Villa de Leyva + Friends + Medellin = Fun week!

Thank you for being patient with me. If you aren't constantly seeing blog updates, it probably means I've been having a fun, busy time. This is true for the time spent between my last blog and this one. Where to start?

Juli and I had a 3 hour bus ride from Bogota to Villa de Leyva, but it wasn't too bad. One thing you all should know about Colombia is the landscape, flora, and climate all change from one place to another. As the bus rolled on, we started seeing more cacti and desert landscape, and the temperature climbed.

It's cool to think that in Minnesota there's snow, when it's like 70's here :-)

Anyways, when we got to Villa de Leyva.This place has such an old-fashioned feel to it that makes it really interesting to be in. We ate at a great restaurant, had freshly-squeezed Passion Fruit juice and a wok, all for like 5 bucks each. It was a great deal.

We spent the rest of the day visiting little shops, walking around the town, and witnessing the Colombian soap opera "La Pola" being filmed there! There were a lot of people who volunteered to be an extra soldier in it.

The following morning, we had a fresh breakfast at a small cafe and Juli brought along a grenadilla which is a South American fruit that looks like an orange on the outside and like a lot of fish eggs on the inside. Despite its appearance, you just swallow the seeds and its really good.

We biked to these Blue Pools and dipped our feet in there. They are natural, turquoise ponds that have sulfuric sand that is good for the skin.

We met up with a nice couple from Ibague and Medellin and had lunch and waffles together. They rode there on a motorcycle, and were a few years older than me and Juli. We ended up having dinner with them as well and having a good time. A town local gave us a lift to a thermal pool in which we went in the pouring rain.

Later that night, we got to meet up with Casey's friends from Yellowstone, Diego and Luis. We are meeting up with them again this Thursday.

The very next morning, me, Juli, Felipe and Manuela headed for Medellin. It's about an 8-hour drive away from Bogota through windy, tropical mountains. Many reckless drivers here made the trip adventurous :-P. We got to stay in Felipe's cousin's farmhouse, right outside of the city.

We met up with Andres, Juli and Manuela's second cousin, and he spent the night with us there.

The next morning we went to a sweet botanic garden, where we saw a bunch of cool plants, butterflies (in a butterfly house) and other animals. We also had an amazing lunch in an outdoor cafe there.

Medellin is the city in which the famous Colombian artist Fernando Botero was born. We took a train to the Botero art museum. . I've already mentioned him in previous blogs because some of his works are in Bogota, but most of them are in his birthplace.

After this, we hung out in Andres' apartment and went out to a bar that night. It was really cool to compare the accents between how he talks and Juli. Not to mention, the weather was perfect throughout or time there.

Today (23 February) Juli and I are going to meet up with Londra, a friend who worked with me last summer at Good Earth Village. She lives in Bogota, and we're going to have a dessert with her at Crepes and Waffles.

Thanks for reading!


R.A.P.