Ok, for those of you who are wondering why this second post took so long, please refer to the first post where we informed you that we are terrible procrastinators...
So we left off in Medellin. Medellin is, hands down (sorry Mike,) the coolest city in Colombia. We arrived just before dawn, in a state of complete and absolute delirium caused by sleep deprevity, and immediately fell in love with the green hills and red brick buildings of this city. Aside from a beach, this city has it all: a modern metro system, tons of art and cultural offerings, parks, planetariums, gardens, free outdoor movies, and a population possessing the most progressive, intelligent and friendly dispositon we´ve encountered... anywhere. It reminded us of San Francisco in that way. (I realize the picture makes the city look smogy. It´s not at all, the picture is just overexposed.)
Gondolas. These are part of the regular metro system! People actually commute to work on these. No joke.
Medellin has this ´metro culture´ thing going on that they are really proud of. They even go so far as to make announcements encouraging riders to, ¨give up your seat to the elderly and to people who look really tired,´ and to, ¨cover your mouth when you sneeze.¨ etc. Pretty cool. The metro was just awesome- it was like being in Europe. You can get anywhere quickly and cheaply.
Colombia´s national flower? The Orchid.
Fernando Botero is Colombia´s great modern painter. He paints and sculpts everything, everything, as if it were chubby. It´s done lovingly and is super charming. Look him up.
After just over a week in Medellin, we finally got the confirmation from our farm in Ecuador that we were due to arrive in a week. So, naturally, we hauled ass to Ecuador. Not without taking in at least some sights. This is Colombia´s Valle de Cocora.
Just on the other side of that valley above is the small town of Salento. It´s a quaint and relatively untainted gem.
Artsy shot in Salento. Also we had some really amazing food on this very same street. Instead of a plate, they serve you fried whole trout with beans and cheese on a huge deep fried patacon (a plantain that´s been smashed and fried) with a pineapple and tomato chutney. YUM!
In the Jungles of Valle de Cocora. (after the water took down the bridge that you had the luxury of crossing, Mikey)
On a hike in the jungle. This was one of the easy bridges- there were 7.
1 hour of trudging through mud pits, 7 makeshift bridges, and 2 tropical downpours later we arrived at the humming bird reserve- which was a big farmhouse in the middle of the jungle with a donkey, a chicken and a campesina woman. She greeted us with a big mug of hot Panela, and a huge block of campesino cheese- which we devoured while watching hundreds of humming birds fly about.
Gorgeous views on our way back from the humming bird reserve. Interestingly, the most dangerous portion of the hike. As Nico had to learn the hard way, when you´re falling into a muddy chasm, don´t reach for the barbed wire to save you. Not a Bear Grylls moment.
Views from the archeological site in Tierradentro. The bus to get here was five hours long and stupid bumpy. Imagine a bus. Now imagine that bus with square wheels. Yeah.
In the subterrenean staircase that leads down to the secret tombs of a people who lived between 600bc-900ad! They would build these staircase tunnels that led to the family tombs. Once the tomb was full they´d put a huge flat rock at the entrance to the cave and then fill the huge staircase with dirt as if nothing were down there.
Inside one of the tombs. They had some incredible paintings and holes in the ground where bodies were placed.
Our Last memory of Colombia before fast tracking it down to Ecuador. The roads had collapsed the night before and everyone was scrambling to meet their needs. Basically the bus drivers would take you as far as the landslide area, then you had to cross on your own and find a bus on the otherside to take you the rest of the way. It was hectic. It may not be PC to say, but for a moment it felt like we were refugees.
Mucho mejor si es echo en Ecuador!
SO... Ecuador is amazing! Our first night in the country, at a pizza place in a shitty little border town, we were approached by a super friendly pastor named Danny. We had this lovely conversation over dinner and then we left to go about our evening, knowing from this little interaction that things here would be different. Ecuador has a warmth, a friendliness, a culture and a curiosity that has made traveling here really wonderful.
Our beautiful house in Mindo. So we hauled ass to get out of Colombia and into Ecuador on time because we had this farm gig lined up through WWOOF just outside the capital. This was the house for all WWOOF volunteers- who, for most of our stay, was just us. There´s a little river behind the house where we did laundry Little-House-On-The-Prairie-Style and swam. We did a lot of work to fix this place up and make it homey. It was kinda hard to leave...
