Colombia Gallery

The neighborhoods the cable car passes above Medellin

Cable cars at sunset

Getting a bit of history from our tour guide in the original train station that began the export of coffee

A monument standing in the square of government buildings.

Mondongo, or tripe soup. A Colombian specialty.

Llara park had a hopping night life and in a good trendy neighborhood

Llara Park

The city is filled with public parks usually with friendly locals going about their day.

Organic restaurant and store

Pablado region of Medellin, where we stayed and enjoyed most of our time.

A cultural exhibit created in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Medellin

A building that used to be a drug den in the most dangerous neighborhood of Medellin was turned into the government center for education offices.

Street market

A common site in Colombia. For about 10 cents a minute you can use vendors phone to make a quick call. Like walking phone booths.

Medellin is a place of contradictions. Behind this church, in a neighborhood home to dozens of restaurants and eateries, is a street common for solicitation.

A Colombian artist who likes to play with proportions

Viva Colombia!

Big chest, little head.

This church was 40% built by an architect from Belgium. However, after getting annoyed at his Colombian hosts left it unfinished and it was finished by local architects. This is the beautiful facade designed by that architect.

A common street gambling game. There’s a guinea pig under the center bowl. You place bets on which hole he’s going to run into.

We were stopped by many locals just like this to welcome us to Colombia, ask us where we were from and make sure we were enjoying ourselves.

Organic artisanal jam shop? Natasha was pumped.

We found plenty of little cafes and shops like this in El Pablado. Definitely our kinda neighborhood

Street art.

Cartagena

One of the many tinto vendors

Old Town

Spookyyy

First a tour through the fields of coffee

Don Elias – Coffee Maker

This man has been farming coffee his whole life, but still talks about it with endearing passion to every tourist who passes through.

Then a lesson in old school dehusking and sorting.

Roasting the old fashioned way. Wood fired stove, big metal pot and a little stick.

The beans are dried out on concrete for a week or three depending on the weather

Grinding the roasted beans for the perfect cup

While we didn’t usually have room to pick people up in our car. Every once in awhile we’d find a way to help people out.

San Gil market.

Giant beans!

Rockin’ the cowboy boots we picked up in Texas

Everybody loved explaining how everything was made and where it came from.

Cooking students hard at work.

Wood burning stove they set up in the middle of the square.

Potatoes and corn cheese sauce

Cooking students were preparing different local dishes for everybody to try.

Honey’s made from different species of bee’s living in different conditions. We picked up some cream honey that spreads like butter and tastes like heaven.

Jalapeno gouda anyone? This is why I love food festivals.

The impressive church that borders the main square.

All new buildings need to be built with the same architecture. White walls, tiled roofs, wood doors and windows. The only other color used is a dark shade of green..

Villa de Leyva sits below some incredible green hills. We managed to find some windy dirt roads that led to the top.

Enjoying ourselves every step of the way

Busy streets of Villa de Leyva

7m Kronosaurus! Dinosaurs aaaaah!!!

Our gracious hosts in Villa de Leyva

Our gracious hosts in Villa de Leyva

Got to hang out with their two rescue dogs.

Our gracious hosts in Villa de Leyva. Thanks for everything August and Consuela!

One small town we passed through was famous for it’s sausage. There were about a dozen vendors set up like this with rows of sausage.

We picked up about 30 kg of La Chamba for dirt cheap in Raquira

Ornaments for sale in Raquira

The stations of the cross in the Zipaquira salt cathedral

Vast salt halls made church halls and prayer rooms

These halls were big enough to fit the body of a jumbo jet inside

The heavy military and police presence on the road did help us feel safe, but it was a constant reminder that just a decade ago these roads were incredibly dangerous.

If your destination is 25 miles away as the bird flies then expect about 100 miles of road and 5 hours of switchbacks dodging trucks.

All in all in makes one damn good cup of coffee.

Well that’s one way to enjoy it.

1. Coffee beans are planted by hand

2. Small sprouts grow in a planter

3. The sprouts are isolated in plastic and replanted when they have matured

6. Beans are harvested year after year and used to make coffee

4. Coffee plants grow to their full height

From left to right: 1. Fresh coffee beans 2. Deshelled and dried beans 3. The remaining husks after dehusking 4. The beans are roasted to the desired color 5. Ground fresh beans for coffee 6. Colombian “tinto” or coffee from rejected beans. Not quite as much flavor, but still pretty good.

5. Flowers bud and then die. A week later they start to grow coffee berrys

Don Elias showing us how to cut away the coffee berrys.

It’s a good thing there’s no coconuts coming out of these.

Wax Palm Trees only grow in the Corcora Valley and can grow to a height of 50m (160 ft). Don’t believe me. Look in the bottom right and you can see me.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Santander is famous for their fried giant ants. While we were only in the region for a quick drive, we managed to get some from locals selling them at the toll booths.

Yum yum. Nothing like gas infused coffee drying on the side of the road.

… la Bete can come too.

… and through the woods…

Over the river…

Welcome… to Jurassic Park.

Camping near Salento. This was a hell of a view to wake up to.

Canyoning in San Gil

Rappeling down

Waterfall jump

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