Bogota - photos 3

Bogota:

Panoramic views of Bogota taken from the Mirador of the Colpatria Tower situated at the end of Carrera 7 , south of Calle 26 and in front of the Independance Park. "Torre Colpatria" or "Colpatria Tower is a 50-story building and is the tallest in the country. It was built in 1978 and has an height of 196 meters. The Mirador is only open Saturdays and Sundays and up to 8pm. Unfortunately, due to the heavy rain, we could not go during the evening! The views would have been great!!

- Monserrate Hill with the Candelaria, the historical centre (east of Bogota),
- Nort East of the city with the bull ring on the left,
- North view,
- West view,
- North East- South West view with the overcrowded Carrera 10. We spent 1/2hrs on the Mirador and the traffic did not improve at all!! Not sure why?

Bogota - photos 2

Bogota:

"Cerro de Monserrate" or "Monserrate Hill" (3152m) is a mountain that dominates the city centre of Bogota. The hill is a pilgrim destination for its the church, built in the 17th century, and for a shrine, devoted to "El Señor Caído" (Fallen Lord). It is also a touristic site with restaurants and smaller tourist facilities (toilets???). To reach the top, various options: the cable car, the funicular or climbing. At the tourism information desk, they did not recommend us climbing because that was unsafe (robbery issue). Both Monserrate and its neighbour Guadalupe Hill are icons of Bogota's cityscape.

- Monserrate church. Masses are given several times during the day,
- Various colonial-type houses, transformed into restaurants, offered superb views of Bogota. In the background, the Guadalupe Hill,
- The "Teleferico" or cable car with the city in the background. The journey was very smooth,
- Is this picture coming from Independance Day movie? Well it was so hazy and cloudy that all my pictures are resembling this one! But we went to the Mirador of the Colpatria Tower and the view was better (see Bogota - photos 3),
- Close up view of Bogota. One of my best pictures taken under difficult conditions!

Bogota - photos 1

Bogota:

Bogota (2640m) is the capital city of Colombia and with around 7million of inhabitants is the 4th largest city in South America (after Sao Paulo, Buenos Aires and Rio de Janeiro). Bogota was originally called "Bacata" during the Muiscas civilization. The Spanish settlement was founded in 1538 by De Quesada and later "Bacata" became Bogota. In 1819 and following the victory of Simon Bolivar, Bogota became the capital of Gran Colombia, a federation combining the territories of modern Panama, Colombia, Venezuela, and Ecuador then after the break-up, the capital of Colombia.

We arrived in Bogota late evening and our stay started badly as the hostel we booked online did not have the required room and the next night, the booked room was given to somebody else! We left this hostel (called "Fatima Hostel") just to move to the corner of the street to a more friendly hostel, "Hostel Sue". And lucky as we were, it was raining every day, or during the morning, or during the afternoon or both! So our visits of the city and surroundings were limited by the "b.....y" weather!! We went to visit the town centre and the Candelaria district, Montserrate church using the Teleferico, the salt cathedral situated in the little town of Zipaquira and we went up to the Mirador of Colpatria Tower for superb panoramic views of Bogota. Travelling in this big city was easy using the Transmilenio, a bus sytem which covers the main streets and avenues. One of the places where it was difficult to walk was close to the Presidential Palace. We tried to take some pictures of a beautiful colonial building and for that we were standing on the pathway, ~2m from the walls of the Palace Gardens. The military guy asked us gently to move because we were getting to close (and obviously no picture of the Government Palace!)!!! Never in Bogota we were feeling unsafe and obviously our night walks were limited.

- Plaza de Bolivar, the main plaza of Bogota. In the picture, on the left (southern side), the "Capitolio Nacional" or "National Capitol" or Senate and on the right the "Edificio Lievano" a French-style building, dating from the early 20th century, seat of the Mayor Office. On the far left, the Statue of Simon Bolivar (sculpted in 1846),
- The Primary Cathedral (eastern side of Plaza Bolivar) was built between 1807 and 1823. On its right the Holy Chapel was built at the end of the 17th century,
- Santuario Nacional Nuestra Señora del Carmen built by the Italian-Colombian architect Buscaglione betwen 1926 and 1938. This Florentine-style cathedral is the Masterpiece of this architect,
- A totally different cathedral: the Salt Cathedral situated in the town of Zipaquira, North of Bogota. This Salt Cathedral is an underground church built inside a salt deposit in a tunnel made as result of the exploitation of the salinas (salt mines). Unfortunately, it was difficult to obtain good pictures due to low light inside the tunnel. In this picture, the walls are made in salt and the green colour is coming from an artificial light,
- This picture representing a nativity scene was taken by Lee. He managed to get better pictures than me but he was also struggling to get something decent!

