Jardín, Medellín and Home

So Jardín is beautiful. It's a small town nestled in the mountains. And there's lots of outdoorsy stuff to do, so it was a perfect end to our Colombian travels.

On the first day we did a few hour hike to a nearby waterfall. We made friends with a guy from the hostel by the name of Swain. He was also a programmer, and also quit his job, and was also traveling around Colombia. So he joined us for our little day hike.

The waterfall took about 2 hours to reach. It was quite splendid. 

On the way back down, we stopped at the local Cristo Rey, a statue of Jesus overlooking the town. The statue itself wasn't much to write home about, but the view certainly was. 

Once back in town we stopped at a vegetarian restaurant that served amazing homemade hashbrown delicacies. And then we explored the main center. 

Oh yeah, we also had one of the dogs from the hostel follow us for the entire day. Her name is Fiesta. She was very well behaved and helped us find our way along the trails when we got a little lost.

The next day Camille, Swain and I decided to hike to another waterfall inside a cave called La Cueva del Esplendor. Swain's friend also joined us. He was friends with some local guides so we stopped there to see if we could pay for a Jeep to drive us closer to the entrance of the cave. We got a good deal on a one way drive to the cave. Probably saved us 2 and a half hours of walking. Also, one of the guides decided to join us for the day and hang out. That was especially cool because he knew a lot about the area and the local plants and wildlife. He was also fun to talk to (and useful for practicing my Spanish...).

The Jeep took us way up into the mountains. From there we still needed to hike for an hour or so. Then we arrived at a farm, which apparently owned the land on which the cave was located. We had to pay an entrance fee and wait for the owner to take us down to the waterfall. A bit of a bummer, but totally worth it once we got there.

I saw photos beforehand and they really don't do it justice, just like my cell phone photos won't truly convey how special this place was. The light was incredible, the cave was magical and the waterfall had an incredible energy coming from it.

And the owner encouraged us to swim. Now, I absolutely loathe cold water and avoid it at all costs... but I felt compelled to go for a quick dip, especially since there was jumping involved.

(Thanks Camille for the video)

After plenty of swimming and exploring we began our hike back down into town.

The views were incredible!

Once back in town we offered Manuel (our new friend/unofficial guide) a drink. He brought us to this crazy private resort place where we had some cold Club Colombia beers. It was a perfect way to end a perfect day. 

The next day Camille and I left Jardin and made our way back to Medellin the day before our flight. We stayed at her friend Jessie's place (the one we met up with in the beginning of our trip). She was beyond generous and kind to choose to sleep in a hammock that night and offer us her bed.

That night we went out with her and some of her roommates to a local brewery. We unfortunately arrived just before closing but they were nice enough to let us grab one drink first. And I have to say it was by far the best beer I had during this trip to Colombia. A very pleasant way to end our brief trip!

The next morning Camille and I made our way to the airport, flew to Fort Lauderdale and then took another flight back to Laguardia in New York. Then a cab to the bus station and a bus to Springfield where my Dad happily and graciously picked us up at midnight to take us home. A long day indeed, but a day with no issues and very little stress for which I'm thankful.

Of course as soon as we recovered, caught up on sleep and washed some clothes, we made our way to visit Christian (and check in on Tiny McBoatface).

Christian made some very nice progress on the stairs! It's the first piece of finished furniture to go in the house and it looks great.

After lounging around for a week and readjusting to life in cold New England, Camille had to take her flight back home... She's now currently in Paris visiting friends. Soon she'll be heading back to her parents to relax a bit (where it's already springtime) and eventually looking for some short term work to save some money before she comes back here in late summer.

As for me, I've been working with Christian on the house as well as following some leads on potential jobs. Have a big phone call tomorrow to see if there's a position available and worth taking for some short-term work similar to what I was doing almost 4 years ago.

I know I know... I've mentioned wanting to work more than a few times in the last couple of years, but this time I think it's for real....

Building a house isn't exactly cheap!

Bogotá, Manizales, Salento

So we left Barichara and made our way to Salento to visit Camille's friends. The fastest way was through Bogotá so we stopped there for a night to break up the drive.

