Bogota Ciclovia, and Goodbye Colombia

For the last two days of the trip we returned to Bogota before flying back home.  For this time in Bogota, we're staying in the nicer north end of town in a neighborhood called Parque de la 93. After a couple hours of people watching and walking around, we started to feel like we were in a larger version of Madison Park. Fancy cars, lovely park spaces, and plenty of beautiful mommies with strollers.

Park 93 on a Sunny Saturday

Park 93 is literally a neighborhood around a park on 93rd St.  There are several dozen restaurants around the park and on the adjoining streets.  It's all very pleasant and super safe with single women and kids walking around at all hours.

People relaxing at Park 93

During the day the park was full of couples and kids, with a huge play area teeming with toddlers.  At night families and couples would stroll around after having a nice meal at one of the restaurants in the area. We really enjoyed our stay here and will miss spending every moment of the day outside. All the restaurants are open-air, and when it gets cool at night, they fire up heat lamps.

A Chivas - a traditional Colombian party bus

It was a fairly mellow area, with some live music and the occasional party bus swinging through to pick up or drop off folks at a couple of local discos.

The next day we rented bikes and took park in Ciclovia, an event we had been looking forward to the entire trip. Ciclovia is a wonderful Sunday event in Bogota that has spread throughout the city and to all the other major cities in Colombia.  Every Sunday and bank holiday they close 100 km (60 mi) of main streets in Bogota and open them up to bikes, walkers, skaters, and any other form of human powered activity.

Stacie on a street for Ciclovia.

This is an amazing concept!  Of the 9 million people in Bogota, each week 2 million take part in Ciclovia. This number was at first hard to believe, until you grasp that Sundays are treated like national holidays, with nearly every type of retail establishment closed.

Out on the roads, you see all types of participants, hard-core riders, lots of runners and roller bladers, strollers, seniors, kids with training wheels, and even some yoga on the side.  There's free repair stands and food vendors set up all over the place.

There are truly so many people out on the streets, it would be hard for someone to attempt a real road-biking work out. It would be like driving fast and weaving through city traffic in your car. You can do it, but you'd look like a jerk and risk hurting someone.

This is a map of Bogota, the streets in red are closed to cars for Ciclovia.  Keep in mind, Bogota is HUGE.

They station each intersection with police, to direct any surrounding traffic, so it's very safe and has a sense of order on the roads (contrary to Colombia's usual organic driving style).  We did notice that it doesn't take much to start breathing hard in Bogota at 8600 ft!

This was such a fun and amazing way to spend the morning! And the people watching was non-stop. People were clearly enjoying the day--families hanging out together enjoying the sunshine, teenage girls roller-blading in packs, and skate boarders gliding between bikes. One of the best parts was that it was a completely relaxed, non-competitive environment. Everyone was welcome and everyone could participate.

Justin waiting at a stoplight with a bunch of other riders.

Heading across town, up the overpass, toward Calle 7, which is right at the base of the mountains.

Yup, you see it all at Ciclovia. This picture was too good to pass up.

We were cracking up watching this gal try to get her dog onto her bike.  Her dog had had enough and refused to go any further.  First she tried to wrap it in her sweater and strap the dog to her back, but that didn't work.  Eventually she got the dog to straddle the bars and away they went.  Classic.

Here we are enjoying a night at Park 93

So that's our Colombia trip.  It started out a little rough, but by the end of the trip we really fell in love with the place.  Salento was a treat and Villa de Leyva was by far our favorite spot.

Tomorrow morning we hop on a flight to Atlanta and then on to Seattle.  We're a bit sad to leave, but looking forward to seeing our kitties.

Food and Doorways in Villa de Leyva

OK, we've complained about the food in Colombia, but Villa de Leyva has awesome food!  Every single meal we've had has been great, even by Seattle standards.  Well, except the coffee.  Go to a cafe and order a cappuccino, and soon you'll hear the microwave go beep - your coffee is almost ready.  But I digress...  The town and the food is amazing.

Not only do the restaurants have great food, but they ooze with charm. A few of them look out onto the cobble streets or the main square, but most of them are tucked into the old colonial buildings, hidden behind modest exteriors, with big, open courtyards inside them.

A charming restaurant deep inside a colonial square.

