Farewell Colombia, Until Next Time!

Cartagena

Well we made it to our last (and possibly favorite) stop, Cartagena! We hit the old city with credit cards in hand, finally ready to comprando some fabulous Colombian souvenirs. 

Here's what we like about Cartagena:

1. All the pescado, langostino, y camarones you can dream of!

2. The Disneyland-esque charm.

3. The fact that piña coladas are sold at convenience stores. And there is a convenience store in our building. :)

4. There are no nunubes here.

5. After a week of roughing it with ocean showers and living amongst animales, we're back to traveling in style. We clean up well, no?

Parque Tayrona

We headed from central Colombia up to the Caribbean coast into the national park called Tayrona. Our Eco Habitat accommodations are the plushest available, and though we aren't sharing our quarters with other travelers, we have a handful of squatters each night including (but certainly not limited to): geckos, lizards, bats, cockroaches the size of your fist, mice, and what we like to call, a nunube. Nunubes are small rodenty creatures that like to eat lollipops at night and poop hair ties on your bed. We have yet to see the face of one, but I assure you they are the enemy and your only hope in surviving a night with one is by arming yourself with a golf umbrella.

These few days in Tayrona have been filled with beaches, jungle views, hikes right out of Romancing the Stone, animales, jugos de coco, and DEET. Tomorrow, on to Cartagena! 

Perdon, señor. ¿Donde?

Nighttime entertainment: gecko watching.

Our accommodations:

Muy Lejos

For our last day in Villa de Leyva, we were directed by Bonnie and William, our finca hosts, to take a hike to some waterfalls via a stop by some ruins. According to William, the distance was "muuuuuuy lejos" but Bonnie assured us it would be well worth it. And it was. 

Plus, we saw a llama.

Back in town, we ended up at the annual tree and plant festival. Of all the customs-friendly festivals we could have ended up at...

Bogotá Street Art

The gorgeous street art in Bogotá deserves its own post. This stuff is everywhere, and puts San Francisco graffiti to shame. I mean, space rodents with light sabers, come on!

Caballeras Colombianas

Today we were guided by Mauricio and his caballos outside of town to the Pozos Azules. The Pozos are little aqua ponds that are interesting enough to require an entry fee, but the real sight was that of four gringas de San Francisco on galloping horses. 

Muy linda, no?

Carne de Res

Apparently no visit to Colombia is complete without a meal at Andres Carne de Res. We'd heard rave reviews about the food and the spectacle of the environment and neither disappointed. 

So much carne, and we ate it all for our last meal in Bogotá. 

Yesterday we were shuttled by Fernando, the best taxi driver in el mundo, from Bogotá to our next stop Villa de Leyva. The 6 hour journey began with a stop at the Zipaquirá Salt Cathedral, a series of enormous underground caverns in a salt mine. There are around a dozen salt cavern sanctuaries inside. And yes, the walls do taste salty.

The puebla of Zipaquirá is like one big Sonic Drive-In, if rollerskating highs schoolers were salty Colombianos and burgers were giant slabs of meat roasting on open fires on the sidewalk. These hombres bring "tastes" of their meat up to your car window for free so you'll come back and buy more.

Fernando didn't think we'd had enough carne in the last 24 hours, so he made one last stop in Sutamárchan so we could try their specialty sausage. The meat platter came with the special longiza, rellena (a sausage of pork, rice, peas, and blood), beef, pork, and of course, arepas.

Hot with the meat sweats, we finally made our way to the finca in Villa de Leyva to wallow in the food coma.

5 Things We Learned About Taxis in Bogotá

1. Lanes, lights, and one way streets are merely suggestions to taxi drivers. 

2. When it rains, it is "muy complicado" to get a taxi. Near "impossible." 

3. Anything within 1.5 miles is "muy cerquito," meaning extremely close, and one should walk even in torrential downpour. The Colombian mujeres are doing it in 6 inch heels.

4. Anything within 5 miles is "muy lejos," meaning much too far, for taxis to drive.

5. Anything involving taxis and going anywhere is "muy complicado."

Mas Carne

We began the day as all well respecting chicas should, in the Macarena (i.e., the Castro of Bogota) at yet another meatfest of a meal. Tabula came recommended to us by someone very close to our hearts, Anthony Bourdain, and I'm sure he would be quite proud of the amount of food we put away in one sitting. 

All the major food groups: fish, beef joint, pork, and some vegetales por our salud. Oh yes, and vino, obvimente.

Well fed, we headed for the major tourist area, La Candelaria, where we hit up Iglesia San Francisco to pay homage to our patron saint of fog, then trucked through the gold museum before hailing a gondola up Mt. Monserrate for sunset views of the city. 

All that tourisimo is muy exhausting, so mañana we're heading to the spa!

Aqui en Bogota

After a raucous night at the airport Best Western in Ft. Lauderdale, we arrived in Bogota yesterday morning with one thing on the mind: food. Colombia is said to do two things well: carne y fruta. Entonces, our first stop, meat. 

I didn't even have time to take a photo before this meat and empanadas platter was destroyed. Verdict: Carne es bueno. Necisitamos mas. 

We spent the rest of the day getting to know the city by perusing the produce sections of three different grocery stores and promptly purchasing every single item that was unfamiliar. And that's how we ended up with a hotel room full of todos las frutas de Colombia. We sampled a handful of said frutas and have thus far concluded that we love lulo, a tangy sweet kiwi-ish fruit, and we no gusta curuba, a sour, crunchy, squishy item that we decided was too... um, penisy in shape, and will henceforth be known as dickfruit. No mas dickfruit, por favor.

New trip, new look!

We're off on another adventure! For this festive occasion, Verna and I put our graduate degrees in design to good use in developing the blog theme. Conceptually, it represents the multitude of characters we'll meet along the journey. Realistically, it represents the 12 year-old girls that we become when we're together. Follow along as we trek through Colombia, and if you don't hear from us for many days... Check the news. :)