Our next bus was to Manizales which was 8 hours so we decided to take a night bus to save money on hostels. So we had a full day to kill in Bogotá. We started by taking a free tour of the Botero museum. He's very famous in Colombia and around the world. His paintings depict humans with quite irregular proportions and less than flattering faces.

And look at that dog....

They say this painted was inspired by a certain American business man. Can you guess who?

His sculptures are also quite famous.

After the tour we also checked out the Gold museum. It has 4 floors of exhibits detailing the history of the relationship between humans and gold in South America. Quite fascinating.

We explored other parts of Bogotá then grabbed our bus at 11 at night. The road was very steep and windy which made it quite difficult to get a good night sleep.

We arrived in Manizales around 6 in the morning. Our next hostel was outside the city on a coffee farm but it was a bit too early to arrive. We attempted to explore Manizales a bit and get some breakfast. There was a very long teleferico from the bus station to the town center.

Camille is demonstrating how tired we felt.

The city was okay. At least they had this cool bird man statue.

We found a farmers market that had dozens and dozens of stands selling all sorts of fruits and vegetables. So we stocked up before heading out of the city to our coffee farm hostel.

We arrived just in time to partake in the coffee tour. It was super fascinating learning about the entire process of growing, harvesting and drying the coffee beans. The tour lasted a full 3 hours.

Here we are picking some coffee berries.

Here's a small machine demonstrating how they remove the skin from the fruit to reveal the bean.

One of the machines that dries the beans.

And of course there was a peacock walking around.

We booked a private room, but it was not this place. Maybe some day when our budget is a little larger.

But this was our little bungalow for the night!

Not a bad view...

Our accomodations were super tranquil. There were plenty of hammocks and lots of bird watching opportunities. Would definitely stay there again.

Then we headed south to visit Camille's friends Florence and Mauricio. We took a couple buses to get to Salento, a cute mountain town that we've both been to before.

And then we met up with Florence and Mauricio. We stayed at their house outside of Pereira. Really peaceful house located on a small coffee farm.

That evening we drove to Termales de Santa Rosa to relax in some hot spring pools. Without knowing, they had a 2 for 1 entrance promotion. Because of this, the place was mobbed with people. We still had a great time though and felt really relaxed afterwards.

Right behind the pools was a beautiful cascading waterfall. Underneath the rightmost falls was a small seat carved out of the rock. It was a right of passage to sit on the rock under the rushing water, so we felt obligated to try. It was really intense but quite refreshing.

The next day we took a Whilly (basically an old school Jeep) into the Valle de Cocora. 

The valley is famous for it's incredibly tall wax palms that tower over all of the other vegetation.

We hiked the main trail that takes you through the valley, then into the jungle, and eventually past all of the wax palms. Super nice hike!

There's also a hummingbird sanctuary hidden deep into the jungle.

Yeah these trees are tall. 

I'm super glad we went to Valle de Cocora especially since I didn't do it last time I was in the region.

We stayed another night at Florence and Mauricio's place then Mauricio drove us into town to catch a bus to Jardín. They were super nice and helpful and I look forward to seeing them again.

Now we are in Jardín for 3 nights for some hiking and relaxing before we take our flight home from Medellín on the 15th.

Rocks and Buses and Rocks and Buses

So we went and saw the big rock. To approach it, you can take a bus, tuk tuk, taxi or you can walk. Walking avoids a vehicle entrance fee but tacks on another 700 steps. We we're up for the challenge.

We survived the first 700 steps. Now to get to the top of the big rock we had another 700 steps to go. Much easier than climbing the side of it with a rope and gear.

The view from the top was spectacular. I don't quite know the history or the geology of the area but some hydroelectric dams have created this man-made lake consisting of dozens and dozens of small fingers reaching out around the entire area. A very unique area indeed!

