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.

Cartegena

What a great city!  Although, the city is super hot and humid, like 'puts you in a bad mood' hot and humid....Cartegena's only drawback for me.....  Like Panama City, there is an 'old' town and a very modern downtown.  We hung out mostly in the old town.  Although it's full of tourists, locals also live there, so it's a nice mix of people, and hopefully still a good snapshot of Colombian life.

The walled city (old town) was really cool.  Lots of people out in the streets, at night people hang in the local plazas, drink, eat, watch kids play soccer, listen to impromptu street musicians, mix and mingle, etc.

One plaza in particular was a hot spot....each night we stopped by and inevitably bumped into people we were on the boat with, or met during the day on our adventures.  It's kind of fun seeing people you know, in a giant city where you don't really know anyone ;)

On the boat, Elise and I met 2 girls traveling together from Seattle.  We all decided to travel together for a bit too.  So we all took Cartegena in together!

While in Categena, we ate lots of street foods (now, my favorite kind of foods...and super cheap!), visited an old castle full of tunnels- built hundreds of years ago to protect the city, went to a small museum to learn about early Colombians and their GOLD craftsmanship, went to a local market, watched street performers, etc.  

One day, we also went to a local volcano.  Not your usual volcano, this one is full of mud!  When you visit, you walk up a rickety staircase, then into the volcano down a slippery muddy ladder.  Once in, you lay, suspended, in the mud (a really weird, but cool mud that feels almost like jello....so strange... but apparently great for your skin), then you get a small mud massage, and after that, you get to hang out in the mud for a while.  Apparently the mud goes down for about 200 meters, but you can't sink it in.  In fact, it's hard to even move around-  you almost have to rely on others to push and pull you around.

After you get out of the mud, you go down to a little lake nearby, where ladies are waiting to clean you off.  It's strange that they help clean you off, but its part of the experience, I guess.  Afterwards, fresh and clean, and super soft skin.  That was our last Cartegena activity.....onto Medillin