Author: Ana and Joe

Colombia Travel Recommendations

Just wanted to put all of the bullet points in one place for future traveler use!

  1. Check if you’ll be there during any festivals
  2. Don’t hesitate ever to reach out for clarification/run plans by me/anything. There are no dumb questions about Colombia and I’m always willing to talk about it
  3. DISFRUTEN!! (Enjoy!!)

Medellin

  • Escaleras Electrónicos y Graffiti Tour
  • El cielo experimental chemical gastronomy (i think that’s what it’s called- fancy tasting menu that’s like $300 in states and $60 here)  kitchen hiring desmovilizados
  • Parque Arvi – take cable car to get there and wander around. Have to pay for some of the hikes but you can go to Chorro Clarin waterfall for free
  • Alambique – modern twist on colombian food. Bit more expensive but delicious – get the cheese stuffed avo’s wrapped in bacon
  • Rio Claro national park next to Medellin
  • Free walking tour – awesome. So worth it to do in the first day or so of being there
  • Sloth sanctuary en antioquia (never went here lol just heard of it)
  • Ajiacos y mondongos in Poblado (only open for lunch) – Restaurant suggestion from Laura with famous ppl signing wall & good bandeja paisa in a bowl (idk name). Order Ajiaco
  • Guatape day trip – easy to bus to and from in a day
    • I would go earlier in the day rather than later. Going to Guatape there are two main attractions: the rock (La Piedra) and the town (Guatape). The rock should be your first stop. When the bus drops you off people will try to get you into their tuk tuk (rickshaw) and you can either take a ~$3 ride up the hill to the base of the rock or just walk (the walk isn’t that bad). Then you pay the entrance fee and climb the famous stairs. Hang out there for a bit, have fruit and a beer and come back down. Then you actually want to hop in one of the tuk tuks to have them take you to the town, Guatape. All of the tuk tuks should have a list price in their little cab for how much it costs from the rock to town. Make sure you check this before you start going and agree on that price. When you get to town, especially if it’s a busy day, you should go to the bus station and snag return tickets home that should be time stamped (they have busses leaving every 30 minutes or so) just to be sure the time you want doesn’t fill up. Then do your exploring and hang and eat. The bus back to Medellin will pick you up from the bus station in Guatape at the time you bought the ticket (they run pretty on time so just be aware). 
  • Jardin – smaller town 4-5 hrs away, worth it if you have a night to stay there
  • Stay in Poblado
  • Wander around Laureles neighborhood
  • Mirador Pueblito Paisa
  • Lala’s cafe in poblado has the best smoothie I’ve maybe ever had in my life and super cheap breakfast – “arandano” is smoothie
  • Cafe zorba – cool vibes/good drinks/great pizza if you’re tired of traditional food
  • Coffee – Hija Mia, Pergamino
  • Must wander around calle 10 at night weekend, even if tired (!!!) super fun. If up for going out, I fell in love with Vintrash
  • Blackpine hostel – nice and decent breakfast, just further from popping area if you’re alone and want to be in more populated area coming to and from at night. 
  • Pueblo Urrao – suggested to us from local, windy/scary bus ride cute pueblo outside medellin
  • Black and white festival in Pasto
  • Abejorral pueblo and La Peña Hostal – Amazing rock climbing hostel on the side of a beautiful mountain, Wilmer (owner guy) takes you rappelling and rock climbing. Bus ride outside city, worth a night or two for full effect. Has absurdly beautiful showers. 

Bogotá

  • Testigo Conflict picture exhibit!
  • Cyclovia – Sundays one huge street closes down for walking/biking and it’s PACKED, cool to see
  • Usaquen flea market on Saturdays/Sundays (I think both days I don’t remember)
  • Roscones dessert wrapped bread – can get them filled with arequipe (dulce de leche)
  • Mercado paloquemao – go on saturday if possible
  • Varietale coffee – Candelaria
  • Testigo Conflict picture exhibit! ONLY OPEN UNTIL OCT 20 – MUST GO
  • Usaquen flea market on Saturdays mostly arts stuff
  • Parque 93
  • Parque virrey – good for running
  • Azahar coffee shop (nice couch in corner for hours) by Parque 93
  • Mono bandido for colombian craft beer
  • Hostel Alegria (never stayed there but had two separate friends stay there for love it)
  • Lechona (stuffed and roasted pig – can find at paloquemao)
  • Hike Monserrate- totally worth it to brave those stairs
  • Andres Carne de Res – SUPER famous colombian typical food. Go just for best mojito of your life and ecsentric environment
  • Puerta falsa for hot chocolate with cheese (typical colombian thing to melt cheese into hot chocolate)

Outside of Bogotá

Cafetero Region (In between Cali and Medellin)

  • Filandia – town is so cute. Weirdly amazing thai restaurant with a beautiful hillside view. One of the best restaurants in coffee region also called Helena Adentro (DELICIOUS). 
    • Muy Chacho hostel – must stay there and do coffee tour offered by their neighbor (One man coffee farm and old operation, cool to see difference between this and major production like Ocaso)
  • Salento
    • Ocaso coffee farm tour
    • Hostel Yambolombia has a horse that acts like a dog and it’s hilarious, out of the town and beautiful view
  • Manizales is cool university city town that’s underrated – fun to see if you have a lot of time, not worth it if you’re short on time

Pacific Coast (We didn’t end up going, these are the notes I had written from other sources)

  • To get there, must fly from MDE or QUIBDO to Bahia Solano – no buses to that region. Still a little more dangerous.
  • Utria National Park
  • Surf – Near Nuqui, Humpback Turtle Hostel (Surf lessons and turtle hatchery tour)
  • Hot Spring Termales – 1 hr beach walk from Playa Gauchalito
  • Playa Gauchalito – 2 hours south of Nuqui by boat – black sand beach 
    • El Cantil Ecolodge
  • El valle – place to start jungle hikes

Amazonas

Cali

  • Free walking tour
  • Rio Pance – river close to cali
  • San Cipriano – small town, tubing in river, weird old transportation system
  • Lago Calima – kite surfing, definitely a few days/expensive 
  • Somewhere by Cali there’s a super long zipline- didn’t do it but sounded cool

Santander Region

  • San Gil
    • Las Gachas Red River (like Caño Cristales, depends on timing when you go)
    • Paragliding over Parque Chicamocha (AMAZING)
    • Rafting in Rio Suarez (AMAZING)
    • Waterfall rappelling down Juan Curi waterfall
  • Bucaramanga – closest city/airport. Not much to do there I don’t think
  • Barichara
    • Super cute small town a pretty drive 45 min from San GIl
    • Eat ants (random and popular cultural thing for this town, just do it)
    • Nice small textile shops for gifts

