Traveling with two sons

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Marius and Boudewijn(Jeronimo) on the Plaza de Bolivar 10 years ago (13 April 2007) and now (3 February 2018). Marius enjoys Colombia, Boudewijn seeks his biological family.

Foreword

We (Lidie and Conrad) have adopted two sons from the "Casa de la Madre y el Niño" in Bogotá: Marius in 1975 and Boudewijn in 1978. At both times we spent about $2000 for the lawyer, medical checks and accomodation. In addition, we gave children's clothes to the Casa. The only irregularity we encountered was with the secretary of the lawyer who requested extra money, which we refused to give...

In 2007, the four of us travelled to Bogotá, where we visited together the Casa that allowed us to see their archives. There Boudewijn found the full name of his biological mother, R. P. P.. A few years later an office in Bogotá found her in town. Details about the encounters with R, about AncestryDNA-tests, about finding Boudewijn's halfsisters and about Boudewijn's exchange in the hospital with the true son of R, are given in the Epilogue.

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In the story below, I describe our recent visit to Bogotá, where we enjoyed for 2 weeks the warm hospitality of R. and her daughter and son-in-law, D. and H., in the house of the latter in La Fragua. There, Boudewijn meets his half sister, S.. Marius and I visit Medellin and Cartagena. After the first week we make an excursion to the páramo at Chingaza before Boudewijn has to leave. In the second week, Marius and I look closer at Bogotá and its surroundings.

Paris - 26 January 2018.

As a result of the mist at Schiphol, our flight to Paris was delayed. Still on the plane Marius received an SMS that our flight to Bogotá had been rebooked to the next day. Upon arrival at Charles de Gaulle we received a free hotel, transport, dinner and breakfast. But we decided to go and eat down town Paris. By taxi we drove the Rue Saint Denis to the Gare du Nord. There we drank a beer with an old fellow bacteriologist from the Institut Jacques Monod. How many times have I stayed with him in the Rue des Abbesses under Montmartre? He helped us buy tickets for the RER train and metro and an hour later we got off at Odeon.

With his iPhone, Marius found the famous chocolate shop "Ladurée" in Rue Bonaparte; they sell macarons there, just as Jessica makes them..... Almost 50 years earlier (~14 May 1968) I stayed here nearby at Hotel de Seine and, as a student, I walked with what at that time was my "Bible" in my pocket:"La Nausée" of Sartre. I then overlooked the passage in which Anny explained to Roquentin that nobody wants to see the platinum meter: "J'ai besoin que tu existes et que tu ne change pas. Tu es comme ce mètre de platine qu'on conserve quelque part a Paris ou aux environs. Je ne pense pas que personne ait jamais eu envie de le voir." "C'est ce que te trompe" says Roquentin. And he is right! I am determined to go and see this meter, this standard that replaced the toise of la Condamine 100 years later (see Blog 2010). What I did see at that time but did not understand was the demolished Boulevard Saint Michel. Only much later I saw on a picture that the Nobel prize winner Jacques Monod had been at the barricades the previous day.

Left: In the Rue Bonaparte, Marius photographs the macarons of Ladurée.

Right: Rue de Seine with the hotel where I stayed in May 1968.

Bogotá - 27 January 2018.

The next day we fly in a full plane to Colombia. At the airport of El Dorado I immediately feel the altitude (2600 m) because I am short of breath. When we walked outside with our suitcases we were met by a friendly disorder of waiting people. But suddenly there was R., who warmly welcomed us and led us through the crowd. At a cafeteria we drank our first tinto, brand "OMA". Rosalbina recalled that this means "abuela" in Dutch. There we waited together with R., H. and his daughter M.-A. for Boudwijn, who would come from Zurich.

After his arrival we drove in H.'s the new car to their house in La Fragua, a district in the south of Bogotá.

Arrival of Boudewijn/Jeronimo at El Dorado. From left to right: R., M-A., Jeronimo, H. and Marius.

The map of Bogotá (10 million inhabitants) shows (from left to right): (1) the Embajada de los Paises Bajos, where we stayed in 1975 and 1978. (2) The Casa de la Madre y el Niño, (3) Hotel Suamox where we stayed in 2007, (4) La Frague, the district where D. and H. live, (5) Restrepo, the district where R. lives and (6) the famous old district La Candelaria.

When we arrive in the spacious house of D. and He., R. immediately gives us a delicious jugo de guanábana (soursop juice).

