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So Bogota wasn’t on our list of “Must Sees,” but fellow travelers (and its convenient location) convinced us that it was worth a stop. Neither of us are huge “city” fans, and I personally believe that in order to truly get to know and enjoy a city, you need to stay for awhile. We weren’t willing to really give Bogota that much time, so we crammed a quick visit in.

We decided to take the night bus from San Gil to Bogota so we could save on a night’s hotel room. A fine and dandy plan, except this time, our bus made it to Bogota in record time. We couldn’t believe how early we were (3:30 am), especially considering our last bus was so dreadfully late. Of course, the one time it would have been fine to be late, the busses were early.

We didn’t want to show up at the hostel so early and get charged for an extra night, so we hung out in the bus station until we couldn’t take it anymore (6:00 am). Surprisingly, the bus station was pretty nice and felt really secure. Luckily when we arrived at the hostel, they gave us our room early and we were able to grab a quick nap.

When we woke up somewhat more coherent, we took a walk through our neighborhood, La Candelaria. This is the historic part of Bogota and it was nice to stroll though.

La Candelaria

We checked out Bolivar Square with its huge cathedral and many, many pigeons.

Bolivar Square

It seems as though there must have been a recent protest, because the Justice Building was COVERED in graffiti. We watched a few workers attempting to scrub it off. It looks like they will be working there for awhile.

Justice Building (only a small portion of the graffiti)

To get a bird’s eye view over the city, we headed over to Monserrate and took the cable car up to the top. Looking out from the top was incredible. There is no way to describe just how large Bogota is. From the top, it seems to just spread forever, and we couldn’t even see all of it.  I think it would take years to really get to know this city.

Cable Car to Monserrate

Bogota from high

We also checked out the world famous Gold Museum. Although nether of us are super into museums, the cheap admission cost (about $1.60)and rave reviews lured us in.

Mask

The pieces were incredible. Some of them were so tiny and intricate. We were amazed by all the different gold working techniques that were used so long ago.  Joe was trying to figure out a way to take some home, seeing how much gold is going for these days.

Such amazing detail!

In one room, we were treated to an amazing light and sound show, highlighting many different pieces. It was beautiful.

Gold Room - Over 3000 pieces

Although we didn’t spend much time there, we did enjoy what Bogota had to offer. Even in a chaotic city, we continued to meet amazingly nice Colombians who would graciously point us in the right direction when we were obviously lost and were patient with our horrible attempts at Spanish.

The Never-Ending City of Bogota

For the non-extreme sports people out there, San Gil still has many things to do. After all the heart pounding excitement, we filled the rest of our days there visiting churches, hanging out in the square, eating, hiking, and visiting other colonial towns in the area. Most evenings, we enjoyed getting dinner, sitting in the square, and watching the world go by.

San Gil Church

The Main Square

San Gil sits at about 5000 feet elevation and it enjoys nice cool temperatures at night and comfortable temperatures during the day. This was a nice change of pace from the sweltering heat that we had been enduring elsewhere in Colombia.

View from the Cross

We stayed at the very nice Hostel Santander Terrace Vista, and despite the road construction going on out front, it was a great stay. They have a beautiful terrace with hammocks and great views to enjoy. Ivan, the owner, was very friendly and helpful with information. Each morning on the terrace, we were warmly greeted by Carmen and a wonderful breakfast with fresh fruit. The hostel and the employees only added to our enjoyment of San Gil.

View from Hostel Terrace

We took a day trip to the small colonial city of Barichara (yes, it seems like we have been seeing a lot of colonial cities, and I think there are MANY more to come). This was another beautiful old town with the usual: a nice square, churches, cobbled streets, friendly people, and colonial houses. As an added bonus, this town had an unbelievable view of the Cordillera de los Cobardes mountains. We were able to soak the gorgeous vistas and soaring birds without anyone else around.

View Point- Cordillera de los Cobardes

We were a bit adventurous by indulging in a local delicacy, the Hormiga. This “treat” is a huge flying ant with a large back side.  Ironically, this insect was a part our fanciest meal (actual sit down restaurant) that we have had since leaving Colorado. We had a rare (REALLY rare) steak topped with the Hormiga ant sauce. The ants were much larger than we thought they would be and they tasted… crunchy. I’m not going to say this was one of the most amazing meals we have ever had, but in honor of our Amazing Race themed trip in San Gil area, we felt it was necessary to enjoy this local cuisine.

