If This is Crazy...: Divercity! Big time chaos, small scale city

So, one of the best things about being in Bogota is that we are staying at an adoption hotel with two other families from our agency. Carol and Steve arrived before the strike hit and have been patiently (mas o menos) waiting to take their sweet Auggie home for 2 1/2 months! Megan and Michael actually arrived the night we did, and just met their sweet angel. They will have a few more weeks after we do.

Now, obviously 2 1/2 months is a LOOOONG time to be away from home (see my last post, whining about 4 weeks!) but the upside for me is that Steve and Carol know their way around and have great tips and tricks on seeing the city. However, one thing that they HADN'T done, that their 8 year old daughter had been dying to try, was hit up Divercity. So, that made the plans for last week and the rest of us were happy to tag along!

Carol did an incredible explanation and recap (with photos). It's definitely worth the read. I'll try and explain a bit more briefly. :)

Divercity is located in the Santa Fe mall here in Bogota. The best way I can explain Divercity is that it is an entire mini-city, just for kids. The kids are started off with a little money, which they can immediately spend on leisure (driving cars, mountain climbing, white water rafting ... I'm serious) or they can start working. Yep, that's right, The town is full of different places and the kids spend about 15-25 minutes in various spots learning different jobs. There are SO MANY. I can't explain how blown away I was by all this - not only the variety and the extensiveness of the place, but also the attention to detail. The kids hardly knew where to begin and us adults were pretty overwhelmed ourselves. So they started in the first open room they saw - and learned how to make toilet paper. :)

Over the next few hours, Jhon also visited a photography studio, supermarket, and ecological center. He also got a driver's license and drove some cars. Finally, we ended with the firefighters. This may have been the most impressive of all. The kids spent 20 min or so learning, then got to slide down a pole (or down the slide), put on uniforms, get into a fire truck, ride around the "city" and eventually put out a fire - using real water from fire hoses. Seriously, the detail was incredible.

The other kids that we went with did some of the same things as Jhon, but also learned how to make Coke, learned how to fly an airplane, and worked in a vet's office - complete with real animals, including a rather photogenic bulldog.

We had a blast but were exhausted by the end. The lights and sound and just ... busyness of the place was quite a lot to handle for all of us. All of us adults keep joking that it took us a few hours to come down. :) That being said, it was such a neat experience and I wish we had something like it in the U.S. My other kids would LOVE it.