Medellin - photos

Medellin:

Medellin is the second largest city in Colombia and is located in the Aburrá Valley, one of the more northern regions of the Andes. It has a population of 3.2 million inhabitants inside the metropolitan area. Medellín was founded in 1616 by the Spanish Francisco Herrera y Campuzano.

During the last quarter of the 20th century, Medellín became the headquarter of the famous Pablo Escobar, leader of its criminal organization, who became the seventh richest man in the world from drug trade in 1989. Because he and his associates settled their business in Medellin, his organization was named the "Cartel de Medellin" by the American media. Escobar led a terrorist war (1980's - 1990's) against the Colombian government in order to dissuade any intention of extradition to the U.S.A until he was killed by police forces on 1993. The Medellin Cartel War was one of the most notable factors causing the city's reputation as a violent and dangerous city, being the motive for a large number of murders. This reputation is one that the city is still trying hard to shake off. Medellin is now a important industrialised city with a very good dynamism with lots of universities, festivities and nightlife.

When we arrived in Medellin, it was pouring rain and impossible to find an hostel with a room available! We found a place in the city center close to one of the most busy roads! And during all the week-end, it was pouring rain so we did not go to visit the town too much. Only a trip to the nearest supermarket close to the Parque Bolivar. We met various people who asked us what we were thinking about Medellin. Nothing bad for us as we did not feel unsafe just like every place we have visited so far. They are still worried about the reputation of the town and were happy to see some tourists visiting their town.

- View of a part of the city from the Metro station directly linked to the North Terminal of buses. The Metro system is very efficient here and offers superb views of the town,
- The Medellin River (or also called Porce), bordering the Metro system, was very high and brown coming from all the rain. In Colombia, January is supposed to be a dry month but El Nino is here...,
- View of a conmercial street. Again like Cali, a 1970's feeling, no?
- The Metropolitan Cathedral is said to be the biggest only-brick temple (1.2 million bricks!) of the world with 45 metres of high and 5,000 meters square of area,
- Plaza Bolivar with in the background the Metropolitan Cathedral.

Salento - photos 3

Salento - Valley de Cocora

- During our third day in Salento, we decided to visit the valley of Cocora. And that was one of the places that my friend Celine recommended in her comment (see Salento - photos 1 post). Unfortunately for us, the rain was here too and early afternoon, we were wet!!! The Landscape was similar to the Swiss Alps but with palm trees as a difference! Superb, shame for the rain...and shame for the transport system as the jeep service is far to be perfect...patience is the guide word!

- On our way to reach Cocora (only by jeep), we crossed these cows which were watching us with a placid eye!!!
- Superb Valley of Cocora, all green, as I say, typical Alps mountains,
- Well have you seen the swiss Alps with palm trees? Me no so welcome to Colombia and Cocora!
- What a weird view! Cows are eating below a palm tree a current scenery here,
- Horse riding is one of the acitivity available at Cocora. Due to the fact I fell twice when I was young, I am not to keen on horse riding. So for us, walking and good for the health!!!

Salento - photos 2

Salento - coffee plantation

We went to visit the coffee plantation of Don Elias, a nice old man who is in charge of 5000 coffee trees. He was very happy to show us all the coffee process, from the collection of the beans up to the taste of his coffee. The plantation was ~1hr walk in a nice trail with superb landscape.

- Don Elias is collecting the coffee beans. The coffee trees can live up to 30 years and can grow up to 3m,
- The coffee beans. The yellow ones are from the Colombian type, the red ones are from the Arabica variety,
- Don Elias was using a machine to separate the bean from the shell. The beans will be then washed several times to remove any debris then will be put to dry. The shells are collected and used to make compost. Don Elias produces organic coffee,
- Once dried, the beans are fried in a pan until obtaining the characteristic brown colour. The coffee flavour is starting to appear at this moment. This is a macro photo taken with my camera. As I said previously, since I knew I could use this function, I am all the time taking macro photos!
- Then using this coffee grinder, here we are! With this ground coffee, Don Elias prepared us a nice cup a coffee with a unique taste! Many thanks to Don Elias for his hospitality!!!

