favorites::

1- our hostal and all the great people we met in it

2- going to an underground salsa bar. the kind of place that has no sign on the door, and you would think was just a random abandoned building…until you go inside and suprise….salsa bar!

3- people from medellin officially have the prettiest eyes of all of colombia. i kept seeing deep greens, blues, hazel everywhere i went.

4- the cute 70 yr. old man at the salsa bar that was hands down the best dancer i have ever seen. (and he knew it :-) )

5- the bustling city…reminded me of a small manhatten….

6- finally getting to take a break from the extreme heat and relax a bit in the “city of eternal spring”

7- going on a tour bus completely in spanish….where the  tour lady spoke so freakin fast neither of us had any idea what she was saying….more on that later….

8- watching the World Cup in south america was a completely different experience…the bars were packed with people hours before the game!  thankfully we managed to find a small bar that no one had discovered yet!

8- oh you know….paragliding over the entire city of medellin. yeah, that was cool ;-)

so we left the carribean coast and headed for the mountains for our last days in colombia. medellin was like being in an entirely different country. it’s a trendy city whose nickname is “the city of eternal spring” this is because the weather there is perfect and constant year round. it’s nearness to the equator makes it warm with a slight breeze and really just fantastic weather to walk the city around in.  go up the mountains some and you find miles and miles of cows, horses, huge farms, cowboy hats, and paragliding!

but first…Casa de Sol….

such a fun place to stay, and made me miss my days at VCU were art like this surrounded you everywhere….

1- belgium friends 2- australian friends 3- australian and scotland with wisconsin :) 

more obleas! only this time filled with mora….similar to blackberry….

shaved mango….topped with condensed milk, cinnamon, honey…..and sprinkles! any fruit topped with sprinkles gets a thumbs up in my book.

this was a very important church in medellin that we learned about in our tour. like i mentioned, the tour was in spanish and the lady spoke freakishly fast. so we both concluded that the tour lady said this church is famous because it is the biggest church made out of rice and corn.

what? it makes TOTAL sense….

p.s. paragliding is amazing :)

i took this shot while in the air :)

1- everything

2- the old wooden boats that completely cover the ocean

3- how it’s a beatiful beach…surrounded by even more beautiful mountains

4- the little old man with twinkly eyes who sold me my bracelets and when i told him i was colombian he gave me the biggest hug and said “welcome to your country”

5- sunset.

6- scuba diving for the first time. trying not to panic. and then becoming addicted.

taganga is a little hidden gem town right outside of santa marta. i had no idea what to expect when arriving, but as the taxi turned the corners of the mountain side, i was awestruck by it’s beauty. it has a quaint, small town feel…with a complete laid-back, beach bum attitude. it’s also the place were i would like to build a small house on the side of a mountain and live forever. scuba dive during the day, eat fresh fish for lunch, coco limeades for happy hour, and sit on the beach and watch sunset at night. repeat for 365 days and that sounds like a pretty sweet life if you ask me!

la chiva!! this is colombian’s famous bus. they are used as public transport and now are used more as ”party busses” where at night they play loud music, dance rumba, and take shots of aguardiente while going from town to town :-)

coco limeade for kim. coco limeade with vodka  for astrid  :-)

scuba!! 

creepiest picture ever.

and perhaps my favorite part of the day.

1- being told the we would have to hike the last bit up the mountain to Minca…”should only take about 10 minutes” says the bus driver. Or almost 2 hours.

2- that same hike, bus driver leaves. enter huge rainstorm. not a sprinkle….not just rain…but hard pounding storm. no cell phones. and we aren’t supposed to be picked up for 5 hours. enter mudslides. in the end, we all surrendered to mother nature, took of our shoes, and did the entire hike up….barefoot.

3- the 2 italian guys who ran the dreamer hostal and made me the most amazing spaghetti bolognese of my entire life.

4- waking up to my tongue turned black.

5- the look on kim’s face when i showed her my tongue.

6- listening to the other travelers play guitar while just laying under a straw cabana in the dark….very “child of the 70’s”….just needed a volkswagen.

7- the colombian man on the corner who stood outside with his pizza cart, making the dough from scratch, and selling slices for $1.

8- meeting other travelers from all over the world…dutch, french, irish, canadians, austrians, australians, italians…the list goes on. so interesting to hear the different accents, and be able to connect with people from all different backgrounds.

 and now for pictures. the hike up minca in rainstorm and mud…

the dreamer hostal. perfect in every way.

stop it. don’t judge our super clean and organized room. it was vacation for pete’s sake!

i see you judging and i don’t like it. by the way that is the hostal cat, whom i called “gato”

we did a hike in Tayrona, one of colombia’s most famous national parks located on the carribean coast. probably one of the most beautiful parts of the trip. so beautiful in fact that at times, i felt like i was waiting in line for a ride at disneyworld. the beach, the huge rock formations, endless jungle, and hidden trails…all we needed was fake thunder and mist to start spraying at us. :)

and though i look happy in this picture, it was around that time that i wanted to die. death by heat stroke.

a camper was watching the world cup on his small tv….ended up drawing quite the crowd!

the two food items on the right.

1- fruit parfait.

    -layer guava, passion fruit, guana bana, and lots of others.

   – add fruit syrup topping

   - add granola

   – add jello

   – top with cheese

yes it sounds weird, but i can assure you it was nothing short of amazing.

2- fried cheese balls.

perhaps one of the best nights. just laying under the straw hut listening to this guy play guitar. it was even better when kim started to play. could have laid there and listened all night. we sort of did.

1- getting a full tour of the city of baranquilla with my cousin and her crazy driving, all while praying the car didn’t die on us in the middle of an intersection.