Bogotá - 28 January 2018.

Boudewijn meets his half sister S. for the first time (!) and brings her to our place. After lunch with ajiaco we take a long walk with her and her father A. and her son D. to the district Restrepo. It is Sunday, all shops are open. We buy shoes for the trip to Chingaza park next week.

Walk through the Restrepo district with Alberto, Sandra and David.

Right: Jeronimo (Boudewijn) with his regained half sister Sandra.

Bogotá - 29 January 2018.

In the morning we visit the office of D.'s furniture company, Intercaster, which was once taken over and continued by R.. Diana is now the manager. When printing our boarding passes, Diana discovers a wrong date for the return flight Cartagena-Bogotá. It takes her 2 hours to get this in order. Muchas gracias! 

  

At her office, D. helps us to rebook the wrongly dated journey from Cartagena to Bogotá. Beautiful clouds on their way north, to the Jardin Botanico.

After H. had shown us the whole factory, we went to the Botanical Garden (Jardin Botanico de Bogotá), where we met José and Martha Lopez again. We already had met them and their sons in 2007.

 

Left: Our visit to the Lopez family in 2007. Right: Jose and Martha were still just as cheerful and warm!

In the evening, Boudewijn made a film of the meeting with his half-sister S. Maybe for the facebook site "Adopted from Colombia"?

At the table I emphasized that with our visit, we wanted to honour R. in particular, because she had been brave enough to come twice alone to the Netherlands and Switzerland to visit her son. I also expressed my admiration that after it became clear that the babies (i.e. Boudewijn and her own child) had been exchanged in the hospital, she had kept contact with Boudewijn.

Later in the evening Carlos came, a distant nephew of Boudewijn, according to DNA matching. Together they discussed how the exchange should be further investigated to find Boudewijn's biological father and R.'s son.

The conversation at the table is filmed.

Medellin - 30 and 31 January 2018.

From El Dorado Marius and I flew with a small plane to Medellin. During the descent in a taxi from the airport to the lower town (1500 m), the landscape reminded me of the Carmel in California: winding roads, pine trees (other!), many blossoming trees and shrubs and large ferns. But I don't believe that the trumpet tree (guarumbo; Cecropia peltata) with its white leaves appears in the Carmel. We also saw these trees in the Andes of Ecuador during our trip with Eduardo Tapia. The white "color" is an optical illusion caused by the small hairs on the leaves.

The "white" leaves of the trumpet tree.

As soon as we found our hostel in the Poblado district, we set off with the metro and the metrocable, for which Medellin became famous.

With the Medellin metrocable high above Santo Domingo's slum district, on its way to the Arvi Park.

What Medellin has also become famous with is Pablo Escobar. With the help of Google Maps we found that the Museo Pablo Escobar with address Carrera 38#18-70, is close to our hostel Serina with address Carrera 32#10. It would be just a short walk. But it was a considerable climb up the hill, while it quickly got warmer. Sometimes you could hear a blackbird whistling in this beautiful villa district, reminiscent of Palo Alto. A friendly Señor tried to help us and asked many passers-by if they knew the museum; no one had ever heard of it. Finally, Marius held a taxi with a driver who later turned out to be quite bold. With the help of a policeman, he finally took us to the closed gate of Hacienda Napoles. Cameras kept an eye on us. Also another fence opened and finally we were warmly received by a cousin of Pablo.......

A niece of Pablo Escobar sells us the tickets. On the left the bold taxi driver who was waiting.

Cartagena - 1-2 February 2018.

On Thursday February 1, we flew to Cartagena where we stayed in Hotel Don Pedro de Heredia, in the middle of the centre of the old town, founded in 1533. We have made long walks there, watched small, informative museums, had nice meals in small restaurants and enjoyed jugo or pils on many terraces.

Left: on one of the many terraces: if you have a hat on, you will not be harassed by sombrero sellers. Right: Marius looks out his eyes in the Portal de los Dulces (no macarons!).

  

On the Plaza de los Coches and, to the right, along the mangroves on our way to Casa de Rafael Nuñez, outside the ramparts.

   

From the left: fishermen in small sailboats come by the surf on land; Las Botes monument in honour of the poet Luis Carlos López; the unbeatable fortress Castillo San Felipe just outside the old town.

