Very Colombian Experience - Termales Santa Rosa de Cabal

We got up early from our country spot in Salento and took a short ride into town.  From there, we took a bus 1 hour to Pereira.  From Pereira, a 25 minute bus ride to Santa Rosa de Cabal, then a taxi ride to the hot springs.

There you will find a hotel and commercial hot springs.  There is a large swimming pool size soaking area where people of all ages (from children to grandparents) were soaking an enjoying the Thursday morning.  

Above the hot pool, there is an incredible waterfall.  So before the hot water from deep underground is mixed with cold from the river, the water falls from a taaaaaalllll, cold waterfall.  We  weren't feeling very adventurous, so we just dipped in our toes into the cold pool.  It was a cool day to start with, so submerging our bodies into the cold water of the small pool wasn't very tempting.

As the cold water spills over the rocks below, it is mixed with 40 degrees Celsius, scalding hot water.  The minerals that cascaded over the rocks over the years create a soft, swoopy look.

There is even a little cave to escape the heat.

The soaking pool varies from hot to comfortable to body temperature as you move away from the falls.

Valle de Cocora

We spent our October break in the Zona Cafetera town of Salento.  There, we visited a coffee finca, hiked amongst the tallest palms in the world, went horseback riding (Linnea went 3 times) soaked in thermal hot springs and relaxed at our hostel, La Serrana.

On our first full day there, we went hiking in the Valle de Cocora is just east of Salento.  From Salento, we took a 30 minute ride in a jeep taxi called a Willy and started the hike.  The valley is know for the wax palms that can reach up to 60 meters high.  Palma de cera is the largest palm tree in the world and is Colombia's national tree.  The trees were threatened to extinction because of their use of wax for candles, being cut by farmers to build with and the fronds that were used on Palm Sunday.  So in 1985 the Colombian government designated the valley a protected area to preserve the endangered tree.  As you can see, the trees came back.

Kid hikers - Eli, Linnea, Dempsey and Finn

Before the big trek over the mountain

At the top of the mountain, we found the La Montaña ranger post where we had a cup of chocolate con queso, a typical Colombian snack.  We were up in a cloud forest and it was cold and a little drizzly.  The valley ranges in altitudes of 1800 to 2400 meters.

After leaving the ranger post, we zig-zagged down the mountain and made several crossings over the Rio Quindío on rickety suspension bridges.

After making it off the mountain, we were in the valley where the majority of the magnificent 

palms grew.  We were in good company with a lot of cows too.

 End of the 5 hour hike!

B - Burros

Although Bonaire is situated in the caribbean, it does not offer the typical tropical landscape one might imagine.  Lush green grass and palm trees are seen, but usually around homes or resorts.  More commonly seen are tall Kadushi cactus, scrub-like divi trees, paddle cactus and thorny shrubs.  This is the perfect environment for a variety of iguanas and lizards.  Surprisingly, it is also a good environment for donkeys.

Brought to the island in the 1500's by the Spanish, the donkeys were used for transportation, namely salt from the south of the island.  With minimal water requirements and the ability to eat about any type of scrub vegetation, they were well suited for life on the arid island.  With no predators and little competition for scrub, the numbers increased over the years.  Today, goats and donkeys can be seen roaming the less populated parts of the island.  But most of the donkeys have found a home in the Donkey Sanctuary.

We hopped in our rented truck and drove about 10 minutes out of the main town to the sanctuary.  We were greeted by a boy of about 13 years old.  Speaking English with a Dutch accent, he welcomed us and we bought 2 bags of carrots from him.  He warned us not to roll our windows more than halfway down because a carrot-seeking donkey might put their head into the car and then break the window with their chin! We heeded his advice.

Just across the cattle guard, the donkeys were waiting for us, or for our carrots.

After the initial shock of seeing those lips up close and personal...

...Linnea got used to feeding them.

We are surrounded!!

The donkeys were really sweet and gentle.  They would mostly approach the car, see if there were any carrots, then walk away.  But after the carrots were all gone, we had one persistent donkey follow us for a while.  He trotted along next to us and would periodically kick the truck.  The first time I heard the loud thump, I thought I had run over a large stick or something, but the sound kept coming from the direction of the donkey.  Linnea started to get scared, thinking the donkey wasn't going to give up on pressuring us for carrots.   I was getting worried about our rental truck and the size of the dents this little quadruped was leaving.  When he finally realized that we were carrotless, he stopped following us.

