Travels

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I'm house-sitting/dog-walking/plant-watering in a small private community that's not really in a town, although there are stores I can walk to. It's closest to a small town called El Retiro (Antioquia, same as Medellin) and near to La Ceja.

The gated community is deep in the hills of Antioquia, and is a little more than a mile above sea level.

The views are gorgeous and the yard is sweet, with a little vegetable garden (I take rosemary, different kinds of mint, and and some kale and spinach-y kinds of veggies every day) and lots of fruit trees (tree tomato, fig, some little fruits I don’t know the names of, mandarin, and more).

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I know when it’s vegetarian and fruity…. so I dig in, regardless  of  the  details.

Vegetarian offerings are harder to find here: a shame really, because everything seems to grow here miraculously.

Fruits are plentiful and gorgeous and huge! I haven’t seen or heard of many of them anywhere else.

Usually there are great deals on the meals of the day (menu del dia) that are easily found for less than $5, including soup, meal, salad, small dessert and fruit drink.

This one is soup with veggies and oatmeal, whole grain brown rice, breaded (I think) and fried yucca, white something with basil, salad with a bunch of veggies and a dessert of a piece of pie of gulupa (fruit I’ve never heard of) and a uva/limoncello juice drink.

Super healthy and delicious.

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Early winter here means Perfect Weather (around the mid 70s) … with a little rain and mud.

The tropical mountains around Medellin beg to be hiked, so in May, early winter, I went for a hike about an hour or so from Medellin.

It was gorgeous except for about 5% of the trails were quite muddy, but not in an unsafe way.  None of the three bridges we crossed were negatively affected by recent / daily rains, and we missed the rain altogether even though we hiked from around 9:30am to 2:30.

We passed through several small towns and stopped for snacks (arepas – like thick corn tortillas, Chocolo (sweet arepas made from a different kind of corn),  sandwiches) and drinks. I had a slice of pound cake as a snack and then later a toasted arepa with cheese and spicy salsa.

Before starting the hike, we got snacks in this snack stand and cafe and the other shops around it I’m not sure what all they were selling here, but there’s a nest or two on display and some other interesting items.

These guys, below, were across the street drinking “tinta” out of what seems like has become a tradition – plastic cups – and looking so charming and campesino.

We headed out to the first bridge. I can’t tell you how much I did not want to cross that bridge. I kept thinking that if a board broke or I misstepped I would fall straight through. I imagined one of the dogs on the hike would run by me or run up to me and bark or want to play and scare the heck out of me. I crossed it but it was torture.

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The lights don't escape anyone during the Chrismas holidays. Paisas (the gracious people of Medellin) are BIG into Christmas lights.

A snippet of music, captured while walking through the park:

This year the spectacular Parque Norte lighting exhibit celebrates the biodiversity of Colombia.

Colombia is "Mega Diverse," as the sign says.

There are more species of orchids and birds than any other country in the world.

The number of species of plants, amphibians, butterflies and fresh water fish, outnumber every country except Brazil (a country seven times larger than Colombia).

There are more species of palm trees and reptiles here than in every country but two.

Similarly, mammals are more diverse here than in all but three countries.

Fun fact about the Colombian mammal the anteater: they're called "ant bears" (osos hormigueros).

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People were packed tight in El Centro the night of the parade -super tight, like U.S.-football-stadium-when-the-game-is-over tight. And the paisas (people from Antioquia/Medellin area), and my group of ex-pats, were polite and noticeably not drunk (so completely unlike a U.S. football- stadium-when-the-game-is-over). 

The paraders got right up in the faces of the watchers, shot water at us, and played all kinds of latin marching band music. The crowd went wild for all the action the parade brought. 

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