COLOMBIA: THESE ARE A FEW OF OUR FAVORITE THINGS

 March 14-23, 2023

After many of our trips, starting with some of the trips we took with our kids, we have made a list of all of our favorite experiences and things we want to remember. We decided to do that for this trip. So, in no particular order other than this is the order we came up with them, here are our favorite experiences, places, people, and things from our trip to Colombia.

- Fruit EVERYWHERE! Mangosteen was our favorite, but we also enjoyed granadilla, dragonfruit, lulo, and guanábana.

- Fruit juice of all kinds, but especially the kind mixed with milk (probably sweetened condensed milk).

- And speaking of juice, the raspberry grape juice with dinner in Bogotá was Judy's favorite.

- Cartagena--everything about it. It was our favorite city, and Carolina was our favorite guide.

COLOMBIA: MEDELLIN, PART 2 - LUNCH, BOTERO PLAZA

 March 22, 2023

After walking around Comuna 13, we were hot, tired, and hungry. It was time for lunch. Our driver picked us up when we got down to the flatter part of town and took us to a restaurant Jakob thought we would enjoy.

There was plenty of street art to see on the way, even on the freeway underpasses.

La Familia Restaurante specializes in platos típicos, or local dishes. The most expensive thing on the menu was about $10.

COLOMBIA: MEDELLIN, PART I - COMUNA 13

 March 22, 2023

In Hotel 10 in Medellín, breakfast was included with our room, and it turned out to be a very nice buffet that included Colombian dishes, muffins, cheeses, lots of fruit, juices, an omelet station, and more. It was a feast.

Medellín (pronounced Med-uh-ZHEEN by the locals) is the second-largest city in Colombia, after Bogotá. Situated in the Andes Mountains at an elevation over 4,900 feet above sea level, it has a population of 2.5 in the city proper, with an additional 1.5 million people in the surrounding metro area.

Medellín was named for a small village in Spain that was the birthplace of Hernán Cortéz. Today, the city is made up of 16 comunas, or districts.

We were picked up by our guide, Jakob, at 9:00 a.m. and driven to Comuna 13, located on the opposite side of the city. We walked a few blocks, almost immediately starting uphill. We said hello to Che Guevara . . . 

COLOMBIA: TATAMA NATIONAL NATURAL PARK, PART 2

 Tuesday, March 21, 2023

I got up at 4:30 to shower to be ready for a 5:30 drive to the top of a nearby mountain. Savannah, as always, was ready on time and waiting for us outside her room. We stopped for a few minutes at the moth net to see what was left from the previous night's partiers, then got in a truck that was waiting to take us to the lodge, where we drank some hot chocolate and picked up food for a breakfast that we would eat at the end of our drive.

We only stopped a few times to look at birds on our way up a steep road. It took us two hours to drive about 8 miles, which gives you an idea about the condition of the road, which was built to service a military base at the top. The road would be impassable to most vehicles. It is rocky and uneven. Our driver, Jon, drove very slowly.

From the end of the road, we had a beautiful view of the rugged Tatamá Peak across the way, shimmering in the early morning light. Its summit is 13,500 feet above sea level, and there are several other peaks we could see in the same range that must also be close to that elevation.

The far-left guerrilla group FARC (Fuerzas Armadas Revolutionarias de Colombia, or Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) attacked this military outpost in 2000 during a long period of Colombian conflict. Apparently the outpost is there to protect some vital communications towers that link isolated parts of the country. According to an LA Times article, there were 600 FARC rebels who attacked 50 government soldiers at the complex. The government soldiers ultimately prevailed, although there were at least 20 fatalities. The family who runs the Tatamá Eco-lodge told us that they saw soldiers bringing all the bodies down from the mountain.

The road we took ended at a gate that said no photos were to be taken of the military facility, but I figured the tops of the communications towers that peaked out over the heavy vegetation were okay.

The forest service has built a large observation deck at the end of the road. 

COLOMBIA: TINAMU TO TATAMA NATIONAL PARK AND MONTEZUMA ECO-LODGE, PART I

 March 20, 2023    

Our driver arrived at 6:30 AM and we were ready to go, but our guide from the previous day offered to buy breakfast for us and our driver Mario, so we stayed for the overcooked fried eggs, another tough arepa, and a roll, and then we got on the road at 7:00 AM. 

We were in a much bigger vehicle than the one that brought us to Tinamú, a van with four rows of seats. Bob was in front, I was on the second row, and Sav sat on the elevated back row. The beginning of the drive leaving Tinamú on the one-lane dirt road was rough riding, but eventually we got to a divided highway, tough it had way too many hairpin turns. After we passed through the large city of Pereira (which we had flown into from Bogotá two days before), the road eventually became even rougher and narrower, but the scenery, at least was spectacular.

I slept for at least an hour, maybe two, of the 3.25 hour drive as my protection against motion sickness, but I woke up occasionally to look out the window. Bob said I missed a fabulous section of terraced farmland where coffee plants were growing. Savannah also drifted off to sleep occasionally.

By the way, our drive Mario looked just like Savannah's other grandfather (also named Bob). She and I made that connection independently. 

There were quite a few sections of the road where the right shoulder was partially or wholly washed away by mud and/or rock slides from the towering cliffs on our left. At least once there was a large boulder in the road that Mario could barely get around.

We eventually made it to the town of Pueblo Rico. Mario said the "Rico" part didn't refer to the town, which was very poor, but rather to the setting. I was surprised to discover when I was writing this post that it has a population of over 14,000, and many of the residents are indigenous people.

We got out of the car and bought a few Cokes before transferring our luggage to a 4x4 truck for the last part of the drive.

COLOMBIA: TINAMU DAY 2

 March 19, 2023

I was up and out by 6:30 AM to see the morning birds with Bob. It was definitely not as impressive as I expected, and the birds we saw were similar to the day before. However, it was nice to be out in the cool morning air appreciating the glorious scenery.

The reserve folks had sprinkled some bird seed along the driveway that attracted dozens of small birds.

Saffron finch