Cartagena de Indias

Last week I went to Cartagena for the second time, it is probably one of the most beautiful and most visited places in Colombia. The city has quite the history, it was first founded in 1533 and due to a fire which destroyed most of the wooden houses only stones and bricks were allowed to be used as building materials. Cartagena has also suffered from a lot of pirate attacks through the years, since the harbour was used as a storage place for all the goods until they were shipped overseas. Yes, quite an interesting history.

Well, anyways, Mateo's parents went there for one week to participate in a medical congress and I decided to tag along. Seeing the city from a tourist point of view, it's mostly divided into two areas; the old city and the new city. The old town is protected by thick colonial stonewalls, meant to protect from outsiders. Inside the walls there are idyllic small streets with colourful houses with their pretty flowery balconies. It just makes you happy walking around the old town and it's the best (the only) way to get to know it. The hotel where we stayed is called Hotel Santa Clara. It is really beautiful and it has everything you need; big pool, great service and even a resident toucan called Mateo. Santa Clara is a former monastery from the 17th century, completely remodelled and one of the best hotels you can find it Cartagena.

The new part of the city is on the peninsula of Bocagrande, which is filled with luxury apartments, hotels and all the food- chains you can imagine. We went there one day to walk around and to have lunch at the famous "Kiosko el Bony". It's a small restaurant on the beach, nothing fancy, but the food is amazing!!  

Unfortunately all the pictures I have are taken with my phone, since my camera suffered from some moisture-accidents thanks to the strong AC in the room and the humidity… I will write more about Cartagena another time!

Hotel Santa Clara

Pictures from the hotel and Mateo the toucan resident

Pati, Mateo's mom, and some pictures from the old city

  

The beach in Bocagrande, next to Kiosko de Bony

Kiosko de Bony

Bogotá and its hidden places

What better way is there to enjoy a weekend than going out and try new cafes and restaurants!? Since we are in Colombia it's not really a problem to find good coffee, but to find new, cozy, coffee places is still a challenge. I have a soft heart for small cute places, and if they are french - I'm sold! This weekend we found a really nice patisserie, Camilia, just a few blocks away from our apartment. The small details in this place were just amazing; the coffee cups, the plates, the small tables, the flowers… well, everything! And one of the best things was that even Hako was allowed on the inside of the terrace, hurra!! 

On Sunday we went to a new place called Al Agua Patos, I have been walking by the place for months but never entered... Since the parents are on vacation we decided to go out for brunch instead of lunch to change the tradition a bit. This restaurant is also just a few blocks away from where we live, close to Parque de la 93, which is known for its wide range of restaurants. Their speciality is a kind of toast called "pato" or "patito" with different kind of filling; cheese, meat, ham, mushrooms, tomatoes etc. We decided to share a few different ones and they were all so yummy, so delicious!! For dessert we ordered a pato with hot arequipe and vanilla ice cram, YUM!! Beside the toasts, I can honestly say I tried one of my best granolas ever!

Camilia patisserie

Camilia patisserie

Hako and me in Parque El Virrey

Al Agua Patos

Pato de Stroganoff

Pato Horneado y Mexicano

Granola con yogurt Griego 

    

Mother's Day

Last weekend we celebrated Mother's day by having breakfast at Mateo's sister's new apartment. We spent the morning relaxing and then later on we went to the park, Parque de la 93, which they have just finished remodelling. In the afternoon we went to Estancía Chica, an Argentinean Grill Stake House, to have lunch with the family, just Mateo's parents and us children. Every Sunday we go out to a restaurant to have lunch, it's a tradition since many many years. Later on we went to buy some decoration and home-stuff that Mateo's sister needed. Mateo and I have been looking for a big glass bowl for our apartment for a long time, and now we just happened to find one without even trying - everything happens for a reason!! Anyway, we were very happy to finally fill our empty spot in the apartment :) ...when we came home I decided to change the place for the bowl so now we are looking for something to fill the old empty spot, again… 