Steak with Hormigas (Yes, those beetle looking things are ants!)

From Barichara, we took a nice one and a half hour hike on a historic trail to small pueblo town of Guane. We arrived and were instantly transported back to The Wild West. We walked in to the square behind a cowboy riding a horse. While he hitched his horse up in front of the church, we sat on a bench and prepared for a gun fight to break out at any time. The horses tied to trees, the old weathered men in cowboy hats, and the spooky old chapel created the perfect scene for a Louis L’amour book.

Guane Church

Guane town square

San Gil was a great place to spend five nights and recharge the batteries. It seemed like there was always something to do and the people were as nice as always. We were sad to go, but we can’t stay forever.

On to Bogota…

We took a “pit stop” from our Amazing Race to walk around the town’s botanical garden. These gardens were a bit more organized and corporate than the one in Mompos. By this we mean it had sign, entrance, and actually pathways.

San Gil Botanical Garden

The twisting trails and bridges led us through different gardens with a huge variety of trees, flowers, and bushes. Most of the trees were covered with amazing “Old Man’s Beard.” Seeing it all made Joe a little self conscious about his own beard, but we spent a good amount of time sitting under an amazing old tree watching the Old Man’s Beard sway in the wind.

Old Mans Beard

Beautiful Flowers (Be proud Dad... I knew these were Heliconias)

With all the adrenaline inducing activities available in San Gil, we couldn’t rest for long. We decided to try out caving with a trip to “Cueva de la Vaca.” We have been through caves before in Puerto Rico and in Slovenia, but this looked a little more complicated than just simply walking through. We knew from the pictures that we’d get wet and muddy, but we had no idea the kinds of crazy tasks we would be undertaking in the next hour and a half.

We took a bus to the cave, suited up (put on clothes we wouldn’t mind trashing), got fitted with head lamps (which looked like they have been repaired a hundred times) and put on helmets (scraped up with many war wounds). We headed out with our guide, Luis, from the town, through a cow pasture (hence the name), and in to a small crack in the earth.

Cave Entrance

Now we knew we probably would be getting wet, but we should have realized we’d be soaked when we saw our guide was carrying a dry bag.

The tour began in Spanish as expected: climb over this, duck under that, don’t slip on that, and watch out for the bats. As the cave got smaller and smaller, we found ourselves army crawling through mud and water in order to negotiate the tight spaces.

Things got a bit more hairy when suddenly we were in chest deep water heading towards a solid wall. No way to go but under. This turned out to be one of those time we wished we spoke a little more Spanish.

Time to dive and swim

Our guide explained in slow “Gringo Spanish” what was about to happen. So what we thought we understood was: hold this rope, take a big breath, dive under the water, pull the rope, count to three, and come up on the other side. Seems simple enough, but Joe had to question the guide one more time, as he felt this was not a time to simply nod and say, “Si.”

Once we were safely on the other side, we continued on our cave trip seeing amazing stalagmites, stalactites, crystal ceilings, cool rock formations and Kristen’s favorite… bats!!!

At one point he had us turn off all our lights and he led us by the hand for about 50 feet in absolute darkness. It was strange to know that it was impossible to see anything, no matter how hard you tried.

It was also at this point that he mentioned we were 80 meters underground. We tried not to think about that too much as we continued.

Rose bud of BATS

Enjoying the view

At the end we reached a nice little massaging waterfall and then headed back out the same way we came in. This time, swimming beneath the rock wall was well understood and somewhat less daunting. We enjoyed our time in the cave, but emerging back out into the sun definitely felt good.

Only head room

After our two heart-pumping adventures, we decided to take it easy for the remainder of our time in San Gil.

San Gil is know as “Colombia’s Adventure Capital,” and this town has lived up to its reputation. From rafting to paragliding to caving to hiking to rappelling, this town has plenty of way to injure yourself, or at least get your heart pumping. This only partial list of activities, combined with the difficulty in getting us here (over 17 hours of traveling!), and interesting food choices (the hormiga- a huge ant eaten in this region), have made us feel like we were on an episode of “The Amazing Race.”

For those of you who don’t know this show, it basically consists of teams racing around the world doing many adventurous activities. It’s one of Kristen’s favorites (she is bummed about missing the upcoming season), and surprisingly, we don’t remember them ever racing in Colombia. Well, they are missing out because this town seems to be ready made for their crazy tasks and challenges. Seriously, producers of Amazing Race, take note: Colombia is ready for you!

