Bogota

Another city I love.  Bogota is a big, bustling, beautiful city.  Our quartet spent a day together, until Sarah and Anna headed to Peru.  Elise and I then spent the next 3 days checking out/discovering the rest of Bogota.

Here's Bogota mostly in pictures.

City view/parks/people- so many people are out in the streets all day long, gathering in the parks, hanging out, eating street foods, watching the futbol games through the windows of bars/restaurants, etc.  It's fun to just be in the streets, being a part of everything.

Ciclovia- every Sunday, the city closes several major roads in the city for pedestrians, bikers, skaters, etc.  Its a huge weekly event- tons of activites in the streets and parks, vendors along the roads, group excersize classes, etc.  I think it really gives a small town feel to a GIANT city. Elise and I rented bikes and rode all throughout the city for about 4 hours.  A great way to see different parts of Bogota.

Botero Museum- he's famous for painting people, animals, and fruit in a very chubby way.

Monserrate - views from the top of the mountain that dominates Bogota's city center.

Zipaquira Salt Cathedral- a 1.5 hour bus trip from Bogota, the town of Zipaquira has an underground cathedral built within the tunnels of a salt mine.  This place in a religious mecca, but also a pimped out tourist attraction.  It was a bit overwhelming.  Interesting, but overwhelming: the surrounding areas of the cathedral have a rock climbing wall, light shows, play grounds, a 3-D movie about the indigenous people, gift shops galor, etc.  like I said, it was A LOT to take in.  PS yes, I licked the wall.... it's salt!

Graffiti tour-  we took a walking tour to see all the street art but well known graffiti artists (not the stupid 'tags' but really beautiful, colorful, art that covers some of the walls in the city.

My visit with Camilo:  when I worked at United Way, I made a good friend from the United Way in Colombia through a year-long fellowship program (in 2008).  We have kept in touch but haven't seen each other in nearly 5 years.  I saw him twice during my time in Bogota, each time involving lots of authentic Colombian food.  It was so great to catch up in person, and try some interesting new foods (ie cow intestines, and a blood sausage version of boudin- called something different though).  Cow intestines......a great way to end my visit to Bogota!

Rio Claro

My travel buds and I left Medellin and headed to Rio Claro for a night.  I am still with my friend Elise from NY, and the two hippie chicks, Anna and Sarah, from Seattle (they aren't really full-on hippies, but I like to give them a hard time about it, being that they are from Seattle).

The bus rides here have offered incredible views of the countryside- the hills/mountains are fantastically lush and green.

Anywho, Rio Claro is a beautiful nature reserve, that has one hotel, which covers all your meals and offers lots of activites- kayaking, tubing, cave exploring, swimming, rafting, etc.  During our 24 hours there, we swam, explored, hiked and went tubing.  It was the perfect 'nature' stop between big cities.

On a side note: the front gate is about 2kms from the hotel reception area, so when it came time for us to leave (giant backpacks in tow), we hitched a ride to the front gate with some old lady ecological group.  They we're going to the front gate in the hotel truck bed.  All the old ladies needed help into the truck, so we helped load and unload about 20 little old Colombian ladies.   They were so intrigued by our travel crew- impressed we were traveling without any men, impressed with our Spanish, and generally interested in chating with us. The 10 minute ride with them was kind of hysterical.  They were all very nice and very gracious, as our crew single handledly got each one in and out of the truck bed.

Overall though, we stayed in a nice open air room, overlooking the river, no wifi and it was mostly just a quiet tranquil place. It was a great overnight day trip for our quartet.

A city, a rock, and Candyland.

I had a quick trip into Medellin; only 2 days, but they were two great days! One day we hung out in the city, and the other day we took a trip to Guatape.

Medellin is a huge, modern city.  It's surrounded by mountains/hills on all sides, weather is fantastic (warm during the day, cool at night), and they have great public spaces, and a well planned transportation system.

The day in the city involved a jog around their sporting complex (every type of stadium/sports field in one spot), a trip on the above ground rail system to another leg of the public transportation system: cable cars, a walk through some of the neighborhoods, and a visit to a local reserve.

In one part of the city, cable cars are the preferred mode of transportation to get to the neighborhoods on the hillside.  One cable car line goes past the neighborhoods into a national park located at the top of one of the mountains, so we took that line and spent 1/2 a day hiking/exploring the reserve.

  

That night, we went out and explored the Medellin nightlife.  We started at a nearby park, where tons of people were hanging out, eating, drinking, playing music, etc.  Then, we checked out a couple places near the park, danced, ate street food (yum!), etc.

Our day trip was to an area 2 hours from Medellin.  Guatape and La Piedra.

La Piedra Del Penol is a giant rock in the middle of the countryside.  The giant rock is a bit out of place; nothing like it anywhere nearby.  Stairs have been built into the side of the rock, and you can climb the 740 stairs to the tippy top, for some amazing views. A. MAZING!  One of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. 

The town nearby is called Guatape.  The entire town is colorful, quaint and a bit mini.  The cars are all small, the streets are more narrow, and the buildings are all decorated like they are out of a scene in Candy Land.  We went on a Saturday, so there was lots of activity, tourists, locals, outdoor vendors, etc.   A really cool little town.

The day trip to Guatape and La Piedra was one of my fave travel days so far on this entire trip.