Tara took this flower picture on the walk into Tayrona National Park. Not sure what kind of flower (looks like a crazy orchid), but she took a really nice picture.
Tara and I have this unspoken competition to see who can get closer to animals that don't like being approached for close-up pictures. I admit that Tara did a nice job getting about 2 inches from this grasshopper without it bounding away.
The return of the hammocks! For regular readers of our blog, you may have found yourself thinking, "Didn't they buy hammocks about three months ago? Have they done anything with them?" The answer: Yes, we did buy hammocks, but all we've done is carry them. The funny thing is that in the National Park, it was quite a bit more just to string our own hammocks than it was for a decent room in Santa Marta, the nearby city.
After staying overnight in our hammocks, we set out on a different route to take us back to the main road. On the map, it seemed much shorter (and distance wise, it was). However, as we started the first trail by going through a little cave, we realized that it might be a tougher trail. 45 minutes in and we both looked like we had just come out of the shower.
Later on the trail, I found this little poison dart frog. I had trouble getting a good picture of him, but this one isn't bad. After finding him, I looked hard for others, but couldn't find any more.
After my lovely frog, Tara tried to compete by finding this almost as interesting caterpillar. We think its head is on the left, but we weren't really sure.
On our long and strenuous hike, we had the chance to use our water filter for the first time ever in nature. Most of the time, we just use a sink and filter it, but this was straight out of the stream! Hasn't killed us yet.
We finally came out of the woods near the end of the hike and had a great view of the valley below. This doesn't capture the panoramic nature of the scene, but gives you an idea. Also, we were happy to be out of the woods after a much longer hike than we expected. At this point in the day, we had sweated more than some Americans sweat in a lifetime.
On to Cartagena! The most colonial city in architecture in South America, and certainly one of the most touristy as well. The city really is lovely, but prices are about twice as high as the rest of Colombia. Here is the main cathedral. Hard to get a good picture.
This is the clock tower of Cartagena. Tara told me it is famous, but we traded our guidebook, so I can't look up what makes it so famous, and I'm too lazy to Google it. So, I'll guess that it's the oldest clocktower in South America. That or it was used by Marty McFly to go back in time.
I pointed out to Tara that this sculpture looks a lot like Harry Potter. We appreciate any city that puts up a sculpture of Harry Potter.
Cartagena was sacked by raiders about 30 times. Okay, less than that, but the whole city is surrounded by walls with canons and towers from which to shoot people. Here is Andy standing on the wall of the city.
I have to guess that part of the reason the city was captured so many times is that the moat just wasn't deep enough or wide enough. Really, look at it and ask yourself if it would keep you from storming the walls.
A lovely colonial street of Cartagena. Tara is especially in love with the azaleas that grow everywhere here. You can see them on all the balconies.
(Note from Tara: It's the independence of Cartagena, silly! Four days of partying.)
This made me realize that anything I already knew about Colombia, I knew from watching Romancing the Stone. Thank you for widening my world!
ReplyDelete