Mateo's uncle taking a picture of the grandmother and the cousins 

Hako happy in Parque de la 93

The women of the family
(From the left: Mateo's cousin, mum, aunt, grandmother, me and his sister)

Our newest decoration piece

Wednesday thoughts

It's funny how much you can learn about something without even thinking about it. I remember when I first met Mateo and he told me he was from Colombia.. I know my first thought was: Latin America, yes... but what else..?!! My second thought was: Shakira is from Colombia. Now, over two years later I can proudly say I know a lot more about this country than many others. I know there is a lot more to learn but it takes time. Here are some interesting facts about Colombia I'm sure you didn't know:

• First of all; it's Colombia, not Columbia
• Colombia is the 26th biggest country in the world
• More than 47 million people live here  
• It's the only country in South America with coastline on both the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea
• Colombia has the most bird species in the world
• There are more fruits than there are days in a year - yum!! 
• Colombia is one of the most biodiverse countries in the world 
• Over 60% of the most expensive emeralds are produced in Colombia
• Colombia is a leading supplier of flowers to the United States - just for Valentine's Day more than 500 million tons of flowers were shipped over
• Bogotá has the most extensive network of bike lanes in Latin America
• Colombia is the second biggest coffee producer in the world
• The national flower is the orchid

The Colombian flag and Hako

Weekend in Guasca

We wanted to spend a quiet and relaxing weekend away from Bogotá so we decided to go to Guasca, a small town 50 km north-east of Bogotá, where Mateo's grandmother has a country house. The house is decorated and designed to reflect the countryside atmosphere, which makes it so cozy and cute - it's the perfect hideaway!!

This is probably not the first or the last time I'll comment on this but, the views from the roads are so beautiful, I want to make so many stops just to get a picture. I don't know why I'm so obsessed with views and mountains, I think one reason is because we don't really have a lot of mountains in Finland so for me being in an environment like this is just amazing. I try to take a lot of pictures, but in the end it's impossible to catch the moment in a picture, you have to really be there to experience the beauty of the landscape.  

In the end we didn't do much; we read, spent time outside in the sun and played with the dogs. We actually did have an other excuse to go there as well; we had found a girlfriend for Hako and in hope for puppies we went there to let them spend some time together.. Let just say we might have to do this again if we want Hako to be a dad..  

Landscape in Guasca

The country house 

Mateo and Hako

Semana Santa - Yopal

After a loooong road trip we finally arrived in Yopal, we were quite exhausted so we went straight to the apartment to relax. It’s really nice how the climate changes once you have driven down the mountain, it becomes so humid and warm, usually it is more or less 30 degrees celsius. 

Early the next day we went to the family ranch 30 km outside of Yopal. The ranch is really in the middle of nowhere, nothing else to be seen but jungle and cows. Comparing this place to Bogotá it's the complete opposite; it’s so quiet and peaceful. So, what to do here? Well, we went horse riding, drove around with the jeep and helped to feed the cows- yep, that is exactly what we did :) Going to the ranch is a vacation filled with adventure where you do get your hands a bit dirty. It's really interesting to explore a different side of Colombia, the real country side.

We also wanted to explore what Yopal itself had to offer so we decided to be tourists for one day. First we went to a view point to get a good look of Yopal from the mountain, then we spent a long time trying to find the entrance to a natural park, Parque Natural La Iguana, but without success. It seemed like all the locals knew exactly where it was and how to get there, but they all told us different directions.. So we gave up and went to Piscina Natural La Aguatoca, which is a small natural pool with clear water and a swimming attraction for both locals and tourists. We were a bit unfortunate because it had rained the night before which made the water less clear and a bit muddy. Last but not least, the food, we ate so much and all the time, yumm!!!

Chasing a cow!

Muuuuu

River-crossing at the ranch

La Aguatoca

Río Cravo Sur outside Yopal

Mamona slowly cooking for six hours

Meat meat meat!!!