Bogotá - 3 February 2018

From the airport El Dorado in Bogotá, we met with Boudewijn in the old district of La Candelaria. We walked through the busy streets, bought gifts, had lunch and looked out our eyes. What can we give Lidie for her birthday?

 

With the two sons on a small square in La Candelaria under an old guarumbo (trumpet tree; Cecropia peltata) with her white-shining leaves and then with a taxi back to La Fragua for ~2€.

In the evening in the house of Diana and Hernando we met family members of Rosalbina, including her sister M. T.P. P., her brother J. P. and the father of H., A. C.(84 years old); he was a cobbler in Restrepo.

From left: M.T., Rosalbina, Baudouin, Yolanda, hijo?, J. P., H., Baudouin, A..

Bogotá - 4 February 2018

In 2 cars we leave early morning to a village above Bogotá: La Calera, accompanied by thousands of cyclists who plough up the mountain. After a breakfast in La Calera we continue to the entrance of Parque Nacional Natural Chingaza, at Piedras Gordas (3400 m).

Map of the park. Everywhere we see the sunflower-like "frailejones" or Espeletias.

In the evening, together with S., we take Boudewijn to the airport for his flight to Madrid and Zurich. There, on El Dorado, we met by chance C., a half sister of the mother of Boudeijn and her husband U. A. She will later give us the names of all the family members of the biological mother, M. M..

At the airport El Dorado: Ubaldo, Claudia and S.

Bogotá - 5 and 6 February 2018

We walk with R. through Restrepo and do shopping: groceries, lots of fruit including Mangistans! Finally we visit R.'s house, where she shows us pictures of her place of birth, Ch. The next day we visit the Museo Nacional.

Doing shopping in Restrepo and visit to R.'s house.

Bogotá - 7 February 2018

With the Transmillenium bus and a Flota bus (private company) we drive down to San Francisco de Sales (~1500 m), where it is warm and where we visit a "Jardin encantado": flowers, more than 20 different species of hummingbirds, finch- and thrush-like birds, including the Sugar thief (Mielero común), a singing Sinsonte (Mimus gilvus), a blue Tangara and a blackbird (Turdus serranus). And of course there is also the Surinamese "Grietjebie" (Pitangus sulphuratus), which is heard here as "bi-cho-fué". And here too I see very few Copetones (sparrows)!

For the last evening we had dinner in a Crepes restaurant in a nearby large mercado.

Many thanks, D., H. and R., for your exceptional hospitality!

Visit to San Francisco de Sales.

The last evening!

Epilogue

In September 2009, Marius married Jessica. While enjoying the country and culture of Colombia, he does not seem to be interested in finding his biological parents.

Boudewijn, on the other hand, started to search after his daughter Giulia Imbach was born on March 7, 2009 in Luzern. On July 31, 2011, Boudewijn received a message from an office in Bogotá that they had found his biological mother, R.P.P. (born 1957), together with her daughter D. (born 1977). R. decided to relinquish her second child because of traumatic experiences with her family after giving birth to D.

In November 2011, Boudewijn visited R., celebrating his 33rd anniversary in Bogotá. He took with him a photo album about his life entitled "Aqui esta su hijo… y le damos el nombre de Boudewijn" ("This is your son..... and we called him Boudewijn."). In August 2012, R. took the long journey to visit us, the adoption parents, in the Netherlands and to see her son living in Luzern, Swtzerland. In July 2014, R. came again to Switzerland to celebrate Boudewijn's wedding with Eva Oswald. In September 2014 their son, Nino Oswald was born. Already in January 2015, Boudewijn traveled with Eva and Nino to Bogotá to meet his father. Doubts about their relationship were confirmed by DNA tests that also came out to be negative for R. The dramatic conclusion was that Boudewijn had been exchanged with another baby in the hospital. R. went to the "Casa de la Madre y el Niño" with Boudewijn, leaving her true son with the biological mother of Boudewijn.

In August 2017, Boudewijn received a message from AncestryDNA that he had a direct match with a family member. This was his half sister Dorianna, living in the US, who knew that they had another half sister, S., living in Bogotá. A DNA test with S. came out positive. Dorianna also knew that their biological mother, MM.V.D., had died in 2002. It further appeared that they had more half sisters, perhaps from different fathers, all adopted and living in the US (except Sandra).

--> The question about what happened to the baby that M.M. took with her from the hospital, the true son of R., has still to be answered. 

Translated with www.DeepL.com/Translator