Medillen

After hands down the most redicilous bus ride of our trip so far, where the driver spent about 4 and a half of the 5 hours passing other people on blind corners, we arrived safely in Medillen. We found Medellin to be a nice, clean, and well organized city with a modern European feel (especially in the popularity of the Spanish mullet haircut). The city runs North South nestled in a valley between sweeping hills. We quickly learned to navigate the easy metro which can get you pretty much anywhere you need.

View while waiting for the metro.

We spent 4 days wandering around looking at the sights, eating at the international restuarants, Molly recovering from a cold, relaxing, and awaiting our flight to the Amazon.

We timed our arrival to Medellin with the bicentennial of Colombia’s independence on July 20^th. But unfortunately for us their meager celebration was held the night before, whereas in Manzinales, the town we had just left, nothing was happening until the 20^th. Having heard from other travelers of Medellin’s great party atmosphere, we were a little let down by the lack of festivities for this major holiday! A few days later, we did get to see the night life in action at a free concert and short film festival held in the botanical garden's outdoor space. It turns, however, out neither of us are fans of Colombia's popular music.

We visited the botanical gardens where they have recreated most ecosystems found in Colombia and have an impressive display of Orchids, the national flower.

We also toured the small but interesting modern art museum. This is a picture of a mural outside the art museum.

For an interesting cultural experience, you don’t have to look much farther than the grocery store. Make your own conclusions, but here are a few ridiculous photos. Ps anything Asian--from bok choy to pad thai to chop sticks—is referred to as Chino.

For better or worse, for the first time we found ourselves surrounded by Americans in our hostel. Outside of the international embassies that seem to be youth hostels, we have found ourselves to be some of the few non-Colombian tourists. It is pretty exciting to travel in a country which has recently become a safe travel destination and is still relatively off of the ¨gringo trail.¨ And truly we have felt in each and every place we have traveled in Colombia. President Uribe has absolutely transformed the nation and pushed the guerrillas deep into the remote parts of the Amazon where their organization is slowly falling apart. Colombia will most like explode with tourism in the next few years as its reputation slowly changes in the international eye. We are really glad we chose to explore Colombia and would recommend it to anyone. We feel that we only scratched the surface and there is so much more to explore and enjoy in this lively and beautiful country.

Manizales

We spent a few days in Manizales in order to access Parque Nacional Los Nevados. Detered from camping by frequent rain, we insted stayed in the hip hostal Base Camp with a great view of the hilly city and 360 degree surrounding mountains. Manizales takes after Bogota´s progressive new tradition of Ciclovia, desegnating a few major streets each sunday to bicycles only. As we saw both in Bogota and Manizales, the whole town gets out for a cruise. We think Portland should adopt this.

Sunset from the top of the mirador tower in Manizales

Entering the Parque Nacional Los Nevados

High alpine Colombian cowboy

Laguna Negra in Parque Los Nevados

In the photo below you can clearly see the defined ecosystems, paramo and super paramo. As we ascended the mountains the terrain went from lush green, to high desert with short grasses and flowering bushes, to barren rocky desert, and finally snow level. The cloud topped glacier up top is the volcano Nevado El Ruiz, the highest mountain in the Colombian Andes reaching 5325 meters. This friarale plant is characteristic of the paramo zone (high altitude desert in a tropical latitude). It grows 1cm a year and when the leaves die they do not fall off but lie down along the base to help insulate the plant from the freezing temperatures.

This region looked like walking on the moon The highest flag in ColombiaColombians literally seeing snow for their first time. We watched and laughed as they slid down the muddy hill with only a few inches of snow and had snowball fights. BRRRR! Olleta crater Just below 5000 meters! That is 16,240 feet making us higher than peak in the continental US!

Valle de Cocora

Valle de Cocora

From Bogota we traveled  west  to the small paisa town of Salento in the Andes mountain range. Outside of Salento and our reason for visiting the area lies the beautiful park of Valle de Cocora. To travel the hilly dirt road into the park you ride in one of the restored WWII Jeeps that the region is known for. Entering the valley, we were immediatly struck by the landscape unlike anything we´ve seen before. Cows graze the vibrantly green grass covering the steep pyramid-like hills on either side of this muddy valley. Reaching heights of 70 meters, the wax palms which make this valley unique are the tallest palm species in the world. On this characterisicly cloudy day, the wax palms lining the hills´ ridgelines faded mysitcally into the clouds.

The second half of the hike brought us uphill through rainforst as the trail precariously criss crossed the gushing river. Then at the end of the trail, in the middle of the dense forest, we somehow arrive at a little house surrounded by hummingbirds where a couple served us hot coffee.

We were really glad we rented rubber boots for the hike as it was incredibly muddy.

The view uphill from Salento

View out the window of our room at the Plantation House

 Some of the many restored WWII Jeeps in Salento (this if for you Dad -Molly)

Bogota

In Bogota we were incredibly fortunate to be invited to stay at the house of Jordan´s friend from high school. Laura, living in Colombia at her grandfather´s house for the summer, really made our stay in the capital city. Exactly halfway through our trip, it was very comforting and relaxing to stay in a family home. 

After getting lost in a taxi because Jordan wrote down Carerra 114b instead of 14b, which landed us in the ghetto 100 blocks off, we finally arrived just in time to go meet Laura´s family for dinner. All local Bogotaños, they were patient with our Spanish, welcomed us to Bogota, and gave us some tips on what to do.

On Sunday July 11^th, Laura took us to Parque 93 to watch Spain win the World Cup. It was fun to watch the game on a huge screen in a park with hundreds of festive Bogotaños. 

The city sits at 2,600 meters, or roughly 9,000 feet in a valley surrounded by green mountains. So why not go up even higher? To gain some perspective on the enormous city, we rode the cable car up to Monserate, a cathedral and view point on a high hill above the city. Despite the ever present clouds, we still got a good view of the expansive sprawl that is Bogota.

North of Bogota there are several large salt mines. Deep inside one mine, what started as small alters to keep the miners safe evolved into an enormous underground cathedral. Sunday mass is held 180 meters under the ground in a great space carved out by the removal of many tons of salt. It was a pretty impressive sight to see. 

Another tourist staple is a visit to the Museo de Oro (gold museum). This incredibly impressive collection houses gold artifacts from indigenous tribes spanning northern South America beginning in the years BC. 

We enjoyed the museum collection of comically balloon-like figures painted by Botero, Colombia´s most famous artist. The museum also housed cubist artists such as Picasso and Leger, as well as collections of colonial art. 

Plaza Boliviar

In between museums and historic sites, we exploried the various districts and tastes of Bogota. Here we are in La Puerta Falsa, a famous old snack shop, trying the local delight hot chocolate with white cheese! Very tasty!

The historic colorful La Candelaria district

Canaleza, a delicious hot drink of brown sugar, mint, cinnamon bark, and aguardiente

La Candaleria district...

On our last night we ordered sushi with Laura and her grandfather then headed off to a night bus to travel 8 hours west to Salento.