Barranquilla

Caribbean Coast Region: Palomino

  • River that runs into the ocean for tubing through jungle, about 3-4 hrs in relaxing tube. Definitely worth it to go with guide to relax/they do the hard part and keep you out of the weedz/trees
  • Dreamer Hostel – Super nice pool area and good bfast
  • Dreamer and Tiki Hut hostel – best infrastructure in town from what we saw
  • La Sierrita eco tours (recommended to us but didn’t end up using it for river rafting, just went with guide from Dreamer Hostel and it was great)

Carribbean Coast Region: Other

  • La Guajira – desert next to the ocean with Wayuu indigenous tribe living there. Beautiful sand dune cliffs that end with ocean. Takes time to get there but heard it was amazing. Check safety re it being so close to Venezuela
  • Ciudad Perdido Trek  (The lost city) – 4-6 day hike, need to go with tour group (most are all inclusive w/shelter/food) Didn’t do this

Carribbean Coast Region: Tayrona

  • Cabo San Juan (place in park where camping is closest to the beach, can sleep in hammocks on top of rock above the ocean. Amazing)
  • Costeño beach-hostel in town next to tayrona, supposedly good surfing

Carribbean Coast Region: Santa Marta

  • Rodadero Beach (Public, people selling stuff but can get cheap massage on beach)
  • Not a ton to do here in town

Carribbean Coast Region: Minca

  • Casa Loma Minca-  Hostel in town. Don’t stay in hammocks- bugs. Stay in actual rooms
  • Also Hostel Elemento with huge hammock, way further outside of town than Casa Loma Minca but I’ve heard it’s also beautiful

Carribbean Coast Region:

Information that may or may not be helpful to take it or leave it– We had 6 days to explore the Caribbean coast (other than Cartagena) and this was out itinerary, worked out well!

Cartagena:

Food

  • Stepping stone Australian (homeboy ish brunch place)
  • Trataría (pasta and pizza in Getsemani) 
  • Kioska la mulata traditional food Cartagena – delicious!! 
  • La Cevichería (Anthony bourdain fav) – delicious
  • La Paleteria – delicious
  • Gelateria paradiso
  • Ábaco libros y cafe
  • Pris pri cafe
  • Espíritu Santo (rec from tour guide)
  • Interno (women’s jail restaurant) – make reservations before online, totally worth it
  • La Esquina de Pandebono 
  • San Valentín 
  • La casa de socorro
  • Cocina de pepino (tiny restaurant in getsemani- delicious went with joe’s rents)
  • Las indias lunch (tour guide rec. Michelin Star)

To Do

  • Chiva bus at night to party
  • cooking school Cartagena
  • Plankton tour at night
  • reserve yellow free walking tour
  • Sunday night at 8 plaza Trinidad in getsemani
  • Fort tour/visit? Castillo de San Felipe de Barajas
  • Sunset at café Del Mar (more expensive drinks, can also just buy a beer from someone selling on street and sit on wall)
  • Mercado de Bazurto- cheap lunch and fruits
  • Parque del Centenario (right outside walled city, can see monkeys and sloths) 
  • Las bóvedas (old jail now market, find the artisanal fair trade indigenous store in there)
  • San Pedro de Claver church 
  • Convento de la popa (highest point in Cartagena)

Night

  • Quienracanto
  • Café Havana salsa 
  • Bazurto social club

Beach options

  • Playa blanca (not island, 1 hr by boat or by bus). Touristy and more crowded but still pretty and can walk farther for privacy. 
  • If you have one beach day, do the day out to island – Isla del Encanto was nice resort we went to 

San Andres Island:

  • Must fly here (duh, it’s an island)
  • Rocky Cay – Beach. Can walk out to island in shallow water
  • Sprat Bight – main crowded beach
  • La Piscinita – best snorkeling from shore, west side of island
  • San Luis Cove – Quiet beach more south of rocky cay. Restaurant area near Johnny Cay, more calm than San Andres town
  • Johnny Cay & Rose Cay – Boat trip to other islands for 30 mil with Blue Almond Hostel. Cheap so crowded usually but supposedly beautiful, didn’t do this
  • El Acuario & Haynes Cay – Easy snorkeling from the beach, Bibi’s restaurant on the inlet
  • Rent bike/golf cart & take full loop around island. 
  • Visit La Loma small town to see church
  • El Hoyo Soplador – Kind of like a geyser but with ocean wave- hilarious
  • Kayak Mangrove in clear kayak, snorkel with EcoFiwi
  • Providencia island Catamaran tour ($)
  • Snorkeling off shore day trips – Caribe Extremo o San Andres Diving and Fishing
    • San Andres Diving and Fishing – also great reviews
      • 85 mil – 3 spots (shipwreck one of them), 3 hours
      • 50 mil – 1 spot and shallow water to practice, 1.5 hrs
    • Caribe Extremo – about 70 mil for 10 min out, hr snorkeling, 10 min back, amazing reviews about help, one spot
  • Shopping lol no tax on the island

The End (for now)!

