Salt mines, Coffee farms, and Botero Scultpures

Hi all,

We made it back with no problem from what once was the murder capital of the world. Medellin, Colombia. Before we get into this part of our latest adventure let’s start from the top.

Upon returning from our trip with Eric and Vicky we decided to stay in Bogota for a few days before heading out again on the road. During this down time we made a day trip to an outside suburb of Bogota called Zipaquira. Zipaquira is home to Colombia's first wonder of the world, an ancient salt mine that to this day still yields tons of salt per day but has also been partially converted into an underground cathedral. We started the hour long tour and soon found out by the guide that taking pictures would quickly drain our camera's battery due to the positive ions that salt creates in the mine. Some how that eats up battery power REALLY quickly. Despite this warning we were still able to get a few good pics. This place is pretty unbelievable, the fact that there is a full cathedral hundreds of feet below the earth is surreal enough, but also knowing that the mines will yield salt for another 500 years is just as surprising. After this trip we spent the rest of days in Bogota until we hit the road once again.

We left Bogota a few Saturdays ago after this day trip on a dreary fall day on guess what… another bus! The trip was lengthy and a bit unrest full. The entire country is experiencing dramatic down pours with land slides in every part of the country. We passed a few of these during the bus ride and feared we may be significantly delayed if one happens to occur on the road we were on. Luckily we had no problems and received a warm welcome from Uncle Mario, who lives in Calraca, a very small city right outside of Armenia, another small city.

Calarca is located within Colombia’s coffee zone, where the world’s largest export of coffee is located. Mario is very knowledgeable about the area and we rode out with him to various pueblos around the coffee zone. The places he took us were quite unique because most of the places we visited have hardly been visited by most Colombians, let alone any foreigners. You can imagine how many strange looks we got from the locals as we strode through their town. It was also great hearing about the little known facts that only someone who lives in that area would know about. For example, he took us to a bridge where dozens of opposers of the Colombian mafia have been hung, scary yes, but the region is quite safe now.

Upon passing this bridge we ended up at the entrance of the national coffee park. We stopped here for a bit to buy some fresh ground coffee to take back home along with some other souvenirs. Next stop was Rionegro where we ate a mango with lime and salt, a typical treat in this little town, and then we took off to Salento a tiny village at the edge of the coffee zone. We spent most of the rest of the day here perusing various shops and taking in the easy going atmosphere of this quant little town.

The next day we visited the Guadua museum. Guadua is a form of bamboo that is used for constructing everything from table wear all the way to homes. The wood is extremely durable and has multiple uses. It’s really too bad the infrastructure is not strong enough in this part of the country to seriously consider this as a profitable alternative to bamboo. Later that day we visited a park in Armenia that contained a happy bunch of trippy looking frogs, bugs and little people made of plastic and Christmas lights all around them! We spent about three days in total visiting Mario and then took off on the 9 hour bus to Medellin.

We arrived late on a Monday and checked into the hostel called “The Palm Tree” which is one of the better ones we have stayed at. The staff was really helpful and friendly always offering suggestions for great places to visit in this city. We were really surprised to see how advanced this city is. There is a modern subway that operates 24 - 7 and the amount of beautiful parks and museums in the city was unusual knowing the cities shady background within the past 20 years. Everyone also seemed to really care about what we thought of Medellin. The people here are obviously proud of the dramatic turn around in their city and we felt that people were eager to be sure we enjoyed our stay. While in Medellin, besides visiting Botero square where many of this Colombian artists sculptures are, we made it to Pueblito Paisa, a tiny little square that is an architectural reproduction of what many town squares of this region appeared as.

We also got the chance to visit El Peñon, a huge rock that lies about 2 hours outside of Medellin in a small city called Guatape. After climbing up 629 steps we arrived to the summit to experience one of the most beautiful views I have ever seen. A 360 view of nothing but islands and greenish blue water as far as the eye can see. This place is untapped with very few little vacation homes barely sprinkling the islands hill tops. We spent a good hour up here just taking in the view before making the descent. No one is exactly sure how the rock got there, but most speculate it was a meteor from thousands of years ago.

Our travels have once again landed us back in Bogota and we only have about a week and a half until returning home. It’s both sad and exciting knowing that we are standing on the threshold of life in the states once again, but the intangible gifts we have gained through our four month journey have re-taught us what is so easy to lose site of. We really do live in the most opportunistic and powerful nation of the world; having the privilege of living there is something both of us really would like to thanks our parents for. Without their foresight of a better way of life for a family in the states, the opportunity to take trips like this would be much more difficult if not impossible. This last week and a half will be spent mostly with family. We just got the Christmas tree up for Abuelita today and have a full week of family visits. Miss you all and see you soon!

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