The next day we left Guatapé and headed towards la mesa de los santos. We didn't want to take a bus back to Medellín and then take a 12 hour bus via the highway to Bucaramanga, the closest city available by bus. We wanted to try and go a less traveled route via smaller buses, hopping from pieblo to pueblo. Workers at the hostel said it would be possible. Well after 4 hours and having made it only 2 towns away, we were being told there were no buses going in the direction we wanted to go. It sounded like maybe we could find some in the morning, but at the rate we were going it seemed like it would've taken up to a week to get to our destination. At the many suggestions of the locals we grabbed a bigger bus back towards Medellín.

A super friendly local helped us out at the ticket station and was also on the same bus as us. We talked a bunch. He also bought me food at the next stop which was unexpectedly kind of him. He could tell we still wanted to find another route to our destination and he proceeded to speak with the bus driver. He eventually had the bus stop at a station, he got off and talked to someone working the ticket booth and found us a way to get to our destination the way we were hoping to go. Super friendly guy and one of a thousand examples of how amiable and helpful Colombians are.

The bus ride was overnight and we arrived in Bucaramanga at 3 in the morning. We waited until 5 to take a shared taxi to Piedecuesta. From there we took another bus to get to la mesa de los santos and asked to be dropped off at a climbers hostel. The hostel was fully booked so they told us the check the hostel next door. That was also booked except for exactly 2 beds left, but located in different dorms. So they set us up in a room at their Aunt's hostel down the road. For a similar fee, we had a studio with private kitchen and bathroom included. It was farther from the climbing but the peace and quiet was warmly welcomed.

 We were too exhausted from all the bus rides to climb but we did some grocery shopping and went on a nice hike to the next town over, los santos.

The path was a camino built by the Spaniards many many centuries ago. A skillfully crafted path made from thousands of blocks of sandstone.

The view of los santos and the Chicamocha canyon in the distance.

The next day we rented a rope and went climbing. We had to pay an entrance fee and take a test to prove we knew how to climb and build anchors. I had never seen that before at an outdoor crag but we patiently did everything we were asked to do and we were finally free to climb some rocks. 

The cliff was comprised of sandstone and had many really nice features. Camille and I hadn't climbed in over 5 months so we were a little concerned about our performance but we both seemed to do okay.

The climbing was really fun but the crag didn't have many routes within Camille's abilities and I didn't want to pay all the money to rent the rope and pay the entrance fees again so we figured 1 day was enough. Time to move on!

The woman at the climbers hostel recommended that we take a bus to the local teleferico to get down into the canyon to get to our next destination. She said it was a beautiful route and more direct. So we grabbed a bus in the morning and had them drop us off at the teleferico. What everyone failed to tell us was that it was closed on Mondays. The bus was already gone and the next bus wouldn't pass by for 3 hours. So we decided to walk and attempt to hitch hike to the next town to catch an earlier bus. Locals said it was 10km away and too far to walk. But we had nothing else to do.

Best part was that a couple stray dogs from the teleferico decided to join us on our adventure.

The one upside to this mishap was that we had some decent views during the walk.

The downside was that we had heavy backpacks and it was super hot out.

In total we had 2 different people pick us up and give us brief rides in the right direction, saving maybe 3km or so of walking. Every little bit helped!

We grabbed a bus back to Piedecuesta where we could take another bus down to San Gil. From there we took one more bus to get to Barichara, where we are now. Camille has been here before and wanted to return and show me the town. At some point it was voted the most beautiful village in Colombia. I can see why, it's beautiful, clean, quiet and super peaceful.

All of the roads are built out of sandstone blocks. All of the houses are white with terracotta roofs. It's surrounded by rolling green hills.

The view of the sunset from the top of the village was spectacular.

The next morning we hiked a camino to the nearby town of Guane, equally beautiful and peaceful. 

This land is covered in fossils. Literally covered. The locals are using fossilized ammonites and turtle shells as construction materials, lining their sidewalks, landscaping and everything else with these beautiful artifacts.

The hostel at which we're staying is quite nice. It has a swimming pool and is full of fruit bearing trees.

Nice views of town too.

And kittens!

Tomorrow we leave for Guadalupe to see the Quebrada Las Gachas, a red sandstone lined river with massive potholes scattered about. Should be quite amazing.