Viva Colombia Day 3 - Un vuelo into nature (7/31/16)

After having breakfast in the hostel, we grab a cab to the airport and realize on the way that on Sundays, many of the highways and other street lanes close down so that people have exercise highways; there were people running, biking, rollerblading, etc. down these streets where cars would normally be and it was amazing to see. People were out and about on the trails normally, but this, this was such a sight to see coming from a city that has one of the highest obesity rates in the world. Bogota - you win this one :). Get to the airport and realize that it is a small airport (intranational airport) as there is not as big of planes coming in and out (our plane is a 2 propeller puddle jumper). Not knowing how small it was and the limited traffic it sees, we got through security (I miss these days - we walked through the metal detector with a coffee drink in hand and they were just like yep go on through). Eventually we walk out to the stairs to board our plane and head out to Manizales.

First thing we see out the back of the hostel. We can get used to this.

Panoramic pic of the view from the hostel.

Hawk soaring up above.

Valley down below. Mountains for days!

Eric taking some pictures of the pretty awesome view.

Assorted houses built on the ridges of the valley. 

Beautiful butterfly in the garden out back.

Cats in Colombia = Cats everywhere else in the world = sleep machines

Apparently the  dog wants to be like the cat.

The approach into the city is beautiful as we are surrounded by forests and mountains and then there is the city which is built among the mountains on all kinds of slopes. Finally land and the airport here is a fraction of the size of the one we just left (hard to imagine I know), but being nestled in the mountains with the feel of nature being right there, definitely a great pick for the trip. Go get in the taxi line and eventually find a driver who knows where our hostel is and will take us; turns out it is outside of town a bit in a small outer town. Our driver is driving around and the ups and downs make for some beautiful scenery looking out over valleys and villages below. Get into the small town where our hostel is located, and he has to go up this road that is steep AF!! (the car struggles to make it up). Get to the hostel (Mirador Finca Morrogacho) and drop our bags in the room and take the tour real fast and hang out with some other travelers for a little bit before having some lunch at the hostel (amazing home-cooked meal which I believe the first meal at the hostel is free). After lunch, we take the dog for a long walk down to the waterfall at the bottom of the valley (this house is on top of the mountain hahaha) as the dog is our guide (he loves going there and goes every day so why not? :) ). I thought the road to the house was steep; I was proved wrong. This path to the waterfall is just one long, steep, straight foot path down the mountain/hill that has a few turns to avoid running into a house. We eventually make our way down there, and as is customary when I hike to a body of water, I strip down to my underwear and I jump in and swim around. Dog (name is escaping me) comes in for a little bit but since it is cold, doesnt have much interest in staying in. Once I have my fill, I get out, dry off my feet, and we head back up. We get back to the house after that long steep hike up and realize I am more wet after the hike than when I jumped into the waterfall's pool.

Little foot path. This must be the way.

We are down in the valley and we can look up from the place where we have walked down from. No turning back now. 

Anyone want to take a break for a cup of joe?

Eric is concerned as I am no where to be found. I guess I should try and keep up.

I emerge from the bushes having found my way back to Eric and the guide.

Alright I have caught up lets go!

Eric pushing on to find the waterfall. We are in the water so we are close.

Nice little waterfall. Lets check it out.

Eric - "We made it! I am the greatest!!!!" Not really what he said but posing like that, he might as well :)

Alright lets check out this pool of water. Dog trying to warn me not to go in.

Ahh a nice natural shower... well worth the walk down.

The dog and I splashing around in the water.

Im gunna get you!!!

Dog and I in the water

Alright now we start our trek back up. Lets hope the dog knows the way back as well :)

Definitely a work out. Get to the top and hang out a little bit while we watch the sunset, which with this view, is absolutely stunning (we took pictures each day of it as I just couldnt get enough of it). After the sun disappears, we shower with the warm water (a nice change from the iffy showers from the hostel in Bogota) and then meet the people at the table for dinner (nice home-cooked veggie dinner). After dinner, we talked to our host, Majid - great guy with a couple good stories to tell if you get him talking, about some options around the city before walking to the town for some dessert with some of our new friends (one guy who was living at the hostel working remotely, and a lady who has been traveling for like 5 months through South/Central America).

We seem to be getting back just in time to see an amazing sunset. Lucky us! :)

Sorry for the barrage of sunset pics. I just love what I was seeing. 

BEAUTIFUL!

The colors in the horizon... the beauty of the mountains is hard to beat.

Eric and I enjoying a nice sunset after returning from the long hike. 