6/6 Lookout in Medellin with Cata (one of Joe’s best friends from Georgetown and one of our shared best friends from JVC) and her partner, Eugene. Spent a few days with them exploring and dancing.
6/9 Leaving Medellin for the final time and vowing to be back one day!
6/10 San Andres, an Island off the coast of Nicaragua, is actually Colombian territory and totals 10 square miles in area. We rented a gold cart and spent a day stopping at random points along the island to swim, snorkel and jump off cliffs.
6/10 Some of the prettiest water we’ve ever seen
6/10 There was a cop stationed at this sign that we were convinced was
more a photographer than protector. Convenient!
6/10
6/11 Spent day two doing the same stop and go around the island but this time on motor bikes. Ana was ecstatic because driving a bike had been on her Colombia Bucket List. Joe was slightly more nervous…
6/11
6/11 Joe found an “ice cream truck” on the boardwalk which was essentially a leaf
blower engine and a soft serve machine. Good ice cream though!
6/12 Leaving San Andres Island truly seeing the “Sea of Seven Colors” nickname
6/13 Plaza Bolívar in downtown Bogotá with Cata and Eugene. Watching people let pigeons land on their heads in this square will never get old.
6/14 Daniela’s Med School graduation celebration with Laura (left) and Daniela (right), Ana’s cousins in Bogotá.
6/17 Last night in Colombia 😦 Finally got a picture with the infamous Nelly, Ana’s great aunt and our Colombian mom while traveling.
6/17 Many many tears saying bye to this family
6/18 Overnight flight to Mexico City for the last two weeks of the travel adventure!
6/18 Kekas, corn dough stuffed with meat/cheese, folded and fried. Delicious. Just the beginning of the constant and mouth watering adventures that were Mexico City street food.
6/18 Zócalo Plaza in Downtown Mexico City. The largest plaza in Latin America! Mexico City was originally built on a lake so as time has progressed, the city is sinking. One of the places this is very obvious is inside the churches, floors are on an angle and there are cracks in some of the original buildings.
6/19 We saw so people walking around Mexico City with these blue and white patterned boxes that we had to ask a random person where they were from. Found a warehouse sized bakery.
6/19 And ate everything.
6/19 Palacio De Bellas Artes, before a Ballet Folklorico show
6/19 Palacio de Bellas Artes is famous for their curtain, as in people pay for tickets to events just to see the curtain. Made by Tiffany in 1912, it is made of a million 2cm crystals in a mosaic and totals 24 tons.
6/19 Cactus, onions, French fries, chorizo. Thank you Señor Jesus with the stand on the corner by the metro station.
6/20 Teotihuacan ruins north of Mexico City. Standing on top of the Pyramid of the Moon with the long avenue and Pyramid of the Sun in the background.
6/20 The cloak of Guadalupe in Cathedral de Guadalupe- definitely worth wikipedia searching the story behind this cloak. We were confused why this was the second most visited church in the world behind the Vatican until we searched the story!
6/20 This taco place called Orinoco was one of the only non-street tacos we ate, solely because of the “Especial.” The Especial is the quesadilla looking item to the left, grilled with cheese, meat, avocado, onions, cilantro, etc. I will dream about the Especial until I die. The woman to the left in the picture also told us that the Al Pastor (The shwarma style meat on the stick) was just what they will go through in ONE DAY. Madness.
6/20 Decided we were still hungry after tacos so ran through the rain to El Moro for churros, they did not disappoint
6/21 Elote is a type of corn on the cob that is covered in mayo, cheese and chili. A little too much mayo for Ana but she still ate the whole thing. Then her knee was pooped on by a bird.
6/21 Too hungry and sweaty to be bothered.
6/21 La Casa Azul, the museum in Frida Kahlo’s house
6/21 At a Lucha Libre fight. Kind of like a dramatic, Mexican WWE. Masks were the best $2 we spend! (Besides the tacos and the Pulque Mexican alcohol we bought before the fight. )
6/23 Flew from Mexico City to Tuxla Gutiérrez then bused to San Cristobal de las Casas, the city in southern Mexico where Joe studied abroad while at Georgetown. Spent the first day in San Cristobal on a day trip to Agua Azul (above), the Palenque ruins and the Misol Ha waterfall.
6/23 Agua Azul – a teal river with a series of swimming holes
6/23 Palenque ruins. Walked inside a ruler’s residence area, heard about human sacrifices and saw a stand up women’s bathroom. Palenque was situated on a hill and the land is flat from here to Tabasco so they could see invaders coming from incredibly far away.
6/23 Cachete (Cheek) tacos!!
6/24 Chiles Rellenos cooking class. Spent two hours in the market with an expert and teacher before even starting the four hour cooking process.
6/24 Happy chefs
6/24 Stuffed, floured, dipped in peaked egg whites, fried
6/24 Extravagant and delicious finished products: Avocado, Cilantro tomatillo rice, Tuna and tomato onion stuffed Jalepeño, Oaxaca cheese stuffed Ancho pepper with sautéed onions, Pork chicken vegetable stuffed and fried poblano pepper
6/24 View from one of the churches on a hill in San Cristobal de las Casas
6/24 Went to dinner the last night with Elena and Fernando, two of Joe’s advisers and friends from his research when studying abroad. Incredible for Joe to see them again and for Ana to understand why Joe felt so welcomed when living there.
6/24 Fernando was very excited to take pics of us eating tripe (intestine), seso (brain) and suadero (breast)
6/25 Joe went back to his school to see Elena presenting her final research presentation for her PhD in nutrition
6/27 After flying from Tuxla Gutiérrez to Cancun, we spent our one day in Cancun (all inclusive paradise) on a catamaran boat from Cancun to Isla Mujeres, snorkeling and drinking free drinks (basically a teaspoon of vodka and orange soda, switched to free waters after 3 hours in the hot sun). Saw some beautiful Coral and met new friends from Iowa who is now Ana’s penpal.
6/27 Constantly looking for a way to get a model shot in
6/27 Activity on the Catamaran which was basically a sail with a towel to sit on that you could backflip off of
6/28 All of the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico used to be a coral reef before the last ice age. When it reformed, it left freshwater rivers running under the peninsula with limestone tunnels. Some of the rivers have developed openings in the earth over time called Cenotes. We spent two days in a rental car driving from Cenote to Cenote, swimming and admiring how different each one was. Joe had visited some of the cenotes and ruins on the peninsula before as a road trip with his friends while abroad so we jsut picked his favorites.
6/28 Cenote that we were lowered down into with a harness that was filled with bats and baby catfish. Ana discovered her fear of being in a cave alone this day.
6/28 You can barely see Joe at the bottom of the ladder
6/29 Exploring Chichen Itza, huge pyramid and spread of varying Mayan ruins. Actually one of the places Ana has wanted to see since learning about it in every Spanish class ever.
6/29 House Hunters International Edition!!
6/29 The entire peninsula was HAWT so A/C was necessary. The Tulum hostel’s AC worked well but dripped an extreme amount of condensation. Here’s problem solver Joe placing all of the small vessels we could find to collect water.
6/30 Tulum Ruins, one of the only ruins along the coast. One building in the ruins was built with specific patterns so that when early hurricane strength winds pass through, they create a loud sound. This system is still used to alert local communities of hurricane danger. CRAZY
6/30 Gran Cenote with turtles and two different caves to swim into
6/31 Spent the last three days in Bacalar, a lagoon town almost on the border of Belize. The lagoon has Estromatolitos (Stromatolites in English) which are layered rocks created over millions of years by photosynthetic bacteria. The bacteria filter the water, creating a freshwater lagoon that looks like a Caribbean ocean. Spent the first morning doing a sunrise paddle board tour, we have no pics of that so here’s Joe famished after 3 hours of activity and no breakfast by 9am.
7/1 Bacalar Lagoon
7/1 #ModelingInMexico2019
7/2 The last morning of our travels- strong coffee and strange yet delicious breakfast
7/2 Shirtless, smiling and sweating at the rental car return, Joe’s norm for the 90 degree, 100% humidity weather
7/2 Had to return the rental car at 5pm, our flight was at 5am the next morning and Cancun hostels were about a 45 minute bus from the airport. Soooo, we just slept on the floor of the Cancun airport, good AC and honestly pretty quiet. 10/10 on TripAdviser for a “No other options, just want to get 4 hours” night sleep. Highly recommend.
Arrived safely home only to be dragged behind a boat. We’re feeling strange, lucky to be home and so incredibly grateful for the adventures.
And now we are moving to Philly! Cheesesteaks, easy family bonding and a new city to explore for a year or two while we figure out grad school next steps. Thanks for reading but mostly looking at the pretty pics. Until next time!!

Part 4!

