Don't Prance or Bustle About: Columbians in Colombia

I know I'm way behind on posts, but the internet has been a bit fussy and I've be enjoying Ecuador vs. Internet-ing.   Anyway, I wanted to give a little glimpse of Colombia before getting into the Ecuador happenings.

The 5 or so days my buddy Jeff and I were together in Colombia can be best summed up by the things we didn't quite get to, but that doesn't mean we didn't get to some things and didn't have a good time.  We spent 3 nights in Medellín and 2 nights in Bogotá enjoying the flavors and sounds of the city.

The days were a little more relaxed though, except for the day in Medellín when we got a cable car to ourselves.

The city, once one of the most violent places on the planet, has transformed into a bustling metropolis and these cable cars now connect the historically poorest sections of the city to the mass transit lines in Medellín. 

And yes, against the better advice on the cable car, we bustled about:

We also did some zipping on our trip up into the mountains above Medellin:

And Jeff did one of the things that Jeff does best - make some fresh fruit cocktails with local Uchuvas (ground cherry) and Mora (blackberry) that made the other hostelers quite jealous... 

From there we went to Bogotá, where we hit up another Botero Museum (see the tumblr for other shots from the one in Medellin) that also had a few lesser known Picassos.  Both museums were fantastic and shed a new light on the big, voluminous characters of Botero.

We were really only there for a day, so there isn't much to report, but on the drive into the city we saw some of the best street art of any city I've been to.  And the strolls through the Barrios Candelaria and Zona Rosa afforded us a brief, but good glimpse, of a modernizing city.

Even the biggest city in Colombia still has some quirks!

We had a great time soaking in the two cities, but agreed that we'd have to return to Colombia to see more of the country.  We also agreed to gather up some more ingredients for a more interesting post next time too (Uchuvas and Moras aside, of course).  Alas, it was time to move...

I've been up in the mountains of Ecuador for almost a week now soaking in the sun and beautiful vistas.  More on that later...