This was the view from our front porch. We´d do Yoga and drink coffee to this scene. Not too shabby... Once we sat in the hammock here and watched the fog roll in as night fell and the fireflies put on a light show. It was downright awful;)
Alayna (aka The Black Ninja) cutting bamboo for our dish rack.
Our bestest friends... :D
The Eco- Hostal we were working at. The hostal and the entire property were very pretty, you would never know that this whole area was infested with tirelessly bloodthirsty bitting flies. Evil bichos! Aside from battling the flies and other nefarious insects, we worked here. Sort of. We practiced zen by painting the sauna purple one day, letting the rain wash it away the next, then painting it purple again the next day, just to have the rain wash it away. Again. And again. For five days. We also did our damnedest to start populating the green house with little seedlings. We do hope somebody is watering them... In spite of all this, we enjoyed ourselves immensely and look forward to the next WWOOFing experience.
Well. This was a little awkward. Shouldn´t he be seranading me with the guitar...?
Artsy Shot of Elvis. (I actually worried for a minute that something might have happened between those two when I browsed through the photos on Nico´s camera and saw that there were like, 50, of these black and white artsy shots of Elvis. )
Rule no. 1 at the farm house: if you dont have it, hack down some bamboo and make it! Eco-Dishrack available now for 4 easy payments and one really, really hard payment.
Artsy shot of our living room, with the patio, driveway and yard in the reflection.
After two weeks on the farm, we decided it was only fair to treat ourselves to a week on the beach to warm up and recover from our million bug bites. This is sunset from our balcony in Canoa. Because it was low-season in terms of tourism, we got this amazing room in a hotel that would otherwise be way beyond our budget. It also meant we essentially had the whole town, beach and waves included, to ourselves.
Yup... Just us.
Our neighbors on the beach.
This was an awsomely unexpected day on a different beach. A bunch of us packed into a VW van, bought beers, potatoes, platanos and fish, and drove to this glittery black sand beach. Awesomely, this little hut was just here waiting for us. Look at this bbq!!
Black Sand Beach . Playa Negra. This sand weighs a ton.
So Rustic! Check out that plating! This fish, which was swimming in the ocean just a couple hours prior to this, was smothered in ginger and lemon juice and tossed over a fire. How sweet is that!?! Daily life needs more of this. (Check out how that sand glitters!)
Animal Market in the indiginous town of Otavalo. Simultaneoulsy the cutest and most tragic of events: while the indigenous bartered among one another using guinea pigs, the baby chicks chirped their happy little hearts out in complete ignorance of the fate of their happy little farm friends... and their own.
A sweet shot of the Otavaleñas in their traditional dress, selling their wares at the market.
Sqiggly pink potatoes. Gotta get us some of these at home.
This was the at the animal market in Otavalo. Notice the kitten on her shoulder- unfortunately not a staple of the traditional dress.
Quito- Capital of Ecuador. For some reason a lot of people have told us to straight up pass on Quito. We´re not sure why cause we are loving it. (I screamed like a girl for the 2nd time in my life when I saw that our hostel has a Super Nintendo.)
Another panorama of Quito. In the mornings, when the sky is really blue you would swear that the hill with the angel is painted into the landscape.
So for now we´re settled in Quito and enjoying once again the big city energy. In a few days, we´ll be continuing south-ish on our march towards Peru. First stop along the way: Parque Nacional Cotopaxi...
The blog: a shining example of our predisposition for procrastination, is one such thing.
The name: well, this may have been one of the hardest parts. We decided on learning curves y tal y tal (and this and that) becuase of a very astute piece of advice from a good friend, and fellow traveler. He said, ` dont be too hard on yourselves and allow yourselves a little learning curve, because you wont get it right away.´
Three weeks actually... it took about three weeks, a battle with diharrea, a 24 hour bus ride, 6 days of non-stop rain, lugging our backpacks full of drenched clothes and boots, throwing up from malaria meds, being eaten alive by mosquitos, cooking pasta in the dark over a fire, decending a muddy mountain on horseback, the ruins of a pre-colmbian town, gorgeous beaches and a few loving arguments to find ourselves finally begining to feel at ease with the lifestyle- and seriously having fun!!
The pictures: You have no idea how long it took to get these up. TREASURE THEM!