4/25 Villa de Leyva. Small Colonial town outside of Bogotá, famous
for having beautiful outdoors and one of the largest central plazas in the Americas
4/26 Paso De Angel Hike. Basically tiny walkway with river on one side and canyon on the other. NBD
4/26 Cascada El Hayal in Villa de Leyva
4/26 Joe was not so secretly on high alert for jaguars on the jungle hike down to the bottom of the falls
4/28 Cali! Finally in the birthplace of Salsa dancing. The night out salsa dancing was beautiful, we have absolutely no idea how feet can move so fluidly and fast-paced without tripping over everything. The days are pretty well summed up by this photo of us eating a full meal in a restaurant recommended to us from someone who lives in Cali, located in the back of a parking lot.
4/29 Bused from Cali to a ticket office on the side of the road to Buenaventura, bought tickets for the
“Brujitas” and arrived in the jungle village of San Cipriano. Found directions to this tiny mountain town
on two blogs online, they all said once you had your ticket and saw the long bridge, you’d made it.
4/29 Next step to arrive at San Cipriano… Brujitas! San Cipriano is a village jungle-locked and abandoned train tracks hold the key to the sole made of transportation to and from the village. Wooden platforms sit on top of the tracks as a motorbike sits with it’s front wheel on the platform, back wheel on the train track. Powering the motorbike propells you forward for the 30 minute trip as you sit on your bench and actively try to not swallow a kilogram of bugs.
4/29 According to the blogs we read, the locals in the small village will offer to
guide you through the jungle to waterfalls. It worked!
4/29 Brujitas unfortunately don’t come with solid rain cover, we arrived back to the highway soaked. One woman with her infant behind us just placed her baby face down on her lap and covered her with a small blanket and then a plastic tarp. Improvisation!!
5/1 After Cali we took a bus north to a small town called Salento in the Zona Cafetera aka Coffee Region! The first tour with Finca El Ocaso was a well established, self sustainable coffee farm. Here’s Joe in the middle of the coffee plants smelling everything.
5/1 Our harvests in the traditional baskets used to collect the yellow and red coffee fruit! He got more but the guide said “Quality over quantity” when she saw my basket, you decide who wins.
5/1 This machine removes the red and yellow outer casing of the fruit, revealing the bean covered in a fruity tasting film that is then fermented to remove the film, dried in the sun, and then roasted. All parts vary in time/method depending on the type of coffee flavor desired.
5/1
5/2 The hostel owners in Salento had a horse that thought it was a dog, nuzzled right into your shoulder
5/2 Valle De Cocora is covered in Wax Palms, the world’s tallest palm trees! Honestly, looked to us like a scene from the cheesy “Oh, the Places You’ll Go” Dr. Suess book that every human has received for a graduation present.
If you are actually taking the time to read all of this, wow. Thank you. Hi mom!
Also, PLEASE vote on who makes a better palm below.
(Unfortunately, I can’t add voting into a wordpress blog so just let us know back in the US.)
5/2 La Casa de Colibri, or the Hummingbird House, in the Valle de Cocora.
Who knew iPhone shot slow motion hummingbird videos could be so entertaining?
5/3 Next stop in Zona Cafetera was another small town, Filandia (Ana for a while was confusing this with Finlandia so people were confused when we told them we were going to Finland next. Spanish is hard.) Our hostel was outside the town and it’s neighbor, Alfredo, owned and self-operated a coffee farm of about 300 coffee plants. For about 6 US dollars, Alfredo lead us to a waterfall on his property, back through a river, explained the bean to cup coffee process, and fed us a huge lunch. Here’s our new friend Lizzie with a potato rock.
5/3 Double waterfall thanks to Alfredo
5/3 Hand sifting the dried casing from the beans
5/3 Teaching us how to roast the beans over his stove
5/3 Hand grinding the roasted beans
5/3 Family photo! This was after the chicken ran away during lunch and
Alfredo’s wife ran after it threatening being part of the lunch
5/3 Alfredo ready for retail!
5/3 “The best restaurant in the Zona Cafetera” definitely lived up to it’s name for a nice treat.
Don’t be fooled, most the time traveling we eat rice, eggs, and sometimes zuchini.
5/5 Next we went to Manizales, a larger university city. Met up with Israel and Diana, our friends from the WorkAway at Al Bosque, and dragged Lizzie along with us. Thankful for the random couple behind us who wanted in.
5/5 Us five then ventured to Recinto de Pensamiento, a nature park with a ski lift, butterfly house and bonsai trees
5/5 Joe spitting on his fingers and trying to get the butterflies to land on him. Surprisingly, it eventually worked
5/6 Thermal pools @ Termales El Otoño where we basically had the fancy resort to ourselves on a Monday afternoon
5/6 The rolling green hills of this region definitely topped Ana’s favorite Colombian landscapes list
5/7 Joe making friends (??) with the tiny dog at the tienda next to Ana’s family’s house in Bogotá
5/9 Arrival of Mara (Ana’s little sister), Nikki (Ana’s childhood best friend),
Alexa and Eric (Nikki’s friends from work) to Bogotá!
5/10 Barrio Egipto Tour of a neighborhood in Bogotá that was very dangerous and now has a program with the university next door that offers free classes, tour guide job opportunity, day care and preschool services, etc. The english speaking tour guide was doing a presentation on their program in the Netherlands so Joe translated. Go Joe!
5/10 Mara in the children’s park that now connects and revitalizes a previously
dangerous corridor between two old rival gang neighborhoods
5/11 Eating Tamal, a corn flour, chicken, chickpea, veggie dish cooked in banana leaves at Paloquemao
5/11 Lechona at Paloquemao Market, essentially pig that is stuffed with an entire meal, roasted, and tastes amazing
5/11 Ana and Mara overlooking Bogotá after Teleferico (Cable Car) ride to the top of Monserrate
5./11 Andres Carne de Res for drinks and dinner. Joe and Mara really loved cheers-ing the chicken
5/14 Beach day to tiny island
5/15 With the departure of Mara, Nikki and Alexa came the arrival of the McDonald/Madden clan!
Joe’s parents, Gina and Mike, Joe’s brother, Tommy, and his grandmother, Jojo, all arrived to Cartagena!
5/16 A happy birthday celebration for Ana (that was actually just a pre-planned
beach day for Joe’s fam but Ana pretended it was an official welcome to mid-20’s party)
