I started our post-Christmas vacation after an incredibly rough 36+ hour of OB call... and was totally zonked out en route to the airport. A vacation was much needed, while it took me a while to recover enough to enjoy myself.
Since we had some hours to kill before our red-eye, we spent time with Jimmy and Kieu in San Jose, where the boys got a kick out of mini-golf and Kieu's pokemon Lite-Brite!
The lounge at our layover in Panama was still festive!
(Iver has been to Panama as a fifteen-month-old!)
We landed in Medellín, Colombia, late in the day on Friday, and enjoyed our "Urban Studios" Air BnB apartment, in El Poblado barrio, close to lots of shops and restaurants. Colombia is country #68 for me (#43 for Kelvin, #11 for Iver, and #8 for Niall). A few different friends have visited Colombia in recent years, and we were excited to take the kids to another Spanish-speaking country during their long winter break -- we also love traveling in Central and South America, which is generally easy for us to communicate, and inexpensive. Despite some people’s reservations about the country, we feel totally safe here! Colombia is three hours ahead of PST and there are ~4400 pesos/$1 USD.
Iver had the "best burger of his life" at Madurando Parilla (a steakhouse).
(our little vegetarian, meanwhile, rejected even el queso flameado).
The kids loved the outdoor (heated) pool and jacuzzi on el quarto piso.
Street statue.
In the evening, we took an inexpensive Uber ride to the main square in neighboring Envigado, which was lively with Christmas lights and street vendors.
On our first full day, we were guided to El Viejo Peñol, a reconstruction of an old city which was demolished and then flooded in the 1970s to build a hydropower dam to support the surrounding cities.
The old town is underneath the El Peñol-Guatapé reservoir, on which we took a boat ride.
El viento felt a bit cold!
The cross marks the site of la iglesia original.
We then headed to la Piedra del Peñol, a 220m rock one can climb up via ~708 steps. (In the 1950s, three brothers climbed it with primitive equipment).
There was a lot of foot traffic, which made both the ascent and descent slow, but both kids did really well (Niall has come a long way in hiking!) and the views from the top of the reservoir were lovely.
We had lunch with Andrés in the little town of Guatapé.
Los zócalos, painted bottoms of the buildings, showed historical scenes, such as when men were carried up and down the hills of Antioquia. Later, these silletas became part of a flower festival in August.
This happened on the cobblestone street. Oops. The kid responsible also reset a luggage code and partially locked us out of one of our bags. Doh!
The next morning, we had another day tour with Andrés around Medellín, Colombia’s second-largest city.
We started at El Observatorio Agroecológico el Cafetal, a coffee farm and reserve in Envigado.
They greeted us (even the kids) with café y torta.
We walked through the reserve and saw the coffee plants (among other species), and learned about the process of production from germination to roasting (which usually happens off site)-- which takes up to three years! Colombian coffee is of the Arabica variety.
Tobacco plant, to divert pests from the cash crop, the coffee.
mango snack
Pequeños jardineros!
Did you know that the Finns are the biggest consumers of coffee, while the U.S. imports the most?
We then walked through El Jardín Botánico de Medellín, spotting turtles, birds (Colombia apparently has the most species of birds, close to 2,000, of any country!), but no iguanas, which the kids hoped to see.
Nearby Planetarium parque panorama
abhurrido a almuerzo
We then headed to Comuna 13, a favela- like neighborhood in Medellín which used to be one of the most dangerous areas of the cities, but which is now vibrant and delightful.
This slide marked the site of the death of a ten-year-old child caught in crossfire.
Snazzy steps
The streets are so steep that escaleras (moving staircases), while not cost-effective, were installed. We didn’t get to ride Medellín’s cable car system but, along with the metro, it forms a very advanced system of public transportation, perhaps the best in the country!
We ended our tour in el centro de Medellín.
It’s been a great trip so far to a lovely country—we’re onto the Caribbean coast next!
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