teresa! I guess I like small thrills! 🙂 Looking forward to reading my fourth Julie Klassen novel!
Trip looks amazing Meredith – looks like you all had a fab time especially all the extreme sports.
Thank you, Michelle! I sure did! I can’t wait to do some more next year! 🙂
OMG! How did you went back down from the paragliding???
LOL! Not as smoothly as the take off! I wasn’t the one in control though, so I really can’t say how we managed it. In the picture, you can see a guy in a blue shirt, he was the one who was in charge. 🙂 I just sat there and enjoyed the view. 🙂
OMG that paragliding video scared the crap out of me! Could you hear me screaming from where you are? Leave me to a little picinic of pineapples and mangos, thank you. Zip lining I would try, but I’d probably still be screaming the whole time. I think for my deportes extremos I need to be properly tethered to something. Como se dice, “paragliding looks terrifying, I will stay on the ground,” en español?
Even though you terrified me, I still thank you for sharing your family vacation experience with all of us. It really does look like you had a fabulous time.
Just got the Dancing Master from the library, so that’s next on my to-read pile.
Wow! looks like you had a wonderful time I wish I could be brave enough to try out those activities. My mum is from the Caribbean so we go there a lot, so can relate about the fruit. We popped over to Venezuela for a week once, but unfortunately I got ill after the second day so spent the vacation in the hotel watching Topcat in Spanish!
Haven’t read any of your Feb selection apart from His uncle’s favourite interested to see what you think. Have a great February of reading!
Thank you, Tamara! Yes, we did have a wonderful time! That’s wonderful that you get to trael to the Caribbean a lot! I don’t think I’ll ever get tired of Colombia – can’t wait to go back next year!
Oh, so sorry to hear you got ill in Venezuela! We all had a little bit of sensitive stomachs on our last couple of days, not sure what caused it (might have been the sports!)
Looking forward to sharing my thoughts with you this month! Happy reading!
Ah Heather!!! I laughed so hard when I read your post! LOL! Love it! 🙂 Not sure I know the translation in Spanish for that! I’d probably just go with “NO!, No me gusta, por favor.”
I do apologize for terrifying you! I promise the rest of the posts coming this month won’t have any “deportes extremos.”
Looking forward to sharing thoughts with you on The Dancing Master! So excited about another book from Julie Klassen – boy she is fast!
Thanks for sharing your pictures from Colombia! I loved them! And I must say you’re very brave! I think I’d never be capable of doing that paragliding thing… I’d be too scared 🙂 Can’t wait to read your review of “The dancing master”!!