Colonial towns and Adventure Time

San Felipe de Barajas fort

Here we are on the montha-versary of our South American adventure! We are rolling along, thoroughly enjoying our time here in Colombia and not particularly fussed at our slower pace.

So, how are we doing so far?

Hostels checked in to: 11

Flights: 1

Hours on buses (apx): 38

Walking tours: 3

Games of Crazy 8s played: 6

Bug bites: Too many to count

Jelly fish stings: 5

Books read: 3.5

Items left behind: 4 (sunglasses, bandana, bodyscrub, socks).

Colombian beers tried: 7 (Toucan wins so far)

Sun burns: 2 (never Brian!)

Grocery shopping fails: 1. When the package says salsa tomate, this is not to be literally translated as tomato sauce. Turns out Colombia sells herb ketchup. Not a great choice for pasta dinner. :(

Chewable Pepto tablets used: 18

Popular veggie street foods: 3. Arepa, a round pancake looking corn bread: arepa con queso, arepa chocolo (surprise- chocolo is cheese, augh!); empanada con queso, tamales.

Favourite juices: 2. Guarapo juice- lime and sugar cane, and narajana

Cats and dogs we're coming back for to take home: 22

Old Cartagena

After leaving off in Minca, we made our way west down the coast to the colonial gem of a city, Cartagena, and our Papaya Hostel. We were warned how hot this city was, but it was really, really, HOT. Sit still and melt into a puddle hot. (Not that we're complaining!). It's a walled city on coast, with plenty of colourful colonial architecture. We stayed in the Getsemani barrio (neighbourhood), which had a happening little square outside of the Holy Trinity Church. It was a bustling little corner with food vendors, a corner store selling beer, buskers, musicians, all under the shadow of a giant cone shaped Christmas tree. It was a lovely place for people watching, with old men playing chess or dominoes, kids running around, and young and old enjoying their cheap beers on the steps. We checked out San Felipe de Barajas, which is an old fort that was built by the Spanish to protect the city from English pirates back in the day, and got to explore some of the tunnels down below. Lucky for us we met a friendly Italian lady, Margeau who helped us with some translation so we could understand more of the tour. Mostly we just wandered here, explored the streets and enjoyed the views.

Día de las velitas

There is a celebration that happens every December 8^th here, which is the Festival of Little Candles. It's in celebration of Mary's immaculate conception, and was the answer to why vendors were all over the city selling packages of colourful.... little candles. “Vela, vela, vela, vela!!!!!” Candles, candles, candles, candles!!! Come and get 'em! We stayed an extra day here to be able to see the streets lit up, but mostly it was a quiet celebration on the curbside outside people's homes, which you had to head out after midnight to see. Brian woke up at 4:30 and we wandered outside for a short walk to check it out. Anddd back to bed.

Amidst the goings on here, we were terribly saddened to hear of the loss of a very dear person in Brian's life. Jim was a wonderful soul and is very much in our and hearts as we carry on our journeys. To Becky, Stacey, and the Green family, know that you are in our thoughts always and send all of our good vibes and love to you in these difficult days. We love you Jim! Xoxo

The end of the Camino Real, the sleepy town of Guane

Next stop was a 12 hour bus ride away (complete with 5 different dubbed movies!) heading inland into the mountains to the adventure town of San Gil. (Note: Buses in Colombia are inexplicably freeeezing! Always wear all layers you possibly can.) It was a much different feel here from the coast, a town built in the valley along the San Blas River, with terra cotta roofs and steep streets. Our hostel, El Dorado was a nice enough spot, and very close to the main square. We loved the Christmas lights in the centre square outside the Cathedral- white water rafting Santa, Rappelling goats, and tobacco farmers- it was a bright happy place to be.

We went out our first day on a little tour to hike and rappel down two different waterfalls. It also included 2 very high plunges (13 and 22 ft) into the river pools below. It was a reminder of getting older... I never used to feel this afraid of these things! The rappels were terrific of course, and gave us a beautiful sight-line of the valley. We were happy to see a Basilisk lizard (the kind that run on water), and beautiful trees covered in a beardy moss. 

Our next days were bound to the beautiful colonial town of Barichara, where we hiked the 6km Camino Real trail to the even smaller colonial town of Guane. There are many fossils discovered here, and I learned that Ammons have a fossil named after us... Ammonites- it's true! I ventured out one afternoon on a paragliding adventure, and was up in the air for a glorious 20 minutes riding the thermals above the Chichamocha mountains. We'll get Bri up there on the next one! :) And our last day in Santander region was out to the river for a swim in Pescaradito near yet another purdy colonial town of Curití.

We left this lovely place on an overnight (freezing) bus ride through winding mountain roads to Medellin. Time to rock the city life...

What it's all aboooot

On the move- almost Christmas!