5/16 Runs in the family
5/18 From Cartagena to Medellin to take selfies with a metal bench in the metro station. Not pictured here and never to be mentioned again: the presumed lost passport in the Cartagena airport that was then found at Medellin Airbnb and the near heart attacks that resulted from this event.
5/18 Joe’s Dad and his new best friend at the metro cable car station
  • Who wore it better? … Jojo
  • Or Mike??
5/18 Dinner at Alambique, shared plate Colombian food with a twist.
According to Tommy, “the only shared plate meal where I wasn’t hungry afterwards.”
5/19 Joe and Gina, Joe’s mom, practicing their glamour shot poses in Guatape
5/20 Open air airbnb with rain water filled jacuzzi and a shower in the middle of the living room? Perfect
5/20 Ana testing her birthday presents on the flight to Bogotá
5/21 Paloquemao Market in Bogotá
5/21 Fruit tasting and Tinto (Colombian name for cheap, small cup of coffee) for breakfast
5/21 Stumbled upon a cultural parade representing different regions of Colombia and three friends taking a break
5/21 Joe and Mike, Joe’s dad, trying to act natural in Exitó, essentially Colombian Walmart
5/21 From one unique airbnb to the next, the one in Bogotá had a vending machine inside the apartment
5/26 Flew from Bogotá to Chicago (Complete with Ana dispensing melatonin for only a three hour flight then telling customs we had apples from Colombia to throw away, it was a sleepy and annoying to explain mess). Finally arrived to Milwaukee for Ana’s College Friend, Joey’s, wedding and a select few of the wedding pictures are smiling
5/26 … still smiling
  • Most of the pictures
  • are just absolute mayhem.
  • 5/27 This is what happens when you let loose a group of 22-25 year old’s with your six month old on a Culver’s table
5/30 Returned to Colombia post-wedding and flew the next day to a town called Leticia in the heart of the Amazonas Department. You can see the Amazon river toward the cloud line in this plane photo.
Map of Colombia/Peru/Brazil Junction of the Amazon region.
We flew into Leticia but stayed most nights in Puerto Nariño
5/30 As you can see from the map above, Leticia (Colombia) and Tabatinga (Brazil) are essentially the same city, hence how we wandered down the street and didn’t even notice we were in Brazil until we saw this restaurant’s sign. The close proximity of Colombian, Brazilian, and Peruvian towns all so secluded in the jungle means the borders are open for a certain radius outside the towns. This creates a unique openness between indigenous groups culturally but also in healthcare as people are allowed to cross from one country to the other depending on which hospital specializes in what they need (labor, flu, scorpion bites, the usual).
5/31 Boat from Leticia to Puerto Nariño, two hours deeper into the jungle
5/31 Arrived to Puerto Nariño where we were greeted by our guide, Romani, and our translator, Petya, who was a WorkAway volunteer translating. Her Spanish ended up being at about our level (Ana says Joe’s is better) but we didn’t know this beforehand and it was nice to have a fourth person. Left the hotel for jungle walk
5/31 Mirador at the top of Puerto Nariño. Great view of the small village on the inlet off the larger Amazon river
5/31 The guide crushed the inside of this fruit to make Joe’s monkey tattoo below
5/31 Always seen this in movies but didn’t know they existed in real life
5/31 Pond at a reserve within the jungle showcased the HUGE fish called “Piranucú” and a large alligator.
Ana thought the fish was an alligator at first and almost pooped her pants.
5/31 Huge tree that is said by one of the indigenous groups in Puerto Nariño to embody the Mother Nature-like spirit of the jungle. Disrespect her jungle, and she’ll use the voice of a loved one in your head to lead you the wrong direction
5/31 Boat ride to see the pink and grey dolphins. These dolphins originally followed schools of fish into the Amazon from where the Amazon meets the Atlantic Ocean. They eventually evolved to live in fresh water. The legend of the pink dolphins is that they turn into men to try and seduce women in the villages. Grey dolphins here, the pink ones were too hard to videotape!
5/31 Ana scared but trying to smile for a pic. Immediately jumped back in the boat scared of piranhas & anacondas but our guide promised the piranhas only come if there’s active bleeding and the anacondas prefer the shalllow water
5/31 Night walk – Guide poking into holes in trees looking for scorpions and tarantulas
5/31 Scorpion spider
5/31 Tarantula with our guide’s little cousin who came along! This female tarantula couldn’t kill us but puffs out a dust that produces an intense itching for 30 minutes
5/31 Poisonous dart frog
6/1 Started the next day with a boat ride through the “selva inundable,” or flooded jungle, looking for sloths
6/1 Sloth hanging by the feet looking for fruit! Ana is considering creating a blog solely of the 10x zoomed pictures that Joe took of far away animals during this trip, let me know if you’d be interested
6/1 Ana being a sloth in the stylish long pant/sleeve mosquito proof clothing we were sweating through
6/1 Champions League finale doesn’t miss the jungle
6/1 Piranha fishing!
6/1 Caiman (alligator) hunting at night. The guide would shine his flashlight to the marsh areas, looking for the bright red of the caiman’s eyes, spin the boat that direction, cut the motor, run to the front of the boat, shine the flashlight down into the water then just thrusrt his hand down into the marsh. Out came the caimans in his hands!
Ana thinks this photo looks like an alligator version of “Bringing baby home from the hospital!”
  • 6/2 Even larger tree
6/2 Platforms built by a small Peruvian community that we visited so the jungle is
accessible during flooded and “dry” seasons
  • The real reaction
  • Once I saw it didn’t have teeth
6/2 Told our guide we’d love to see monkeys before we left. With one hour left before our boat took off back to Leticia, he sped us over to this area that had a TON of monkeys. With bananas held tightly in hand, we got our final wish!
6/2 Final photo with Romani!
6/2 One final amazon adventure – the boat back to Leticia cut out when we had almost arrived. The driver then moved the gas tank tubing to the same tank that had a little bit of gas left in it and tilted the tank to get the last drops from the corner. Eventually, this gas ran out and we had to have more delivered to the boat.
Definitely going to have to create some adventures like this when we’re back in the states soon!