After we crossed the safe zone on the other side of the cattle guard, I got out of the truck to assess the damage.  No dents, just scratches in the paint.  I kept my fingers crossed that they would not be noticed by the rental agency under all the dust and dirt that had accumulated on the truck.

I mentioned to the woman in the office that a donkey was kicking the truck and she assured us that he was not being aggressive.  Rather, when they run, their hind legs flail out to the sides.  Okaaaaay.


Check out the Donkey Cam.  You won't be disappointed.

B is for Bikes

We all know that the Dutch have a sensibility about transportation and bicycles.  In the Netherlands, more than 1/2 of all trips within cities are taken on a bike rather than in a car, taxi or bus.  A bike can be ridden a in a suit or dress with heals while carrying a load of groceries in a basket.

Things are a little different on this municipality of the Netherlands.  Although Bonaire is relatively flat and small, the roads were built first for cars, not bikes.  Also, the heat makes it difficult for riding long distances.  But that didn't stop us from renting bikes to ride to the town of Rincon.

We rented our bikes from Rolf, a Dutch man who started his mobile bike rental company 6 months ago.  We called him and within a hour, his yellow van arrived with a variety of bikes, mountain and Dutch bikes.

We rode north from Kralendijk to the town of Rincon.  Once we left the capital, the traffic lightened up a lot and it was very safe.  Many drivers would wave as they passed.  Most of them were divers that we would catch up to when they parked at the dive sites along the western side of the island.

 It was a blazing hot day.  Fortunately, we were able to stop at 1,000 Steps Beach to snorkel and have lunch.  There were really only 109 steps (Dempsey counted).  The beach was mostly coral, so it wasn't the build-a-sand-castle, hang-out-on-the-beach kind of place, but we did get in the water (briefly, the waves were a little big here and it was hard getting in and out... the kids were not fans).  While we were eating lunch, this iguana came over to check out our back packs.  He stayed for a while.  Maybe he was waiting for a handout?

Rincon is nestled in a valley, so there was a huge hill to ride up  and over to get there.  With a 55 pound kid on the back of my bike, I only made it about 50 yards before I had to walk.  She walked, too.  Obviously.  She was a good sport about it though.  It probably took 20 minutes to get to the crest.  But the downhill was fuuuuun.  When we got to Rincon, we went to a market and guzzled down some sodas and a bag of Cheetos.  We weren't sure what kind of place we would find for lunch (lunch #2) until we found this Chinese restaurant.  The eggrolls were huge, the sweet and sour tasty and the vegetable fried rice hit the spot.

At the top of the hill before the descent back to our side of the island.

 Looking to 1,000 Steps beach where we had lunch earlier.

 The ride back to Kralendijk seemed to go by quickly.  We stopped a few times for a water break, to pick up or fins and snorkel gear that fell out on the road from our bag and take in the views.  As we rode past 1,000 Steps, there was a huge iguana that had been flattened by a passing car.  We hoped it wasn't the same one we had met earlier on the beach, but I have a sinking feeling it was the same one.  Poor guy.

Tuckered out!

The B in the ABC's

Back in early fall, we began making plans for our December vacation.  We wanted to find a place with a little something for everyone... scuba diving and snorkeling, wildlife, plenty of time in the water and outdoors.  My mom suggested Bonaire, the least known of the ABC islands: Aruba, Bonaire and Curaçao.  The more we looked into it, the better and better the idea seemed.  Netherlands Antilles, here we come.

Located in the southern caribbean about 50 miles off the northern coast of Venezuela, the island is relatively flat and dry.  All of the waters around Bonaire have been protected since 1979 and are calm and great for swimming and diving.  We stayed in  the capital of Kralendijk.  About 16,000 people live on the island, so you can imagine the capital doesn't have a big-city feel.  


The original inhabitants of the island were indigenous people called Caiquetio from Venezuela who went to the island about 1,000 years ago.  When the Spanish arrived in the 1500's, they called the island "las Islas de los Gigantes", or the Island of the Giants because of the Caiquetio were a very tall people. The Spanish didn't see any commercial or large-scale agricultural use for the island.  Instead, they enslaved the indigenous people and shipped them to the Island of Hispanolia (today Haiti and the Dominican Republic) where they were used on large plantations.