Villa de Leyva is a town that rewards exploring.  The buildings are all whitewashed with understated entry doors.  But go inside those doorways and it's like walking into a magical building that is larger than life.  Many little doorways opened to 4 restaurants and a handful of artisan shops with open air courtyards, complete with trees and fountains.  They are also open late for dinner and drinks, as Colombian life goes a lot later than we're used to.

The entrance to Hotel Sol de la Villa - our hotel

Our hotel was much the same.  Very small and modest on the outside, but opens to 3 separate buildings inside with 2 outdoor areas and 30 charming rooms.  But it really didn't look like much from the street.

One of the courtyards in our hotel.

The view to "inside" our hotel from our room.

Below is another example of the treasures you can find inside a small doorway.

Enter this tiny doorway to find nine charming restaurants.

Almost impossible to believe, the basic door above opens into the huge courtyard (below) with restaurants on all sides and a few shops selling crafts and art.

Behind the door, a sunny courtyard and restaurants all around.

Then you go through a corridor and there are two other plazas with more restaurants (below).  It's like a little secret city inside, and all very charming with great food everywhere.  You can just hang out in the restaurants and enjoy an entire day or night.

I think we found out why the food in Villa de Leyva is so amazing.  Our favorite restaurant turned out to be MiCocina, which is part of Academia Verde Oliva - a cooking school. 

Our favorite restaurant, MiCocina.

The restaurant had a fixed price, four course meal (including a glass of fresh squeezed juice and dessert) for lunch every day that was amazing and only $5.  Honestly, both the best and the cheapest food we'd had all trip. You can see in the picture, that when closed, this restaurant disappears behind to gated doors.

Villa de Leyva

Villa de Leyva is a colonial town about 3 hours from Bogota.  It's in a heavily agricultural area, where valleys of farms are separated by steep mountains and curvy little roads that go between them.  The story is that Villa de Leyva was a wheat producing town, but they didn't rotate crops and soon wheat wouldn't grow any more.  The town was considered cursed, and it was abandoned.  This allowed the town to escape modernization, and the original buildings and cobblestone streets remained preserved.  Fossils are so common here that you see them in the cobbled sidewalks.

All the streets are ancient cobbles, and all the buildings are white plaster with tile roofs and green trim.

Today, the town is home to some of the wealthiest Colombians as well as many expats, some of whom operate hotels, shops, and fantastic restaurants. Yes, we said fantastic. Finally. Villa de Leyva also strikes that perfect balance between easy travel and a very authentic vibe.  It's also beautiful in a unique way.

This was actually a street with professional offices such as dentists and accountants.

Looking toward the large Plaza Mayor in the heart of town.

It is incredibly safe and comfortable here.  The days are mid 70s with cool nights.  The food is also amazing, and not just by Colombian standards.  Every meal was excellent!

Looking out to the cathedral and Plaza Mayor.

While we spent one day out of town visiting all the fossils and archeological sights, we mostly enjoyed wandering town, eating and drinking and chatting with fellow travelers. Everyone around town seems to know each other and people are very cordial with one another. It's easy to see why those who can afford it make a home here.

At night, locals and tourists sit on the colonial cathedral steps and just hang out.

Evenings are spent gathering in the main plaza, chatting with friends and family. The town is so safe, it wasn't at all unusual to see children out and about on their own after dark. It's clearly a very wealthy community where people feel quite comfortable.  Students from kids to college walk around at night with their instruments, and we heard many of them practicing who were quite good. We're not sure, but this must be a place with a respected music school.

Lots of flowers hanging from white washed colonial walls.

We quickly developed a special affection for this town and could have easily stayed longer. Not only was the food some of the best we've eaten anywhere, the weather and the community environment created by the citizens made it hard to leave.

Around Villa de Leyva

We traveled to the other side of the Andes where the climate is arid and the landscape and mountains resemble something similar to central Washington. A four hour drive out of Bogota led us to Villa de Leyva, a lovely mountain town that sits at about 7000 feet and is surrounded by huge mountains.

On the drive to Villa de Leyva

On the drive to Villa de Leyva

 This tree sits on the edge of town, and based on the power lines toward the bottom, you can see how it towers over the street. The enormous amount of moss hanging from the branches swayed in the wind like the Wamping Willow from Harry Potter.

 A glimpse of some of the exotic animal and plant life we've seen everywhere we go in Colombia.