Part 3!

3/6/19 – 4/19/19

3/6 WELCOME KARRYN AND LAUREN!
Ana’s best friend from college and her roommate came to visit for two weeks.
Felt amazing to have new people to explore with and more people for card games.
3/7 FELIZ CUMPLÍ JOSEPH!
Started off with a 5 am flight from Medellin to Bucaramanga then Ana finding the only restaurant that sold pancakes in the town (Unfortunately named Brown Day). After pancakes and a “birthday candle” aka an actual firecracker in a chocolate pancake, we took a 4 hour winding bus to San Gil, notorious adventure capital of Colombia.
3/8 Joe in the middle of pooping right into his shorts as the guide’s tell him, “Corre, corre” or
“Run, run” literally right off the top of a canyon ledge and into the air to start the paraglide flight.
3/8 Up in the air! Video taken by Ana right before she got so nauseous she threw up right onto the mountainside.
3/8 Barichara, famous as one of Colombia’s most beautiful small town’s.
3/9 Almost missed the safety demonstration in order to get one last snack in prior to rafting
3/9 These “level 4-5” rapids were EXTREME, Joe fell out at one point and the guide just kept yelling “FORWARD.”
3/10 One legit bus ticket back to Bucaramanga please
3/11 Why shower when you can just wash your feet?
3/12 Stayed at this hostel called La Peña in Abejorral that we knew almost nothing about and ended up being the thing we recommend to anyone traveling around Colombia. The hostel manager, Wilmer, took us up to the top of this rock in the mountains outside of Medellin and we got to climb for about 6 hours on actual earth, not climbing gym!
3/12 Second activity of the day, rappelling 40 meters/131 feet down a rock face
3/12 Hurried back from rock climbing to wait for the 3 o’clock bus with Wilmer. Two hours later, the bus hadn’t come as it broke down in town and another wouldn’t come until 5 am. Hence the cold beer and one more night stay (free thanks for Wilmer) at La Peña Hostel.
3/14 This man lives at a finca (country house) where people hike to
and pay him to lead them down to La Cueva Del Esplendor
3/14 La Cueva Del Esplendor in Jardín! We arrived just in time to see the sun right above the waterfall like this. The water in the river above was essentially so powerful it broke through the rock and created this hole. To the left of this picture were hanging green nests for huge yellow birds and a 50 foot high wall of moss.
3/16 Feliz graduación Laura! Back in Bogotá for Lau’s graduation party and cousin time.
3/19 Puerto Natales, Chile. Stop 1 of our vacation of the vacation!
Torres del Paine bound after two days of prepping food.
3/20 – 3/24 The “W” Trek of Torres Del Paine was our route. This map has times/kilometers on it that are total lies but it’s helpful to explain the trek. Each number is the day we completed that stretch or up and back portion.
3/20 Fresh glacial water that’s delicious, freezing and safe to drink throughout the trek
3/20 Day 1 – Mirador Los Torres (The towers). Top of the first day’s up and back hike
3/20 An absurd color for water to be
3/21 Day 2: Hike from Central Campground to Cuernos Campground. Hiked this whole day with…
3/21 … these huge mountains to our right …
3/21 and this lake we can’t pronounce (Lago Njordenskold) to our left.
3/21 First glimpse of the glacier to the right we’d hike to the next day
3/21 According to Katie (Joe’s younger sister), Cuernos had the best bar. She was right saying that having a cold beer in the middle of the patagonian wilderness feels amazing.
3/22 Day 3: Hike up to Glacier Frances was filled with the thunderous sound of ice chunks falling
3/22 Hiked from Glacier Frances to Mirador Britanico in drizzly and cold rain. We’d been told this mirador was only worth it if the sky was clear but we had to try anyways. This is us laughing at the top when we can hardly see anything. Picture also doesn’t highlight how absolutely cold, hungry, wet, and miserable we were.
3/22 THEN IT CLEARED UP!!!!! (A little. We were still pretty cold but happier.)
3/22 Not quite being named one of Manhattan’s hottest restaurants but close. Tuna and three day old cheese that stayed just cold enough to be fine to eat. Yum
3/22 “Go over there so we can remember how big it was” – Joe @ Glacier Frances
3/23 Day 4: Hiked from Campsite Frances to Campsite Paine Grande. One of the clearest days we had.
Notice top of Glacier Frances peek in the back left and how the lake mirrors it. This park is FAMOUS for it’s 80 mile per hour winds and experiencing all four seasons in one day. We lucked out and got no winter and no wind.
3/23 Lago Pehoe
3/24 Day 5: Up and back hike to Glacier Grey. In order to complete the hike we wanted to finish the last day, we had to be up and out by 5:45 am. Sunrise was around 7:45 so we had two hours by pure full moon brightness. Felt a little like werewolves and easily some of the coolest hiking we’ve ever done.
3/24 Sunrise and a delicious breakfast complete with cold coffee made the night before
3/24 Glacier Grey finally in sight
3/24
3/24 One of the three suspension bridges over canyons on the way to Glacier Grey
3/24 Glacier Grey
3/24 Eleven hours of hiking on the 5th day of hiking and we were feeling FRESH
3/24 Reward bread purchased from the lodge and a too-expensive beer that tasted like heaven
3/26 Cerro Fitz Roy in El Chalten, Argentina.
One full travel day later, we’re on the Argentinian side of Patagonia.
3/26 Backpacked out to Campamiento Poincenot to see…
3/27 The sunrise on Fitz Roy. The guide told us that we were very lucky for the blue skies. He said most of the time, you can’t see any of this peak, and when you can see it, you can only see less than 50 percent.
3/27 Cerro Torre is the pointy, skinny peak a little to the right of Ana’s head
3/27 Beer and food were cheaper in Argentina
3/28 Perito Moreno Glacier outside of El Calafate, Argentina. The third largest glacier in the Southern Patagonia Ice Field, it also is seemingly (somehow??) unaffected by climate change as it is growing and receding about 2 meters everyday.
3/28 We hiked about 45 minutes along the side of the glacier before stepping on the ice.
3/28 Splurged to walk for four hours with a guide on Perito Moreno Glacier. This meant 10 people in a single file line following a guide who showed us exactly where to walk as it can be dangerous and more fragile in some areas.
3/28 The growing and receding patterns create deep cracks with glacier fresh water you can drink. This same crack was empty (and therefore more dangerous) by the time we returned 3 hours later.
3/28
3/28 A pretty extraordinary last day on the southern tip. Seen here enjoying a complementary glass of whiskey with a glacial ice chunk.
3/30 After a bus, flight, bus, bus journey, we arrived in Valparaíso, Chile. This city is about an hour outside of Santiago and holds a special place in Joe’s heart from his best friend, Justin, and little sister, Katie, who studied abroad there. The city is covered in beautiful graffiti like this.
3/30 More Valparaíso graffiti. This one with lyrics from a group based in Colombia’s pacific coast.
3/30 Joe first macaroon! (Still expensive in Chile but cheaper than in Georgetown)
3/30 Convinced the doorman in broken Spanish that he should let us in to visit with Katie’s abroad host family. They had no idea we were coming but were so welcoming and told us all about stuff Katie loved to do in Valpo.
3/31 View from hostel kitchen above Valpo
3/31 Las Duñas in Concón, next to Vaplaraíso.
Huge sand dunes where people rent pieces of wood to slide down or go snowboard style and just absolutely wipe out
3/31 Natural beauty
3/31 Entre Másas, famous empanada place. Following memories from 3 years ago, Joe lead us around for about 30 minutes convinced he would know it if he saw it. He did and they were delicious.
4/4 El Rodadero Beach in Santa Marta. Moved from southern Chile to the northern coast of Colombia pretty quick. With 7 free days before we met my parents in Cartagena, we made a quick plan to see the top things we wanted to do on the coast: Santa Marta, Tayrona National Park, Palomino, and Minca.
4/4 Old colonial beach house converted into hostel in Santa Marta
4/4 Sunset in Santa Marta
4/5 Took the early bus into Tayrona National Park then hiked 3 hours with our huge packs in the warm, humid sun to get to Cabo San Juan beach. One of the only places you can sleep by the beach inside the park, we lucked out and got to sleep in hammocks in the cabana on top of the rock.
4/5 Sunset from the hammocks
4/6 Sunrise next morning, taken without getting out of “bed”
4/6 After spending the morning on the beach and realizing we were exhausted, horses were the best option to get back to the entrance. Joe’s first horse ride was interesting with the huge pack and steep hills being slightly off balance.
4/7 Palomino, small coastal town famous for this river that ends at the ocean. Spent 3 hours tubing down the river with our new friends, Annie and Michael. We basically spend the whole time talking about british vs american politics and about traveling long term as a couple. Felt nice to be validated that moving around like this, while invigorating, can be exhausting and days off are deserved. Also that living together with jobs as a couple and traveling like this are very different with new highs and lows to balance. We love them.
4/8 Pozo Azul in Minca with hostel friends
4/9 There was a guy getting his PhD in ecological studies who came to Minca just to birdwatch as it is famous for having one of the highest diveersities in species. Therefore, kinda felt silly to not try a birdwatching tour. Here we are with Annie and Michael staring intently at leaves because we were all kind of bad at it.
4/9 Except Michael, he got this photo of a REAL LIVE toucan through his binoculars.
Ana kind of always doubted these colorful birds could truly exist until then.
4/9 Calamine lotion legs, full hammock that may not hold all of our weight, can’t lose
4/9 Las Cascadas de Marinka in Minca
4/11 Cartagena Day 1!
4/11 The legend of “La Gorda Gertrudis” is if you touch both of her breasts at once, you will return to Cartagena. Nailed it, Mom.
4/11 Joe confused and fascinated at Ana’s dad’s explanation of how raw fish can “cook” in acidic juices (Ceviche)
4/12 Boat and beach day trip out to Rosario Islands
4/12 Paddleboarding
4/12 Tough day
4/12 Ana’s Dad Snorkeling in Rosario Islands
4/13 Mani/Pedi’s for the whole fam, a treat yo self day
4/13 Joe’s first mani/pedi. Very confused and even more ticklish.
Notice the one painted toe that Isabel (Ana’s sister) asked him to do.
4/13 Nothing says pregame like a rotisserie chicken from Éxito (Colombian Walmart) and run and coke.
4/13 Chiva Bus trip around the city, a classic Colombian way to party.
We paid to get on the bus then got free alcohol, music, and a hype man for 4 hours.
Joe and I asked the driver to stop an embarrassing amount of times to let us pee.
4/13 Ana’s mom killing it with the hair
4/14 Walking along the wall that surrounds the old city portion of Cartagena
4/16 Dinner at Interno, a restaurant situated within the women’s prison in Cartagena. Cool to find a little Homeboy in Colombia.
4/17 Flew to Bogotá and went right to a soccer game
4/18 Paloquemoa Market. Ana’s parents restocked their kitchen goods and
Ana and Joe gave a fruit tour like Laura and Juan Pablo had given them.
4/18 Paloquemoa Market
4/18 Frutas! (Picture taken when fruit was almost all eaten)
4/19 Joe and Ana’s Dad went to play a game with Juan Pablo at a sports warehouse with 6 fields, a bowling alley, bar, and other soccer related games where they got to pretend to play as barcelona (Ana’s Dad’s dream)
4/19 Dinner at Andres Carne Del Res on Ana’s Parents final night in Colombia