We started our own “Race” by signing up for an “easy” rappel down a 80 meter waterfall. Doesn’t sound too scary in metric does it? However, 80 meters is just over 250 feet, something we didn’t put together until after agreeing to this task. Had we realized that this was basically like rappelling down an over 20 story building, we might not have gone so willingly.

Waterfall from Afar

We bused to the waterfall and met our guides and fellow “rappellers.” We had an enjoyable 30 minute hike to contemplate our lives and enjoy the jungle scenery before embarking on the rope. We arrived at the waterfall and it was HUGE. Luckily, we were only rappelling down a relatively small section of it.

Upper Waterfall Section

After what seemed like hours peering over the edge while the crew set up the lines, it was time to go. By some cruel twist of fate, Kristen ended up with the best Spanish (that’s not saying much) and ended up playing translator. We were given a safety briefing all in Spanish, of course. Nothing quite like asking yourself, “Now, what did he say?” before jumping off a waterfall.

Getting our "Safety Briefing" (yes, my Chacos have been getting a lot of use here!)

Top of Waterfall

We were first to go, so we would be the ones to pay for any mistranslation. We were strapped in, and with some hesitation and excitement we slowly stepped backwards, closer and closer to the edge of the cliff. The palms started getting clammy and the butterflies fluttered in the stomach. The initial leaning off the edge was the scariest part, but once you realized how secure and somewhat safe you are, the ride down became exhilarating. It wasn’t like a free-fall; you actually had to exert yourself to move downwards.

Joe and Kristen Heading Down (Notice the guy in red at the bottom... we have a long way to go!)

With the birds eye view of the jungle and the water falling on our heads, this was a new and unique experience for us. We both loved every second of it and can’t wait to do it again.

The Waterfall - Note the Rappellers on the Right

Had this been a “Roadblock” on the Amazing Race, we would have definitely made up some time here.

Still to come in our San Gil Race: caving and eating the biggest ants we’d ever seen.

After enjoying Tayrona National Park, we headed off to Mompos, a mere eight hour bus ride away. It wouldn’t have been so bad, but more than half of that was on insane dirt roads. We also randomly saw two flamingos on the way. Not sure if that was normal or not… the driver seemed too excited about it for it to be a common occurrence.

Arriving at night to a new place is always a bit daunting, but we were quickly directed to a large plaza that was pumping out music and had all sorts of street food venders. Being a Saturday night, it seemed the whole city had the same idea, and we quickly found ourselves surrounded by locals enjoying the nighttime festivities. We couldn’t pass up the Hawaiian Pizza and we tried our first “Jugo Naturales” with Lulo Fruit.

Plaza Santa Domingo: Everyone's favorite hangout

Mompos is an old colonial city founded by the Spaniards, and it was used as a interior harbor for many years until the river silted up. It has been described as “a city that time forgot,” and that really couldn’t be a better description.

Filled with seven beautiful churches, amazing colonial houses, and friendly neighbors; it is a city where walking around and saying, “Buenos Dias,” could fill your days. We seriously did not see another English speaking tourist the entire time we were here (great for our Spanish practice!), but there were tourists from other parts of Colombia. Locals were super friendly and wouldd just sit down and start chatting with us. One day, we even taught a local kid how to play Speed (a card game), and even with our horrible Spanish, he totally got it.

View of Santa Barbara Church from the Malecon

Colonial Houses along the River

Mompos from the River

One day we decided to take a tour of the city and the river basin. The city tour was much more informative that I expected it to be. Jose was our guide and took us all throughout the town on a mototaxi. He didn’t speak any English, but he purposely spoke extra slowly and used a lot of hand gestures. I was surprised at how much meaning we gleamed from it all! I counted it as a tour/Spanish class.

Now, tourism is pretty new to this town so our two hour tour was pretty random. Some highlights:

• Going into random people’s houses. Seriously. He would just walk up, say Buenos, and in we’d go. The family would be watching TV or whatever while we walked around. It was interesting to see the colonial houses (open to a garden in the middle) in various stages of disarray. Some were amazingly remodeled and beautiful, but others looked about ready to fall over.

Welcoming us in

• Getting the keys to one of the churches and climbing the tower. Where there’s a tower we must climb it. The view from the top was great. We also tried to go into a second church, but the person with the key wasn’t at home, so that got thrown out.