In 1621, the Dutch established the Dutch West India Company.  The Dutch and Spanish fought over the island for nearly 80 years and in 1636, the Dutch conquered the island.  The British took over for 2 brief periods in the early 1800's.  During this time, the settlement of Playa was built, now known as Kralendijk.  This diverse history has led to diversity in language as well.  The official language of the island is Dutch.  However, the most commonly heard language is Papiamentu, a mix of creole, Spanish, Dutch and bits of English.

Kralendijk sits in the southern half of the island directly across from Klein Bonaire, an uninhabited island.  Washington Slagbaai National Park is to the north and world class wind surfing and kiteboarding on the eastern side, notably in Lac Bay.

Kralendijk

San Gil - Part 2

Thursday in San Gil was a big day for us.  We went 20 minutes down the road to the town of Paramo.  There, we were going to go caving in La Cueva del Indio.  We were outfitted with headlamps and a flotation vest and began our descent into the cave.

Once in the cave, we adjusted both our eyes and steps; our eyes to the low light and our steps to the slippery rocks.  We learned about los murcielagos (bats) that live in the cave.  They feed on fruit and insects.  As we ambled through the cave, sometimes needing to use our hands for balance, we sometimes put our hands in slimy bat guano.  Fortunately, the cave also had fresh water inside where we could rinse our hands.  We had to wade through waist deep water at times, and it was surprisingly not scary.

 The walk through the cave took about an hour and a half.  It culminated with a 5 meter jump off a little platform into a pool below.  Without our headlamps, it would have been pitch black.  We all did the jump except Linnea.  Dempsey make the jump twice!  When we exited the cave, we were on the other side of the little town and we walked back to our start point in our wet clothes.

Happy to be back in the light of day!

As we came out of the cave we realized that the cloud cover had burned off and it became obvious that it would be a perfect day for parapente (Spanish for paragliding). We got to have a quick lunch before we hopped into a van for the drive up to the top of a mountain so we could ride the wind and thermals into the sky.  The kids got to go first to take advantage of the lighter winds that happen earlier in the afternoon. Once the wind picked up a little, the bigger people got to have a go. 

Linnea getting ready to take off!

Dempsey's turn!

Flying together!

In this picture you can see the grassy take off and landing area.

We had to wait until late in the afternoon for the winds to pick up again so Eric could take his turn.  Our plan was to take the bus a short ride to the town of Barichara where we were going to stay for 2 nights.  Eric didn't land until about 5:00, which meant that getting back to San Gil, picking up out stuff from the hotel, then figuring out the bus schedule was going to be a pain.  Fortunately, we had met a Colombian family that was also vacationing in San Gil.  We had spent the day together in the caves and parapet.  The offered to give us a ride to Barichara and we gladly accepted!  We had dinner together before they took us to our hotel.

San Gil, Santander

Leaving for our apartment early Sunday morning for the Terminal de Transportes Bogotá, we bought our bus tickets (40,000 pesos, or about US$20) and climbed aboard a bus for the north-central department of Santander.  The 7 hour ride took us to the town of San Gil.  About 300 kilometers from Bogota, this area was inhabited by the Guane Indians in pre-Colombian times and now has a population of about 44,000 people.  Tobacco, coffee and sugarcane are commonly grown here and we saw loads of tobacco leaves drying in open-sided barns across the mountainous countryside.

This region is known for it's desportes extremos;  rafting, caving, repelling, paragliding, hiking and mountain biking.  The Rio Fonce cuts the town into northern and southern halves and we stayed in a hotel about 2km outside of town on the river.  We eased into our adventuring by going to the Juan Juri Waterfall.  For a small entrance feel, we entered the park and walked 20 minutes to the bottom of the waterfall's 180 meter drop.

 We crossed the river with the help of a rope that spanned a shallow part of the swift flowing river.  Eric and Dempsey braved the swimming hole at the bottom of the falls.

The next morning we were off on a rafting trip on the Rio Fonce.

NO HANDS!! WEEEEEEE!