Part 2!

2/10/19 – 3/5/19

2/12 Finding the little things (juice boxes of Almond Milk) that make it feel like home.
2/12 Went to Paloquemao Market (huge market in the old town of Bogota) with Laura and Juan Pablo and tried all of these different fruits and tried to learn all their names. The favorites were the big juicy one on the bottom (Ana) and the orange-looking fruit on the left (Joe).
2/12 Went out to dinner with Ana’s cousin, Francisco, at Andres Carne de Res. The restaurant in and of itself is an experience with the decorations and its sheer size, but the the food is also fantastic traditional Colombian. And the night it topped off by a musical group that comes to serenade the table if there are any foreigners (hence Joe’s sash and Ana’s crown).
2/13 We went to a photo exhibit of the Colombian conflict that has been omnipresent here for decades. The exhibit was made to highlight the lives of those innocent civilians who had arguably suffered most of all people in Colombian. The photo series above was one of our favorites. In english it reads as follows:
“The women in the hat and the boy were going to board the DC3 airplane together with other survivors after the slaughtering. They were not permitted to bring anything except for a small bag with clothes. The little girl approached the official from Red Cross International and said: ‘ Will you let me bring my little chicken? It’s that it is a gift.’ The man, with tears in his eyes, told her: ‘Bring it.'”
2/13 Ana with her cousins on our last night in Bogotá. (left to right: Laura, Sebastian, Daniela)
2/14 Following our instruction: walk outside the airport to the second round about and find a bus that will take you here. The bus we found would eventually get us to ourWorkAway site (will explain below what this means) at Al Bosque Hostel in the a town up in the mountians outside of the Medellin called Santa Elena.
2/14 Taking in our first sunset at Al Bosque Hostel outside of Medellin.
2/15 Al Bosque Hostel is a site occupied by standard travelers but also is home to a large number of Overlanders – foreigners that travel for years by “car” all over the world. In this picture and the next we are checking out their “cars” of which we had two gutted and redesigned vans, three military vehicles, and one sweet jeep. The guests that were present when we were there were from Switzerland, Netherlands, Scotland, England, and Germany.
2/16 Taking a walk through the forest that borders the hostel.
2/17 Ana trying out the exercise equipment in Parque Arvi which is the national park located just a few miles from Al Bosque Hostel.
2/18 We were at Al Bosque Hostel as volunteers through a program called WorkAway. The hostel posts on this site that they are interested in having volunteers for any number of tasks (gardening, cleaning, shopping, construction…) and they are willing to provide a place to stay and access to all facilities. We did a number of tasks throughout our time at Al Bosque and the construction of this table was one of them. Picture here is Joe and Israel, one of the other two volunteers we worked with during our stay.
2/19 This night the four volunteers made arepas. Arepas are traditional corn flour based bread that is had with most meals in Colombia and other countries in the region, sometimes stuffed and other times with things on top. Here we are with Israel and Diana, the other volunteers, and a Canadian guest who was VERY into the process.
2/20 Ana putting in work on the construction of the second table.
2/20 This day we worked early early in the morning so we could ride with the Canadian couple to Guatape. This humungous rock has more that 700 steps running up the side that let you reach the beautiful view of the region.
2/20 Sed view.
2/20 Cruising through the small yet charming town of Guatape.
2/20 Pretty door.
2/22 At Al Bosque you get one day off after 6 days of work and we worked it out so we worked early and late the days before and after our one day in order to spend the weekend in Medellin. These next pictures are from a neighborhood tour of Comuna 13. This was previously a neighorhood rated by the UN as the second most dangerous in the world behind the Gaza Strip. Now known for incredible revitalisation through escalators built into the mountain and stunning graffiti.
2/22 Comuna 13
2/22 Comuna 13
2/22 Comuna 13. We are standing in one of dozens of neighborhoods that exist in the foothills of the mountains that surround the city.Over 60% of the population of Medellin lives in these types of mountainside neighborhoods.
2/22 Comuna 13. These escalators replaced huge, steep, unsafe stairs that served as the neighborhood’s main thruway. These have given the community realistic access to the public transportation that exist in the city below.
2/22 We were coming off the metro and watching the sunset when we saw the security guard standing next to us putting something into his translator app on his phone. He then asked, “Do you want a photo?” We didn’t really need to document the metro but wanted to remember how nice he was. This is that photo.
2/22 Our one night out on the town was one for the books. It involved a lot of sweating and a lot of pretending to know how to dance. It was brought to us by Colombia’s favorite Anise (black liquorice) flavored liquor – Aguardiente.
2/23 Taking the cable car back up to Al Bosque hostel. The cable car system is one of the other recent improvements in terms of increasing the cities overall accessibility for those living in the foothills.
  • 2/24 Israel and Joe helping to make Sancocho (soup) on Sunday afternoon
2/24 Catching a soccer game in Medellin on Sunday night with our Dutch friends from Al Bosque.
2/25 When veggies, eggs, arepa, and rice for the 6th day in a row sounds a little stale, adding some soy sauce into the mix can be a serious game changer.
2/27 This is Bandeja Paisa, a traditional Colombian dish that is native to the state of Antioquia. The plate contains steak, chorizo, chicken, chicharron, plantain, rice, french fries, “salad,” and arepa with side bowl of beans marinating with a big flavourful pig hoof!
2/23 Ana post Bandeja Paisa.
3/2 The first day of Carnaval, complete with recently purchased shirts and hats borrowed from our Airbnb host who we are still convinced is a notorious female mob boss. The city was filled with colorful decorations and tiendas that had subwoofers the size of the island of Manhattan, it was absolutely amazing.
3/2 Our day one pals who were personally responsible for the continuous flow of Aguardiente. The parade this day was called Batalle de los Flores and had floats from larger organizations on the coast as well as small towns participating. It lasted for SIX HOURS. These are easily some of the nicest and hilarious people, all of whom stayed out until 4am that day and were back in much smaller numbers Sunday. They are also the people who were SHOCKED when they heard we bought the tickets randomly for Palco number 30 (name for bleachers you sit in) because this was in fact the gay palco and everyone knew it.
3/3 Day two was off to a healthy and cool start (NAWT). Pretty sure we woke up with sweat dripping. Found a women who opened up her front step to fry Arepa Huevos- an arepa traditional to the coastal region that fried with a raw egg inside to create a delicious masterpiece. Also notice the free SPEED MAX sample. Health in a nutshell.
  • Parade decorations
    (Yes this video is to the right and no nothing is supposed to be to the left of it, weird website flaw?)
3/3 Portrait mode doing a great job to hide the sweat!!
PS these matching shirts are coming back to the states with us.
3/3 Day two’s friend collection included this friendly and very inviting group. It’s classic at Carnaval for people to throw this white flour-like powder at others for fun, hence why we all look a bit crazy. We joined these friends post-parade to a local Salsa bar for about 6 hours of, once again, having fun pretending to dance.
3/4 When someone in Colombia tells you it will take 2 hours, plan for 5. After quite a ride, we arrived to watch the sunset on the beach literally right outside the door to the Santa Marta airport. New flowered shirts, instragram friends, mob boss connections and about 5 arepa huevos later, we’re headed back to Medellín.

