So, yesterday we had a busy day! The Medellin Botanical Garden in the afternoon, and the Christmas lights displays in the evening. And, a ton of walking.
I didn't measure out how much walking we did, other than knowing the distance from the house we're staying at to the Botanical Gardens...which was 6.0 kms (3.8 miles). Ruth and I decided to walk that route and we met our couchsurfing host Andrea at the gardens because she had some work to do prior to that at the University near there.
It took us just over an hour to do the walk. It was downhill almost all the way. We had to wait a while for Andrea, but we just sat and watched the people. Oh, and we had an ice cream! Really good helping of it for only 2,100 pesos (95 cents CAD) each.
The beer cart.
As we were having our ice cream, I was watching the guy running the beer cart. He wasn't busy at all! Can you imagine a hot sunny day, with a beer cart selling cold beer for only $1.35 CAD ($1.00 USD)...and he has no customers! There would be a lineup a mile long back in Canada!
Andrea arrived and we went into the free Botanical Gardens. It's really well done, but we would call it more of a park than a garden. Certainly a nice place to wander around for an hour or two.
Ruth and Andrea in the Medellin Botanical Garden.
The flowers on this tree grow directly out of the bark. Very strange.
They look like a fireworks explosion!
Lol...does this iguana think he's a turtle?
This big fellow was up in a tree.
Pretty flowers.
I managed to get this vermillion flycatcher to sit still for a few seconds!
From there, Ruth and I took a taxi back to Andrea's place for 9,400 pesos ($4.23 CAD) while Andrea rode her motorcycle back.
Many females ride motorcycles in Colombia. In fact, I would say that you are just as likely to see a woman riding a motorcycle (or some form of motorized scooter) as you are a man. Most of them are under 250 cc in size in order to be the most fuel efficient.
Andrea made it back just before us...we had a good cab driver!
Just down the road from Andrea's house. Lots of Christmas lights!
We relaxed for an hour and then we took a taxi together for arepas...back to the same place we went on our first day in Colombia. We had a nice dinner 34,000 pesos ($15.00 CAD) for the three of us, and then walked to the transit station and took the metro train downtown.
Medellin, Colombia was rated by National Geographic magazine as one of the top 10 places in the world to view Christmas light displays. And there are a lot, that's for sure. But they do a "theme" every year, and this year's theme is Carnaval de Luz (Carnival of Light) with a circus and carnival atmosphere.
There are more than 32 million lights on display. The light strands laid end to end would reach 900 kms (540 miles)!
And there are people. Lots of people...especially on a Saturday night!
The big guy himself! Papa Noel, they call him here.
We had a good time out wandering around with everyone in a good mood and having fun. Apparently the fun goes on every night until midnight when the lights are shut off.
Exhausted again when we got home around 10:30pm.
And a busy day again today, but you can hear about that tomorrow morning!
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Thanks again for doing your Christmas shopping through our links to Amazon. You pay the same price that you would anyhow, and yet we make a small commission! We both win!
Beautiful light displays and Botanical Gardens! Thanks to Andrea for being a great couch surfer provider.
ReplyDeleteWe really enjoyed our day and spending time with Andrea. Would love to have her and Herber visit us at the campground in Canada, you never know they may make it one day.
DeleteAnd we enjoy a lot to meet you, and trying to speak English. We hope to see you again, you are always welcome to our home.
DeleteSorry we missed seeing Herber this time, please say hi to him for us Andrea. Thank you once again for your wonderful hospitality. You know you are always welcome at our home in Saskatchewan, we would love to host you both. Muchas gracias! :-)
DeletePlease post some pics of Andrea's home. It's always good to see how the local's live. What does she teach?
ReplyDeleteWe will try and remember to take some pictures today. She is not teaching at the university. She is working on her PHD we believe and also does work for the university. We think her PHD is for biology of some type and Herber is a Botanist and is still doing schooling as well as some research.
DeleteWow, almost a Carnaval atmosphere there! Sounds like a hectic but fun way to wind down your visit below the equator---plenty of time for siesta upon your return to Mexico.
ReplyDeleteDoug, you're slipping! Check the map...we have not yet been below the equator...
DeleteHa! I stand corrected. I guess like most North Americans we just assume that all of South America is, well, south...
DeleteThat's OK, you are allowed to be wrong once a year, so I guess that is it for this year!
DeleteBy the way, a fun toy you might consider is a GPS watch to casually keep track of distances hiked, walked, driven, or even flown! They can be had for as little as US$50 these days.
ReplyDeleteKevin will have to look into that!
DeleteInteresting to see how Christmas is celebrated around the world. Christmas lights attract everybody!
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately we won't get a chance to see how it is actually celebrated here as we won't be here for Christmas but at least we see the lead up to it. The lights weren't quite what we expected, we thought it would be more Christmasy but we enjoyed the lights all the same.
DeleteYep, we would have thought that Christmas would be the theme but nope, they do something different with the lights each and every year.
DeleteLove the Christmas lights, thanks for the tour.
ReplyDeleteYou are welcome,we enjoyed seeing as well.
DeleteI love love love those flowers on the bark. Stunning!
ReplyDeleteThe lights are amazing.
I believe it is called the Rose of Venezuela, if it isn't, thn it is definitely in the same family.
DeleteThe light display was beautiful. They have several areas throughout the city where they can be seen.
Wow! The lights are amazing. This trip has been amazing! Thanks for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks Peter, we have really enjoyed our trip here in Colombia but we are looking forward to getting back to Sherman, our RV life, and Mexico.
DeleteQuite the display. You two have been going no stop with so much to explore. Thanks for taking the time to share with us.
ReplyDeleteYes,it is definitely quite a display. That was only from two different locations, they have other locations within the city where you can see even more but that was enough for us.
DeleteThere is still so much that we just never had the time to see, looks like we will need to make a return trip sometime. Maybe even drive down in a little van or something.
Thanks for reading along. :-)
We've enjoyed your Colombian trip!
ReplyDeleteThank you, we enjoyed it too! :-)
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