Horseshoes and Asses and Classic Colombia

Dense tropical jungle, 5000 meter snow capped peaks, white sandy beaches, jaw dropping scenery, endless hills of coffee and banana plantations,  miles and miles of winding mountain roads,constant landslides and road maintenance, incredibly happy and helpful people, extreme wealth, extreme poverty. These are just a few of the ideas that come to mind when I now think about Colombia and we are only just south of Bogota. We were delighted to find such a hidden gem in a country that is wrought with terrible stereotypes and bad publicity. In Colombia we have discovered so many of the reasons why we wanted to do this trip, and it is quickly becoming one of our favorite countries on our journey. We have been very busy over the past week and it is hard to narrow down our experiences into a few photos and words.

For years now, Andrew's friends believed he has lucky horse shoes tucked up his behind. This week was a fair indication of that as every time something didn't quite go our way, there was an even better outcome than could ever be planned by a simple guidebook.



Horse shoe #1: Driving through the large mountain city of Manizales it was incredible to see the houses precariously perched on hill side ledges. A day after passing through we learned that heavy rains had created a huge landslide that took out a fair number of houses as well as sections of the highway! We were lucky to make it through when we did.

Horse shoe #2: He gets to travel with me... how much luckier can one man be?

Horse shoe # 3: Our first main plan in Colombia was to bag the 5325 meter volcanic peak of Nevado del Ruiz. Unfortunately for us, after driving Kumu to her limits at 4200 meters, the entrance to the national park, we were informed the entrance fee was 30USD per person and we were not even allowed to climb the mountain as the volcano had been much too active in the last six months. The guides hadn't even seen the peak for quite a while as the weather had been close to white out. Traveling down from the park the clouds parted and we caught an amazing glimpse of the snow capped peak in all its glory! Pretty incredible to see snow after nearly 5 months of sweating it out in the sun!

Not really a horse shoe story but amazing none the less

Again not a horse shoe story, but really cool to see the old school way of living. These guys just had one hour left through the mountains to get to their home.

Horse shoe # 4: although we were all disappointed in the closure of the national park, we talked to some locals who told us of a relatively unknown natural hotspring located at about 4000 meters! The spring came to the surface in the middle of this river providing perfectly hot water to our travel weary bodies.

Daniel, Ramona, Andrew and I living the dream.... Could be worse, eh?

Horse shoe # 5: Like I said, there were some unfortunate circumstances leading to amazing memories. Driving with 4 adults and all their gear was apparently a little too much for Kumu to handle and climbing up one incredibly steep pass she let us know that she had had enough and set off her Engine Light. We quickly pulled over and realized there was a problem with the cooling system; a blown coolant hose. Long story short, while bleeding the coolant system after replacing the hose, Jaime and Luzmaria came across us (we were in the middle of their access road) and offered us their home for the night as it was getting too late to fix the van completely and we couldn't drive too far!
They provided us with incredible Colombian hospitality and regaled us with stories of the last couple decades of Colombian history. Jaime was happy to inform us that last year, for the first time in nearly 50 years, Colombia was actually NOT the leading supplier of cocaine to the world!
We couldn't have found a nicer couple and they even helped find us a place to work on the van after feeding us various tropical fruits they had grown on their 'finca'. A big thank you to the both of them.

Andrew and I trying out the retired Colombian lifestyle... could get used to this

Horse shoe #6. After overtaking a really really slow truck on a double yellow, Andrew was stopped by the police who had clearly seen the infraction. Now normally, in the other countries we have been to so far, you fully expect the police to find every excuse to take some of your money, especially when you do something wrong. Not the case in Colombia. The nice officers simply pointed out the mistake to him, and after checking our paperwork, sent us on our way with only a warning.

There you go. Just a few of the lucky things that happen on a journey like this....
Oh yeah, we even found a horse shoe to prove it.

After leaving Jaime and Luz Maria in Guaduas, we headed to the small pueblo of Suesca, 40km outside of Bogota, renowned for its rock climbing. As Daniel is an avid rock climber there was no way we could miss it. We spent an awesome day of climbing the perfect limestone rocks, pushing our bodies in ways they have almost forgotten

The crew looking as though we were made for it.