Colombian City Tour

---

Our desires to see Natural Wonders of the World and spending humanitarian time in quaint little villages helping the indigineous people learn the ways of the modern world have been thwarted by the dancers insistance that we stick to the bigger cities. Thus, over the next couple of weeks we found ourselves in Medellin and Bogota.

Pablo Escobar, the leader of the biggest Colombian drug cartel, called Medellin his home and dealin cocaine was his game. Luckily, the violence surrounding such business ventures has calmed down a bit in the last couple of years and as a result I was only tear-gassed on one occasion. I was just sitting down to a big slice of pizza when a large crowd of people came running past...yelling and throwing rocks and other small scale riot antics. Soon, the police came marching down the street followed by a tank and other armed authorities. One guy shot a tear gas canister right in front of the pizza place and we felt the effects shortly after.

One of our Medellin days was spent paragliding. The city is built in the valley between two mountain ranges, and soaring around on a clear day was one of the best experiences of the trip so far.

After a couple of days, we left for Bogota. Here, we had to leave behind two of our Aussie pals, but our farwells from the night before were satisfactory. Our plan was to spend a couple days in the city, and then make it out to a climbing area I had heard about just north of town called Suesca. When we got there, we met a guy working at the climbing shop named Freddie who agreed to take us climbing for the next couple of days since the shop was closed. Most of the climbs were really nice. There were a couple good 9 and 10 face climbs and some decent exposure on arete routes which overlooked the fields below. The climb of the trip was the last one on the second day. It was my first multi-pitch route with Freddie leading on trad. Topped out just before sunset and all was good for the day...

The day after, Taylor and I rented bikes and explored some of the surrounding area. We ended up getting slightly lost, and on the complete other side of a lake. Had to bike the last part home in the dark and came home to bad news. One of the dancers had flipped over her handlebars coming back and ended up fracturing her shoulder. The rest of the night and next couple of days in Bogota were spent at hospitals trying to help Susan feel better and laughing at TBag speaking spanish to the nurses.

---

Photos

Bet Part 2
Here´s a look at TBag´s new haircut. Blonde mullet.

Medellin
Looking down onto the town from our launch pad.

Flying!
Those are my shoes

Comments

[anonymous]

I did not know that one of the dancers was injured. Hope she is doing better.

[Aunt Lisa]

Oh My Gosh!
Unbelievable! Do you realize how lucky you are? You are having experiences that will make GREAT stories for the rest of your life! I love reading about your adventures! Love you, take care, keep having fun!