AdventureCPA

From Cali we  continued South to a few days in Popyan (Spelling ?),  one in Ipiales and across the border to Ibarra, Ecuador. From Popyan we did a day trip to Silva (Or was it Silvia).  Anyway a small town to happened to have their weekly market that day.  After the trading, men and women sit around the square I suppose to gossip about  kids, weather, etc. Southern Colombia is nothing to write glowing about EXCEPT for the geography.  Green mountains, passes every 20 kilometers  and spectacular vistas.  Other than that cities compete to have the most cell phone stores and shoe stores.  Not sure which one is winning.  Things seem to be a little more expensive here...perhap as it approaches Ecuador and perhaps due to transportation costs.  Still, anyone looking for an inexpensive place to spend a few North American winter months...Colombia should be on the short list.   (But a little Spanish skill is really needed.) H...

OK. I admit it.  I am not that fond of Big Cities....And Cali is another city with a population of four million plus.   Plus it is fairly hot, humid and of course busy.  But with full disclosure of my prejudices I feel OK saying two nights in Cali is enough.  And it is the most modern city we have found in Colombia.  Showers have hot water...public rest rooms have TP, some have hot water, some even have towels to dry your hands after washing and some have toilet seats instead of just the everyday round ceramic fixture. (Apparently more of that missing in Men than Woman facility.)  But it is OK. We went to the modern art museum which reminded me of a song by the Austin Lounge Lizards. "a truckful of art is burning by the highway....but nobody knows what it means."  Guess you had to be there. (But you can google it.) Hmmm. This Hostel PC doesnt want to recognize my camera so no pictures today.   But I did discover that the KTM 200 is a...

Eight happy hours on a curvy road in a big bus brings us to the North part of the "coffee triangle."  The area of Colombia known for the most coffee production.  Havent seem much of it yet, but very pretty area. Ive been in much of the US Rockies where roads are built in the valley or along rivers and every once in awhile we climb over a pass to the next valley.  Here it appears that small settlements were built high near the ridgeline....so the road follows near the ridgeline.  Lots of back and forth driving with limited passing opportunities.  But then hard to get more that 60 kph speed when you have to do a 90 degree turn every 100 yards. Manizales is a town of about 300,000 souls also built on a ridge.  Bus station is a bottom and two enclosed ski lifts (my term) will take you to the top of two separate towns...Manizales or MariaSomething.   Ride cost about US$.45.  This is also a University town so lots of young people around....

Two and a half hours from Tunja is Bogota, capital of Colombia and about Ten Million souls.  Like many big cities in the developing world it has overgrown it´s infrastructure (roads etc) but it is the economic powerhouse of Colombia.  We are in another 4th floor apartment (AIRbnb) with semi'hot water, cable TV and good Internet from the Cable TV provider.  What a choice!!! SuperBowl in English or Spanish! Among Bogota pluses are the recent emphasis on cycling.  Sundays major street are closed off for biking, walking, rumming, roller skating etc. 7AM to 2PM.  And many miles of bikelanes which are either separate from the roadway or part of expanded sidewalks.  When walking...keep off the bike path! We plan to spend 8 nights here.... Well, after 5 days in Bogota I have the following to report.  There is a garbage strike. Not that they quit making garbage...just quit picking it up.  TV has reports on it everyday with locals burning it sometim...

Three hours south of Guadalupe, Colombia is the University town of Tunja (That´s Tune HA). Tunja is a college town...said to be several in this busy city.  In fact just below our 4th floor AirBNB apartment in the Centro district is a green area with 4 cows.     I´m told they belong to the Veterinary school which seems reasonable since there also looks to be a milking barn in the field. From Tunja we visited an "authentic small colonial town" highly rated by Lonely Planet.  I would call it an overrated tourist town with over expensive restaurants and junk shops.  If you want junk souveniers I suggest the "China Mall" here in Tunja. Also did a day trip via public bus to Lago de Toto, which at 9,300 meters claims to be the highest lake in the world with a white sand beach.  I believe it.   And in town the trout lunch for a little over $US 5 was worth it!  Enjoyed this town much more that Valley de Leyva in the above paragraph.  ...

    Finally I found a small town before Lonely Planet!!!  (Or at least my 10 year old Lonely Planet Guidebook)    Guadalupe is a small town of maybe 1,000 population.  No heavy traffic, plenty of restaurants and hostels and great hiking.   Here you may see equine Horses, Motocycle Hondas or occasional Hyandi vehicles but many people walking about town and from their Finca to town.      A 40 minute ride in the back of a four wheel drive truck (Seats installed) with a soft serve cart on the tailgate (too heavy to put on top with that gasoline engine powering the air conditioner) takes us from the Main highway )Obija to Guadalupe.      School must start at 7AM, out at 12:30 for the day.  On one of our walks (about 10 miles a day) I spotted my idea house.  Here´s a picture. Looking at mountains, big porch surrounding the house etc.  Wonder if they have Internet? And a little more scenery. Thi...

    San Gil Colombia lists itself as the Adventure Capital of Colombia.  Popular options are rafting (from class 1 to 3 to Class 4 to 5), Hiking, Zip line, National Parks and more.     A few years ago someone decided there is an overgrown improved path from one mountain village to another.  Put up a few signs and tourist will come to walk downhill for about 5 miles from one small village to another.   Bus service between them and you have a beautiful, peaceful walk.  Makes one feel he is in the Tuscan countryside.     Next day we went to the new national park at the top of a pass between Bucaramanga and San Gil.  An interesting combination of  monument to the peasants of the region who started the revolution against Spain in 1812, amusement park with four wheelers going around a dirt track, swing going out over the open canyon and a gondola ride (Provided by PUMA) down to the bottom of the canyon and over to the other ...