Colombia update

We have now been in Colombia for a few days and haven` t done much of an update so here it is.

Our first full day in Bogotá we went on a city tour. We had a personal guide who took us to a few different places throughout the city. The first place we went was an agricultural preserve area. The preserve consisted of 120 families who acquired some land in the south of Bogotá. They all have individual farms where they do organic farming and they have also set aside a large plot of land to keep the native plants from being wiped out. We hiked through this area and had a great view of the city from the top of the hill that we climbed. We were both amazed at how large Bogotá was.
From here we went back into the heart of the city and went to the Gold Museum. This museum is much smaller than your average museum but it only contained gold that was found from the natives of Colombia. The gold work was incredibly detailed and still in great shape. There was very fine detail in each piece, and the difference from region to region was amazing. They even had pieces from the “kings” dress attire. It was truly awe inspiring. After the gold museum we walked around down town through the main square where they had all the Christmas decorations up. The main decoration this year was a HUGE ice castle. It wasn’t really ice but still neat to see some piece of home.

We spent the night at the Radisson hotel courtesy of Ricardo’s grandmother. This was our first night in a nice hotel and it was so relaxing. The pool was closed for a wedding reception so we went out exploring and found a local mall. It was basically a typical mall but we were able to find an outdoor ice cream vendor and got some of the best tasting ice cream we have had in a long time. It tasted like it had been home made, yummy.

Our second day in Bogotá we traveled North of the city to a very famous and religious lagoon. The lagoon is at about 3000 to 3500 meters high ( about 10,000 feet) so its not your typical lagoon. It is surrounded by natural vegetation, and tall trees even at the high elevation. The lagoon is famous because the legend has it that the natives used to make sacrifices of gold and emeralds in the lake for prosperity. Many people tried to get the gold out of the lake, one even went as far as trying to draining the lake. But most or all went bankrupt from trying.
After the lagoon we went to the Salt Cathedral. This cathedral is 180 meters under ground in a salt mine. There are 3 chapels in the cathedral and with chairs it will seat 3000 people for mass. They even still have mass here every Sunday. As you walk down into the main chapel you will pass the stations of the cross. These are all carved in or out of the salt depending on what it was to depict. It was truly an amazing work of art. We did get some pictures but considering we were under ground and had minimal light to work with its hard to get the full impact of the Cathedral.
After the cathedral we went to Angela and Ricardo’s house for a BBQ. WOW, they have an incredible place in the country just outside the city. Angela and Ricardo have been the best in helping with our trip. They set up the tour guide, our hotel, and even took us over to a friends house with them and translated the conversation. We felt very included and very grateful for all they have done for us. Thank you Ricardo and Angela for everything.

We are currently starting our second day in Cartagena. We are staying at another first class hotel courtesy of Ricardo’s grandmother. The hotel is located in the old part of the city that is surrounded by a fortress wall. Many of the old cannons are still in place and sticking out through the wall.
We spent yesterday on another city tour where we were taking to an old monastery that was built I think in the 1600`s. It was on top of the highest hill in the area and gave a great view of the city as the sun was going down. We also went by the largest fort in the area, actually I believe it is the largest fort in South America. It was a fort that was created to defend the city against pirates of the Caribbean. It is an interesting place because it actually faces inland. The reason for this is the reefs are so shallow that the pirates had to come from the bay. No pirate ever captured the fort.
Today we plan to go on a kayak trip and this evening we are going on the Chivas (party bus). This will take us on a tour of the city’s hot night spots. Hopefully we will be up in time tomorrow for our boat trip out to some island where we will spend the day swimming in the Caribbean.

We will try to get another update soon
Jeanne and Rick