Viva Colombia Day 2 - Gambling in una otra lengua? What can go wrong? (7/30/16)

After grabbing breakfast at the hostel, Eric and I head back out to the pedestrian street as he wants to find a good coffee and I want to buy sunscreen (I left mine at home and got burned nicely yesterday out on the bike). We find a square with a cafe and a pharmacy (the place I was told would sell sunscreen) so we split up to get our stuff. I am talking to the pharmacy people and they give me sunscreen (after a bit of an exchange as I didnt know sunscreen in Spanish so was trying to describe it and use brand names they might know not knowing what brands are in Colombia) but I find out its ~30$ US (which I heard sunscreen overseas is expensive but didnt think it would be that expensive - would find out later they sell sunscreen at equivalents of our target (Exito) for a little cheaper but didnt know that at the time). Either way shame on me but wanted protection so I had to pay the price.

The square where we found our coffee and the sunscreen, being patrolled by a cop on a segway. Not sure I expected to see those down here.

Pretty cool mural we saw as we walked around. 

So down near one of the public transit areas, they have a group of alpacas doing a demonstration of sorts. 

Got some sun screen and about to return to the BBC, feeling good :)

A street artist working on his next creation and doing a great job at it.

Can you guess who she is making?

Finally made it into the BBC and am getting a Colombian Craft Beer :)

Apparently Eric really wanted to try their beers as well :)

A sink at the BBC. Was a pretty cool idea.

Go find Eric and help him order a coffee at the cafe. We were going to the Bogota Beer Company for lunch but found out they didnt open till 1300 so we find ourselves wandering into a casino to test our luck in a foreign country. Want to play blackjack but the table person cant find the key to open the chip box to play so we go play roulette while they try and find it. We quickly lose 17$ (me quicker than Eric) on the roulette table then see that black jack is open so we go play (and lose) there. We also found out that the beers are not free like in American casinos, you pay and tip the waitress like at a bar which was annoying. After losing our money and walking around the casino a bit, we go find the BBC to have a pizza and beer (was a good idea as I wanted to try local craft beer and pizza always is a good idea :) ) The beer was ok, but they had soccer on the television and rock and roll music on which was nice - but it was more expensive than what I think a normal meal should have been as it tailors to a expat crowd. As we are walking out, Eric runs across a guy he met when he first got here, so we go have coffee and shoot the shit for a bit until we noticed the clouds rolling in. Get back to hostel before it opens up. While it rains, a group at the hostel grabs drinks then heads out to the popular square after the rain stops to get some food. Werent nearly as many people this night but still a few groups hanging out. We get some tasty arepas from a local window and then go into a cafe (cafe Atico) where you climb 3 flights of extremely narrow stairs and are waited on by this interesting lady who seemed to just like to have a good time. We ordered 3L of chicha for the group and it was too much. We close out and go to take a shower but the hot water is not working (they have units that heat the water as it comes out) so my shower is extremely cold.

So much madness in one pic

Eric running across people he met a few days ago.

Clouds starting to part after the storm.

Viva Colombia Day 1 - Cruising on a bicicleta (7/29/16)

I planned this trip so that I could share my joy of traveling with a lifelong (29 years at time of this trip) friend of mine, Eric. We had talked about taking a trip together for half a decade and finally the stars aligned and we were able to take a trip together. The following is the day by day recount of our trip through the interior of Colombia (Bogota, Manizales, Medellin).

My flight was a red eye flight getting into Bogota at ~0500 (was direct just didnt leave IAH until almost midnight). So got on my flight and slept the way down there (as much as one can on a flight). Arrived into Bogota and immediately felt the amazingness that is the cooler temps coming from Houston and being up in the mountain climate of the Colombian capital. Get to customs and there is not a single line (benefit of landing at 0500). Since I didnt have a checked bag, I didnt stop walking from when I got off that plane until I got to the taxi stand and got into my taxi. As we leave the airport, one of the first things I realized was that their roads had designated bus lanes to make little bus highways which was pretty cool (first of a few ways they try to make public transit a priority). Taxi gets me to the hostel (Bogo Hostel), but as it is not labeled from the outside, I walk by the door a few times until a random person on the road saw me looking lost and points me to the right door.  

Not a bad view from the hostel's balcony.

The street I just came upon the taxi. Steep little street. Much more of that to come in the upcoming days. Just waiting for the city to awaken.

The hostel's logo of their bar. This is where we shall congregate.

Colombia, something tells me we are going to have a great time with you. With views like this, its a good start :). 

Walking to go get some coffee in this early morning hour.

Across from the coffee is this University. Was a pretty updated square full of people/auto traffic and shops around.

One of the many beautiful buildings of the Candelaria area. The bars and graffiti are unfortunate but looking past that is easy.