2- spending the day with the entire beach to ourselves, and just talking on the mattress huts and taking silly pictures

3- the amazing discovery of coco limeades.

4- seeing all the old photos of my family growing up

5- dancing rumba until 4am with the locals. i didn’t stand a chance.

6- when my cousin yelled at the bartendar across the beach that if he gave us tap water instead of bottled, she would return us to him herself where we could get diarrhea at HIS house. (thanks for that, monica :-) )

the theme of the next few days was :: family. we paused our backpacking ways for a bit to meet the family in colombia i didn’t even know existed!  it was quite the experience to see how they live, weird that my cousin monica could be my  mom’s twin sister, and unreal that there is this whole crazy colombian family of mine so far away…that could be an exact replica of the family i have and am close with in the US. the way they all interact, all yelling over each other, teasing each other, no one being able to get a word in….there are 3 girl cousins all close….just like me and my 2 other cousins who are super close…..doing the same things we do and making the same jokes as we do. i just sat there amazed that apparently my family is all crazy…whether it’s my US family or my colombian family!

we started out in baranquilla where my mom and all my aunts and uncles grew up. i met for the first time, my cousin monica, and we got to stay at her house….where she showed us how they do it in barranquilla :)

first stop….the beach…where they have mattresses to sleep in and were we discsovered coco limeades. oh i how i miss coco limeades…

the storyboard below sums up our second day. running errands all over barranquilla….to the post office, doctor, bank, grocery store, vegetarian restuarant, auto mechanic (you know…in case our car died….)

oh and there was the time i tried cow tongue and liver.

no, i don’t want to talk about it.

that house below…that is the house my mom grew up in. cool, right ? :)

if there was one thing i wish we had in the US, it was these fresh fruit  and juice stands on every corner.

i was on the hunt for colombian obleas all week. and monica made it happen for me :) seriously, the only way to describe it is 2 giant Eucharists (yes, like from church) stuffed with arequipe….which is colombian’s version of dulce de leche.

the ice cream on the right….monica took us to my papi beto’s (grandfather’s) favorite ice cream shop growing up. apparently he always ordered these malteadas….which is similar to chocolate frozen yogurt with guava syrup topping. sweet baby jesus this was good.

next stop…El Rodadero! reminded me of ocean city….colombian style! this was a girls trip with kim and i, and about 5 of my girl cousins. this is the same place where topless colombian men walk along the beach, chopping open coconuts and filling them with liquor. obviously we were only interested in the coconuts. obviously.  ;-)

we stopped at my aunt and uncles apartment while visiting….where i uncovered tons of photo albums of my entire family from when they were young. crazy, i tell you! she even pulled out this huge posterboard she is attempting to fill with a picture of every single member of the family on it- from colombia AND the US. those fuzzy album pictures you see are my mom and grandfather on my parent’s wedding day, and another one of my grandmother and grandfather when they were young. the portrait of the woman is my great- great grandmother. we went to dinner that night and took a HUGE family picture- it’s crazy to think i’m related to all of them!

it was great to meet my famiy in colombia, and we were lucky to get the unique experience to actually live like a colombian for a few days. it was hot, i was attacked by bugs, and i ate way more food then the FDA recommends….BUT…as always….i wouldn’t trade it for the world :-)

favorites:

1- watching all the locals dance champata, gettin all down and dirty ;-)

2- walking through  cartagena at night, all twinkly lights and magical

3- eating all the fried food.

4- and coconut rice.

5- spending hours on a small beach talking with two locals about all things U.S….obama….our health care system….and how different the two countries are. entire converstation….in spanish. (so proud of my wisconsin friend!)

La Boquillla = The Happiest Place On Earth.

La Boquilla is a small fishing village outside of Cartagena. it’s an extremely poor neighborhood, where the houses are the size of bedrooms and filled with many people. many don’t have doors, or a proper roof, and definitely no AC (in 100+ degree whether with 80% humidity). having said that, these were the happiest and nicest people. the entire neighborhood treats each other like one big family, and the streets are filled with children playing soccer, dancing, and having fun.

funny enough, i really didn’t shoot very much. at first i was hesitant to take out my big ole canon in front of the city of cartagena, and then it just became a pain lugging the equipment around. so my point and shoot became my best friend. everything i shot, i shot for fun. i shot at times the “photographer” in me normally wouldn’t have. i shot in terrible lighting situations, without overanalyzing composition, and even used direct flash if i had to. so forgive me if these images are not be the most breathtaking, or technically correct, or maybe they are even out of focus and fuzzy. i’m ok with that. because this post is more for me. to remember the amazingness that was my fifteen days in colombia :-)

perhaps the first of many questionable decisions :-)

i know some people were interested in our accomodations- well here is Hostal Arrecifes….and meet Clara who runs the place and was so sweet to us!

within the first 24 hours we had pretty much done everything everyone told us NOT to do. go on random tours through the jungle. trusted locals. ate food from homeless men. (oops that was just me) ….but i like to consider these decisions we made “educated risks” :-) ….hence the following storyboard. going with 2 locals on a private canoe tour through mangroves and jungle with no one around. just sun, water, a private beach and a ton of crabs. one of the best days ever.

oh you know….just walking around the beach and the neighborhood…and look who happens to stop by… they just walked right by us (no leashes or anything kim! :-) )needless to say i was a little stunned…this was the first of many times i remember thinking….”this CAN’T be real life?”

city of Cartagena

this is what happens after a night out in Cartagena. two photographers… trying to figure out how to focus a point and shoot….

love nuggets.

this little girl (Disnella) was THIS close to coming home with me. i was dreaming up ideas of how to explain to my husband that we adopted a little colombian girl.