Scary spider in a spiky desert palm.

ARCHEOLOGICAL SITE:
Just out of town is an unusual astronomical observatory/ site for fertility rituals. The site is believed to be over 2200 years old.  It's basically a large field full of phallic statues, that apparently also work as sun dials and coordinate in shadow length through the seasons and solstices.  Unfortunately, our lack of Spanish prevented us from learning much more about it.

As strange as it seems at 7000 feet, the area is covered with marine fossils.  110 million years ago (Cretaceous period), Villa de Leyva was a shallow saltwater bay. The silt in the bay allowed for a great deal of fossilization, to the point where the cobble stone city streets are scattered with fossils.

A mostly complete skeleton of Pliosaurus (think gigantic crododile with giant turtle fins) was discovered and excavated about 3 miles from town. The local residents chose to leave it in its original location and build a small museum around the fossil itself.

Pliosaurus

We went on a little hike around the pozos azules. Ponds of water that are colored turquoise green because of the minerals in the ground. Some interesting pine trees grow in the area that once again remind us of parts of Washington.

Pine trees that remind us of home.

 

At one of the Pozos Azules

We headed to Medellin for a five night stay in the city after deep relaxation in the coffee region.  The area we stayed is a nice area called Zona Rosa, which is where most tourists stay in the city.  We were a 4 block walk to a Parque Lleras, a little park surrounded by restaurants and discos which was a weekend hot spot.

Modern architecture in Medellin at Parque Lleras

Once we got used to the neighborhood and realized it was quite safe and we weren't going to get murdered or kidnapped, we enjoyed wandering around the neighborhood.  We had a fun dinner on Friday night when the park was buzzing with people.  Colombians really enjoy their weekends and love to party.

Medellin still has the stigma of "murder capital of the world" for most people from home, and it took a few days to fully shake that from our minds.

The city is very nice in areas, but also has a lot of slums where it wouldn't be safe for foreigners.  It's a good reminder of how lucky we are to live in a wealthy and affluent city.

On Saturday we went to the Museo de Antiquia downtown in the main plaza.  It is an art museum that has a huge collection of works by Fernando Botero, as well as permanent collections of Colombian art and a great modern exhibit of works from 1968 - 1972.  It is a large museum, and we thought it was excellent.

Voluminous (not fat, we were told) Botero sculptures in Plaza Botero, downtown.

Botero is the most famous artist in Colombia, and was born in Medellin in 1932.  He style is distinct, with all of his subjects and landscapes having a voluminous style.   He started with mostly oil paintings, and later began doing sculptures. 

After the museum we had a lovely snack at the cafe on the steps of the museum, overlooking the large plaza.  The place started coming alive, and it is certainly the place to come for middle class Colombians on a Sunday.  There were also college kids doing musical interpretive dance in the plaza that was drawing quite a crowd.

Stacie at Plaza Botero.

It was a really great day, and it was time to grab a cab back to our Hotel. A few minutes into the ride we witnessed a dead body in the road from a motorcycle accident that must have just happened. First responders were onsite, but for whatever reason, the body remained in the road. Ugh, didn't need to see that.

After being traumatized, we realized we were going through new neighborhoods.  Justin asked the cab driver with his 20 words of Spanish, and we hoped that he'd get back on track.  15 minutes later we're basically to the outskirts of Medellin, way past our hotel, still going the wrong way. Stacie yelled Senor!  Donde???  After a few minutes we start heading the right way, but with a lot more turns that necessary. It was infuriating to be so powerless. Had we spoken spanish, we could have called him out.

In most other foreign cities we would have hopped out at a stop light and found another cab, but this being Medellin, we were way to chicken. 

As soon as we recognized that we were in a safe area, we got out.  What should have been a 20 minute ride took over an hour and cost 3x as much.  We realize that cabbies around the world are known to rip off non-native speakers and tourists, but in Colombia, this had us a bit freaked out.  We should've taken the metro (light rail). 

After we got out of the cab we walked for 30 minutes back to our hotel, and it was nice to stretch our legs and work off some anxiety.

Justin at Fellini Hambuerguesa Gourmet.

The next day we had a lazy Sunday in our hotel, and went to a fantastic burger joint just 2 blocks away.  The food was good even by U.S. standards!  Justin had an avocado burger and mojito, and Stacie had great veggie tacos piled high with avocado.  Yummm!

