Arboletes

In the coastal town of Arboletes, we reached the border of Antioquia and Córdoba, wallowed in the mud volcano, relaxed on the beach and made new friends.

Necoclí

I woke to a nice view of the bay, out to the mountains on the other side of the gulf. After a strong breakfast of fresh papaya and bananas, eggs, arepas, and platano and some relaxing in a hammock with my morning coffee, we decided to use our day of relaxing to explore a bit. Our host gave directions and enthusiastic recommendations of beautiful places to see, including the possibility to see monkeys and macaws. 

Cestillal to Necoclí

After ten days in the mountains in peaceful Cestillal, getting well fed and spoiled, we got back on the bike to tackle the coast road to the Caribbean. It is a notoriously poor road, so we left early, expecting a long day of bumpy riding, leaving the cool mountains and descending into the flat hot farmlands of the northern-most part of Antioquia. The optimistic 5 hour estimate to drive the 200 km journey was of course in Colombian hours, which I have not yet found the translation for, something like double it, add an hour then you are still 20 min away...

Coming down the mountains

    

A visit to the village school

We were invited to the small high school in the village to talk about Australia and do some English with the students. All the kids were amazingly enthusiastic and excited to meet someone from so far away and hear about different places.

Photos of the village of Cestillal

Antioquian mountains on the trip to Cestillal

A day in the pueblito

Today was Sunday, the day of rest was surprisingly lively in the village. It is the day that the farmers come to town, and the villagers open the bars and shops selling basic groceries. Ladies bring out stalls into the streets selling hot greasy empanadas, and horses and mules line the streets (often loaded with bags of coffee or corn.

Adventure on horseback

My first real horse riding in ten years turned out to be quite an adventure. The clean mountain air refreshing the lungs and the spectacular views nourishing the soul, while my body was bumped and bruised and scratched for ten hours through jungles and up and down mountains.

Our guide Miro on Marijuano

                        

La comida! - The Food!

The best part of travelling for me is the food, and I want to try as many new things as possible. These days now I'm a stricter vegetarian it is more difficult. If it is not strange enough to be a foreigner, I also refuse to eat meat (and risk offending the kind locals always trying to feed me).

breakfast

Guatape

Our first trip out of the city was to visit the region of Guatape where there is a large lake (a flooded valley for water storage much like Windermere), rivers and waterfalls. And most famously, one large rock (la Piedra Piñol), a granite monolith that you can climb for a view of the lake and mountains.

View from the rock

First impressions

I am starting this blog for my nearest and dearest as my "letters home", as well as a diary for myself, while I'm on my Colombian adventure. I have now been here for a little over two weeks and my first impressions have been overwhelmingly positive. As the Colombian tourism board says "the only risk is wanting to stay"...