The Beginning!

1/21/19 – 2/09/19

1/21 at Newark Airport saying our goodbyes.

1/22 We were welcomed at the Airport by Laura (Ana’s cousin) and Juan Pablo (Laura’s boyfriend) with a sign and lots of excitement at nearly 2:30 AM 

1/23 Before driving around the city, doing some errands and getting the lay of the land, Juan Pablo pulled up Google Maps and gave us a nice geography lesson. Starting with the general layout of the city (even giving us the “when in down tell the taxi ‘bring me to the mall'” and walk to our house from there),  showed us where the cool neighborhoods were, and a bit of the history as well. 

1/23 Our first dinner. Ham and cheese with hot chocolate is a super common dinner to have in Bogotá. Typically both breakfast and dinner are small and lunch is super big, a change for Joe’s constant need for food.

1/24 Exploring the old town and the city center, El Candelaria neighborhood

1/24 Plaza de Simon Bolivar. Here we are looking at major government buildings, the president’s house, the main Cathedral and a big gathering point for tourists and locals in general. 

1/24 This is the kitchen of their house. Super homie and always open for whatever anyone needs – especially coffee.

1/25 The sun is so hot and feels so close to the body, it’s outrageous. In the sun, it can feel like an oven while the shade feels like an air conditioner. Wild. Anyway, this is a picture of Joe avoiding the heat and Juan Pablo making fun of him for not being able to hang, saying he looked “Miami.”

1/27 Up in the mountains to the east of Bogotá, looking over the whole city after having a beer and “Agua de Panela” with Laura.

1/28 Visit to the National Botanical Gardens.

1/29 Being our two-year anniversary, we celebrated with hot chocolate and bread. Seemingly standard at this point but we learned that they actually put a piece of cheese in the hot cocoa and let it melt to give the hot cocoa a cheesy flavor. The cheese gets melted like marshmallows… CRAZY! But also not bad and you can see the melty cheese on Joe’s spoon. The second picture is from our “treat-yo-self” dinner. Learned very quickly to ask for a bottle of vino’s price when it’s not even listed on the menu. It was delicious so, oh well. For our post-meal celebration, we went to… a Queen-themed Lazer Light Show at the Bogotá Planetarium! Unfortunately, we can’t add a video here but we just want you to know that is was inspiring and magical. Definitely one of the stranger, but hilarious, American-like things we’ve done.

1/30 This was after our first salsa lesson. The session was for beginners or as one employee poetically put (in Spanish) “this class is for [tree] trunks to help them start to move.” The class started with jazzercise type gig and gradually made our way all the way to some super fun turns and spins. Happy to say that Joe, the trunk, was moving by the end of the hour and a half.

1/31 We hiked up the big mountains in Bogotá to the church called Monserrate. The hike was brutal. Bogotá is up 8,000 feet and we basically hiked another 2,500 feet to the peak on a neverending set of stairs for about an hour and a half.

2/1 – 2/4 This past weekend we went to Ana’s relatives country home about 3 hours south of Bogotá in an area that is more like a jungle forest with perfect weather 24/7. It’s a huge property with the capacity to hold upwards of 30/40 people that their family has been a part of for decades. There is a pool, a huge space for eating and games, spectacular views, and an incredibly relaxing environment. It was such a treat to go with them. 

2/5 – 2/9 This week we have visited 6 coffee shops with varying degrees of wifi signal success. Spend the week trying to convince hostel owners in Medellin to take us in, planning trips to the northern and southern tips of South America, and, most importantly, sampling bakery items.

More to come! 🙂