25 - Barranquilla, Medellin, and Bogota

After the Lost City my friend Alexander, who was in my group to the Lost City, drove me to Barranquilla on his way to Cartagena. Alexander lives in Bogotá, but he was at the coast for vacation.

Barranquilla I met with my friend Rosita, who lived on my floor in Warren Towers my freshman year at BU, but she lives in Barranquilla. It was great to spend time with her and get to know her friends. Rosita is in the green shirt.

In Rosita´s backyard she had all sorts of trees with fruits. We got some of the coconuts from the palm trees and ate and drank fresh coconut. Yummmm. As soon as I get back to the states I´m planting a palm tree so I can have fresh coconut whenever I want.

After Barranquilla I took a 15 hour bus overnight from Barranquilla to Medellin (see map above). In Medellin I stayed with my mom´s friend´s cousins. Colombians are some of the nicest people I have ever met and they did so much to make sure I was always happy and safe.

My first day in Medellin I explored the city taking the Metro from one site to the next. The Metro was amazingly fast and efficient (way better than the T). It even had a gondola as part of the system to get people to their houses in the mountains.

My second day in Medellin I hung out with Sebastian, one of the cousins. He took me with his friends to play paintball which was really fun.

After paintball we all went out to play the traditional Colombian game of Tejo. This game is kind of like horse shoes except instead of horse shoes you throw tejos which are like heavy metal paperweights, and instead of a pole you´re shooting for mechos, which are triangle pieces filled with explosives. Another important part of tejo is to be drinking cervezas the entire time you play. Here´s a youtube video with an explanation of the game. Watch what you want of it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NdBM_B-1xOg&feature=fvsr
We played for a long time with no one hitting the mechos. The old men next to us who actually knew what they were doing were really entertained by how bad we were. I never hit a mecho, so finally in the end I went right up to it and overhand threw my tejo at the triangle. I missed like 8 times before finally getting an explosion.

On Sunday morning I met up with my friend Alexander again and we drove 10 hours from Medellin to Bogotá (see map above). On our drive we stopped at Piedra del Peñol.

Piedra del Peñol is a Colombian national monument and there´s 644 steps to get to the top - that was a piece of cake compared to the Lost City.

We hiked up to the top and all around us were beautiful lakes and rivers.

Here´s a picture of me and Alexander.

After Piedra de Peñol we continued driving and a few hours later we stopped at Rio Claro.

We went for a refreshing swim in the river, and then got back in the car to finish up the long drive to Bogotá.

In Bogotá Alexander dropped me off at my mom´s friend Laura´s house. I stayed with Laura´s family before, and like all other kind Colombian´s they welcomed me back into their home with open arms.

My first day in Bogotá I went with Laura´s daughter, Margarita, on a short tour of the city. Our first stop was the gold museum.

A lot of the gold in the museum was made by indigenous people before the Spanish arrived. My favorite part was seeing the gold that was found in the Lost City.

This is a photo of one of the government buildings in Bogotá.

I took this picture of this dog because I think he looks more like a sheep than a dog.

Margarita and I took a gondola up to the top of a mountain overlooking the city. From there we watched a beautiful sunset. I´m getting really spoiled with beautiful sunsets.

Me and Margarita

The sky looked like it was on fire.

Here´s Margarita about to get back on the gondola.

A last look at the city before heading back down.