Off to Medellin

Today is a travel day as we fly from the Pereira airport to Medellin, Colombia's second largest city. We were still feeling the effects of our sunburns in the shade, and then we had to hop on this little puddle jumper to hop over the Andes Mountains.

Both of us are pretty comfortable flying, but this is one flight we did not enjoy.  The flight started off smooth, but about 2/3 of the way to Medellin we headed right into a series of thunder clouds in this small plane.  The plane was rolling and shaking and dropping and bumping for what felt like 30 minutes.  It was probably only 5 minutes, but it was no fun.  This was one of the worst flights we've ever been on.

Coffe Tour and Botanical Garden

We managed to pull ourselves away from the paradise of Hotel Mirador for a couple day trips.  The first was for a tour of a coffee farm (finca) and the other was to the Botanical Gardens of the Quindio region.

En route to tour a coffee farm, we see actual coffee farmers on the road.

The coffee tour was to a place called Recuca.  It's a semi-functional coffee farm that is mostly an educational tour where they tell you all about growing coffee, different varieties, history of coffee in Colombia, and the drying and roasting process.  There were definitely some campy aspects to it, but the info was great and the setting was really nice.

Gringo grande posing for a campy picture.

Being English speakers, we got our own private guide.  Usually you go with a group, but we were the only ones who spoke English that day.  Sweet!

Young coffee plants ready to go into the ground.

 We learned a ton of interesting info about growing coffee.  Coffee is originally from Ethiopia, each plant produces 1/2 Kilogram of beans per year, plants live for 15 years and don't start producing beans until they're 2 years old.  The coffee region in Colombia is very rural, and the workers hardly make any money.  A skilled picker will harvest 300 KG of beans per day, and make about $1.75.

Walking around the farm, you couldn't help but recognize the disconnect between the rural and poor farming side of coffee and the experience we have drinking it at home. For a moment, it feels upsetting, but gaining this kind of understanding is one of the reasons we travel in the first place.

Stacie among the coffee plants.

After the tour we had a traditional Paisa (term for the people of the region) lunch.  It was actually pretty good!


2 Days Later, the Jardin Botanico del Quindio

The next little day trip we took was to a really great botanical garden about 30 minutes away.  It's the only botanical garden in Colombia that's in a national park, and contains a native forest inside it.

Once again, we paid for an English guide.  The guide was highly knowledgeable and had studied environmental management, and not only knew a lot about the Colombian environment, but also about ecosystems around the world.  His enthusiasm really came through, and we learned a lot!

Our guide Diego was awesome!

These "trees" are actually the tallest ferns on earth.

Colombia is second only to Brazil in biodiversity, number of plant and insect species, and has the most species of palm trees of any country.  Diego was throwing down all kinds of knowledge!

 

Colombia is possibly the greenest place we've ever been.

There were all kinds of strange and amazing plants here, including the spiky palm trees pictured below, the world's tallest ferns, tallest bamboo, and tallest palm trees, which we'd seen in the wild when we visited Cocora.

Included in the botanical garden is a huge butterfly pavilion.  There were tons of butterflies flitting around, landing on you, and munching on the plates of fruit that were set out for them.  The coolest butterflies were small and had perfectly transparent wings that looked like they were outlined in shimmery copper.  Very cool, but they didn't hold still long enough to get them on camera.

Stacie and a friend in the butterfly garden.

Roughing it in Colombia

Roughing it in the Colombian Andes, where the biggest risk is falling out of the pool.

We're now at an amazing hotel just outside the town of La Tebaida, with the nearest big town of Armenia about 25 minutes away.  This is our last stop in the coffee region, and we plan to enjoy more mind blowing scenery and go to a few local tourist sites.

The Hotel is Mirador las Palmas, and is run by two incredibly friendly guys (who speak English!), Joshua and Omar,who traded in the corporate life to run this little hotel on a beautiful farm.  Joshua used to be a real estate attorney in Miami, and Omar is from Colombia (also used to work stateside).  Their hotel is a magical place, it is the most stunning location we've ever seen.  Pictures don't do it justice.

The view from our balcony.

 The farm is on the steep hillside that drops down from the rooms. Guests are encouraged to hike around and explore the botanical gardens and fruit trees on the property.