Bogotá, the capital of Colombia. Alright. Day One: Rain. Days Two thru Seven: More Rain. This pic right here pretty much sums up our time in Bogotá
Comida Corriente. This is how Colombians eat. It's an offering of three courses, starting with soup, a drink, a massive plate of food, and a dessert. All this for $3.50! Notice soups please: one has french fries in it, and the other has a massive Thor-style chicken hammer. Mmmm.
About a two hours outside of Bogotá, in the town of Zipaquira, there's a cathedral built entirely of salt, in a salt mine, underground. It was pretty cool. Here's a picture of Alayna asking herself if she should lick the walls, or just take the tour guides word that they're entirely salt.
After a week in Bogotá, we needed a break from the rain so we went north to warmer climes. We ended up camping for a couple days at a national park called Parque Tairona. The park was super beautiful and exactly the escape from cold city life we needed. This is a pic of Alayna on a hike we took to the ruins of a pre-Colombian settlement within the park. The hike into the town is a two-hour long climb up an ancient stone-layed pathway. And then it rained.
We rode horses! Down a narrow, muddy, mountain path! How frikkin' cool is that!?!
Our campsite.
One of many beautiful beaches in Parque Tairona.
Believe it or not this is our tent... in the middle of the night!
Lunch. Just before Nick filleted him and fried him with a lighter on a pocket knife... Bear Grylls style. This little guy, packed as he is with protein, kept me going all day;) (Dont worry Ray, he was recently dead when we found him.)
Hiking in the Park.
Tiny place called Taganga. Nice, but really popular with tourists. The best thing about this place was the free breakfasts at our hostel, and playing dominoes with one of the local kids. The views aren't bad either.
Sunset in Taganga
Taganga and Santa Marta were incredibly windy places. We had a really nice time trying to cook a meal on the rooftop kitchen of our hostel.
Ok, Jugos Naturales-this is Alayna's thing here. Almost on any street corner, and certainly in every restaurant you can get these natural juices made from ice, cold water, and a fresh fruit that they cut into only after youve ordered. All this is blended and at once (for about one dollar) you get incredible soothies made from Mora, Pineapple, Banana, Strawberry, and a bunch of exotic fruits we'd never seen before! Below are just a few of these, but there are at least half a dozen more...
After leaving Taganga we headed to Cartagena de Indias, a super nice colonial town from the old days, and probably the most famous city in Colombia.
This clock tower marked the entrance to the "Ciudad Murallada:" the oldest part of town that was completely encircled by massive walls to prevent attacks from pirates.
Deep inside the tunnels of the Castillo outside the walled city. These tunnels went so deep that water from the bay seeped through all the earth and filled some tunnels to the point where we couldn't even enter them. There were bats, creepy echoes and flickering light bulbs... but it wasn´t scary tho. Seriously guys, it wasn´t.
View from the Muralla
Typical street within the walled city. They say it's the best preserved colonial city on the continent.
Best Hommade Meal Yet! Fish tacos, mango salsa, cilantro slaw, and the biggest muther of an avocado you've ever seen! Look at that thing! It's HUGE!
In a lot of the colonial parts of Colombia you get this really awesome effect of bright colored buildings deteriorating and exposing their previous colors, giving you this vibrant mix of old and new. Homies on motorcycles wearing complementary, neon-colored muscle shirts is a separate phenomenon.
Obligatory model pose coming out of the mud volcano.
It's the weirdest feeling. It's like a mix of floating and drowning:) They say this stuff is really good for your skin. Apparently the guy groping Alayna was 90!
The mud volcano. Soooo janky!
Alayna, stuffing her face with patacones. An everyday ritual.
Walking in Mompos one day, this guy asked us to take his picture with him and his friends. He had some cool mermaid tats but with the dog in the picture you can't really see them.
What used to be the main port of Mompos, a completely unique and sleepy old town on an island in the middle of a muddy river.
STREET FOOD!
The only way to really describe Mompos is to to tell you that its the kind of place that inspired the towns in some of the books by Gabriel Garcia Marquez. It was a much needed break from the hustle of big cities.
Cemetary in Mompos.
Kids playing at night in front of one of Mompos' seven churches.
Mompos is well known for its traditional work in Filigree, so we went to visit the school and later the workshop where established filigree artists work. I love the simplicity of the workspace...I bought earrings and a ring from them:)
View of Old Mompos from the clock tower. Very folkloric.