Got back to the hostel, and as we wait to head out to the bike tour wanted another view of our balcony's flag and view.

Talked to the desk worker (obviously this was way before check in time, but they worked with me which was much appreciated) who showed me around and then let me crash in the common area up on the balcony where they had a little futon on the ground where I could sleep for another couple hours until Eric gets up (he got in the day before and already had a day of Colombian fun under his belt). He gets me up and we catch up a little bit before going down to grab some food at the hostel's free breakfast (was minimal - toast, coffee, fruit, etc., but cant beat the price) before we head out to find some street coffee (When in Colombia). After a bit of a walk, we find one over near the university and Eric gets one. It was cheap but was not good compared to what he is used to, nor what he was expecting being in Colombia. Hung out on the street and people watched while we caught up some more before heading back to the hostel to grab my little day bag and going to take a bicycle tour of the city. Our group was so large, they broke us up into 2 groups that took 2 different routes (assuming we saw the same things?). The tour was incredibly informative as well as pretty hilly (imagine that being in a town built amid the mountains). Being on bikes, we got to see different parts of the city: after seeing a municipal area, we went through a pedestrian street, past an old, decommissioned bull fighting ring,  then over to a park that surrounded a neighborhood that had houses that were built to look like British village houses (we braked there to have a fruit bowl with cheese - tasty! :) ), before heading back through a more industrial part of the city with a good coffee shop and tons of graffiti (some of it was beautiful) where we listened to some of our guides friends give a few raps about their neighborhood and upbringing (it was in Spanish so I didnt understand a lot of it but could get pieces here and there). After that we rode through the red light district (women werent that attractive/they were openly playing with themselves and the places looked like old car garages with shiny tile floors/walls and wide open areas - really weird experience) before being back in town where we went into a bar that had Tejo (a game where you throw big stones at triangles filled with gunpowder to make it explode) where we had a beer or 2 and made loud noises.

Our bike tour outfitters. Seems pretty self explanatory what they do.

Eric is pumped to get this thing started as we finally got our bikes.

Cathedral in the main square (our first stop)

Little panoramic action of the square and its surrounding old and beautiful buildings.

Was this Eric photobombing the old English man in the back or vice versa?

Looks like we are not alone.

Some cool sculpture work on the side of the building. 

Church along the pedestrian street that had bells a ringing as we drove by.

One of our stops where this local artist incorporates guns/violent depictions into other people/signs to create interesting works of art.

Another example of the guy's work. 

The abandoned bull fighting ring. I believe the tour guide said the bull fighting had been outlawed for a couple years when we were there.

Got to the park and drove by a hard court soccer pitch. The world's game.

Part of the park as we make our way over to our first food break.

Our fruit bowls. We were looking around at the group, everyone else got these small snacks, the 2 Americans got the large bowls. Both of us saw that and were just thinking how that in a nut shell explains everything :) 

One of the absolutely gorgeous works of art on the sides of the buildings in the graffiti area.

Alright Maverick, lets move out!

Getting serenaded by some local rappers on a quick pit stop.

Bring it on Lance!

Tejo bar. It was a lot harder than one would expect. With my excellent drinking yard sport skills, I hit the triangle once or twice but never with enough force to create the explosion. Some locals did a couple times; it was loud!

We leave there to return the bikes and as we rode down that pedestrian street from before, this time they had street performers of all kinds out and about. We get the bikes back to the store, then walk back to our hostel to shower (had sweated a bit as the biking/sun made for some hot times) and hang out there for a little bit while we figure out the night. Grab drinks and play pool with some British folks before heading out to dinner. We go to check out the popular square (around Crr2 and Calle 12b) which is FULL of young men and women sitting around and hanging out, some smoking cigarettes, some playing little instruments, some drinking, just a giant social gathering which was pretty cool. After exploring the area a little bit, we go into one of the random spots and have a sandwich and my first chicha (a weak sour beer that doesnt taste that bad but nothing like the sour beers I have grown accustomed to in the States). We explore more of the square before heading back to the hostel to hang out a bit before bed.

Neighborhood cat chilling on a roof rehydrating.

Sunset from the balcony. Yes please!

This is one perk of booking a hostel on top of a hill. Was on the outskirts of the area but this view makes it worth it.

Panoramic going from light to dark.

City starting to light up a bit as the sun disappears

Sun practically gone. Beautiful sky with the expansive city all in front of us. 

Look at all these hooligans. Nah just kidding large density of young people just hanging out in group circles. Was pretty unexpected as we approached the area but a welcome surprise.

One of the alleys around the busy square.

Eric just trying to blend in among the locals.