Kristen unlocking the church

• Walking through the public school. Kristen was pretty excited about this. Joe’s tattoos got a lot of notice.

Mompos' only Public School

• Visiting the cemetery where he told us a crazy story of a general named Maza who executed anyone who pronounced his name like a Spainard. Haven’t fact checked this one yet.

Cemetery

• Jose looked at us in horror when we told him we hadn’t been to botanical garden yet. So he took us. We stopped in front of a wall with a metal gate. No sign to indicate anything of interest. Turns out it was someone’s backyard and didn’t really seem to have any order to it. When we went in, we were given a tour by an older man and he told us about all the medicinal uses for all the plants, Joe almost asked if there was something for boredom. We didn’t understand all of it, but I recognized a few plants (be proud, Dad). Not really sure how we were to find this on our own, but it proved to be entertaining.

Botanical Garden "Tour"

After an excellent tour of Mompos by land we decided to head to the high seas, and by this, I mean the Rio. We boarded a slightly leaking wooden boat, piloted by a masked man.

Mompos Boat Captain

Our initial fears were put to rest by his caring demeanor and general concern for the amount of sun we were getting. We headed down the river seeing more iguanas than we knew was possible. To say we say over one hundred is no exaggeration. We even stopped briefly and looked at a few monkeys high in the trees.

Iguana

Monkey!

The shear number of birds was also amazing, our guide (Jose) named them all, but we struggle now just to name a few. Safe to say, there were no barn swallows.

Kingfisher

We later read that Colombia contains over 25% of all the varieties of birds found in the world!!! This river tour was truly a bird lovers dream.

The tour was broken up by a quick stop in a small river village were we enjoyed a beer with Jose and the boat driver, while watching some kids play Volleyball in the main square.

River Village

We truly enjoyed the sleeply town of Mompos and all the fun it has to offer. The quiet streets and slow pace of life will be missed.

On to San Gil…

Sorry for the delay in posting, but we are still getting a hang on this blogging thing and we didn’t really have internet for the past few days (except for random times when the Kindle picked up a weird network). Even at our current hostel, internet has been finicky. And when your Spanish is minimal, communicating technical issues was not something covered in my “Basic Spanish” workbook.

Anyways, after arriving late on the night of the 28th, we spent the first two days of our trip exploring the city of Cartagena with all its beautiful colonial architecture and hidden plazas.

Cartagena Church (This plaza had many sculptures similar to the Swetsville Zoo in Fort Collins!)

Our explorations were hampered somewhat by what seemed to be 125 degree weather and 100% humidity, but we found a way to continue.  To quote a good friend, “I was very DEWY!” Actually, I think when sweat is pouring down your face, it may qualify as well past being just dewy. It has become very clear to us why people take a siesta during the middle of the day, and we picked up on that tradition quickly. Everything has been awesome and despite being the most “touristy” place in Colombia, our time there has definitely gotten us hyped about exploring the rest of the county.

Cartagena Clock Tower and City Wall

Cartagena is an old fort town with the new city spilling beyond the walls, and we stayed about a 5 minute walk from the main clock tower entrance. Not to be outdone by the walls and fortress, the outer parts of Cartagena offered more local flair.  We explored through all the old buildings and found many different plazas with a place to grab a snack and plenty of seats to sit back and enjoy the view.

Part of the wall surrounding the old city with its many churches

Our evenings were spent in a little plaza close to our hotel. Just taking in the scene from the church steps was a great way to watch Colombian life go by. On our second night at the plaza, we also had the best hamburger and “perro caliente” (yes, that was actually what it was called), from a street vendor. While enjoying the unbelievable food, kids kept showing up to the plaza with sticks (mostly broken broom handles). We were really starting to wonder what was the deal with the sticks, when the kids all lined up (about a hundred of them) and rehearsed a dance number over and over and over again. It was a blast to watch, and by the end of the night, even we had the dance number memorized!

Our Nightly Cartangena Hang Out

Our two days in Cartagena were a whirlwind, but definitely enjoyable. We think Colombia will continue to get better from here on out.

Blog FYI: We are uploading all the pictures we are taking as we go to our Shutterfly site: joeandkristenfry.shutterfly.com. There is also a link to the Shutterfly page on the right hand of the blog (“More Pictures!”). If you have the urge to sift through all the pictures we are taking while abroad, feel free! Be warned, there will probably be A LOT!