Salento - photos 1

Salento:

Salento, founded in 1851, is a small town in the department of Quindio. It is part of the "zona cafetera" or "coffee maker zone". Obviously, one of the main attraction is to visit coffee plantations but the town merits on its own the visit: charming, colonial town with its coloured houses and relaxing atmosphere. But it was very cloudy and raining everyl afternoon so we had to wake up at 6.30am to take pictures cloudless!!!

- The main plaza with the colonial church. The picture was taken mid-morning and as you can see, very cloudy already!
- View of the village from the Mirador touristico. We went here at around 7am to have some sun for nicer pictures and all was quiet, peaceful. Very nice! Time to go down to the village all was cloudy!
- Lee was in front of a typical colonial style house, full of colours,
- View of the mountains from the Mirador. That was the typical landscape around Salento, green, superb Andes...,
- Some of the mountains are used for coffee plantations. Here on the picture, you can distinguish lines of coffee trees.

Cali (zoo) - photos 2

Cali - the zoo:

- The BIG moment: the tiger!! No grid, large space, the animal was easy to photography...He looks like he is ready to jump but there was 5m space between his space and where we were, good!
- We were lucky to see this lioness with her cubs! They were very playful and very cute!
- Thanks to Lee for this superb picture of a lioness. But with the big zoom lens I should recognize that was easy :-) but all the merit is for the photographer of course!
- Again thanks to Lee for this picture. What an impressive creature! This bear will please Chris, Lee's mum who is a admirer of bears,
- That was the first time I have seen a anteater and they look weird but very gracious too...

Cali (zoo) - photos 1

Cali, the zoo:

Some of the numerous creatures seen in the superb zoo of Cali where more than 80% of the species are from Colombia. Thanks to Cali Zoo Foundation, the zoo offers comfortable and spacious places to the animals and especially the big cats. It also started a complete medical collection of each animal's records which have allowed it to have accurate and organized information in order to offer a better quality of life for all animals. And thanks to the zoo, we found the name of the fish caught by Lee in Mancora! You remember, Lee, very happy, caught a puffy fish which was not too happy. Well his name is "Pez Globo" in spanish or "Globe fish" but the latin name is Sphoeroides Annulatus. Please check on Wikipedia for a picture!

- Well I could not write this post without adding a photo of a frog which according to my English friends is one of the characteristics French people (well they think that frogs are part of our everyday diet but I have never ate a frog of my life, sorry!!!). I am pleased by this picture taken through the window because of the bright colours. One of my best shots of the day...sorry I have forgotten the name of this frog...Kermitt perhaps?
- A bird from the vulture family...Pretty ugly no?
- This caiman was sleeping but even still it was frightening...look at these teeth!!!
- What a bizarre creature! This tapir was having a bath and was curious of the humans,
- A superb bird from the parrot family. There were so many species that we have not kept the names of all and to be honest I am a poor bird expert but I am trying to improve my knowledge!

Cali - photos 1

Cali:

- Santiago de Cali, often shortened to Cali, is the third largest city in Colombia with around 2 million inhabitants. Cali was founded in 1536 by the Spanish De Belalcazar (the one who founded Popayan too). It is the capital of the Valle del Cauca, department known as the Pacific Region and the city has one of the fastest growing economies in the country because of its geographical location.
In Cali, we went to visit the town center with various parks and colonial buildings but the town was similar to Guayaquil in Ecuador with a 1970's feeling. We also went to visit the main attraction of the town, the ZOO! Lee is not to keen on visiting zoos but this one was supposed to be the finest in Colombia and we have not been disappointed; the zoo was huge with lots of open air areas especially for the big cats, with aquarium, vivarium, butterfly area.... We decided to walk to the zoo along the river Cali. By the river were lots of figurines representing Christmas but also scenes of everyday life. During the night, the area should be all lit up and that should be very nice! At night, we did not venture on this area.

- In the Plaza de Caycedo, these big colourful figurines, similar to the ones found on the river, could be seen and were representing Christmas and everyday scenes,
- Lee photographed in the Plaza de Caycedo on his way to cross the bridge to reach the town centre,
- Saint Francis' square with the Iglesia de San Francisco in the background all surrounded by high tech buildings,
- The Ermita church, an icon from the city, was built in 1939 with an european gothic style. Inside this church there is the statue of the Señor de la Caña (Lord of Sugarcane) made in 1787. The clock on its tower was brought from Amsterdam,
- One of the numerous figurines seen on the Cali river.