Pereira, Colombia
After a quick bus were arrived in Pereira late at night. We were able to score a cheap hotel for the night.
The next day we decided to do a little walking tour of the Pereira. The town isn't that big so it didn't take us long. We tried to hit these gardens at the university but apparently you have to be a student to see them. So why did they make it a tourist attraction on the map? Anyways, we decided to hit up the zoo to satisfy the child inside of us. I know I know, this is something you can easily do in Canada. This zoo was really cool though. It mostly had Amazonian animals and some that were quite rare. Some of the animals were really cool but my favourite were definitely the monkeys. How can't you love those lil guys? And I was pretty much screwing with them the whole time. Feeding them leaves, playing pass with pebbles and I even did the ET with one of the guys. Those little guys are so curious!
Once we got back to Pereira we arrived at our Couchsurfing place. We were staying with a nice Colombian girl named Alexa. We all went out for a beer in the party district, Zona Rosa, which was tranquil at the moment. Some hilarious stories were flying around in a mix of Spanish and English. My American friend couldn't really handle his manly bright blue Long Island ice tea that he couldn't finish, so we had to take him home :P
The next morning we headed out to Salento which is a nice small town with some great views. We did some hiking around the area and admired the views. That area look exactly like the country side of Switzerland. We were with a guy from Switzerland and he was tripping out from this fact. We decided to pass some time in the stream at the bottom of the hill. The water was quite chilling but not cold enough to jump out. Perfect for a hot day! After spending some time in the ol' watering hole we headed back up to the town for some lunch and then a quick tour of the area that has the famous giant palm trees. We all rode on jeeps and man do these guys pack the people on these tiny jeeps. I really don't think they have a max number in their minds for these jeeps. We rode their with probably 8 people on these jeeps with us hanging on the roof and standing on the bumper. After about 40 minutes of fore-arm wrenching holding on we made it. These palm trees were huge! They were about two or three times larger than the normal palm tree. They weren't even that thick. They were just really really tall. They were like some weird radioactive palm trees. We walked around the area for a bit but didn't have much time. We had to jump back onto the jeeps and this time there was even more people. The driver even decided to pack more people in the jeep because it was more money in his pocket. They packed 14 people on this jeep. I thought someone was going to fall off because he wasn't taking it easy on the turns either. Haha, I thought 14 was a lot but the other jeep had 16! They had 3 people on the cloth roof. These Colombians are crazy! Once we got back we went for some dinner and some drinks at this pretty cool lounge type bar. I had some of my favourite Mexican pizza and we chatted it up for the rest of the night.
The next day JP was off to Bogota and my Swiss friend and I headed off to the natural hot springs. These hot springs were amazing! They were very beautiful right in the middle of nature. We decided to be a bit ambitious and go for a hike to the waterfalls. Haha, on the way we were intercepted by a goat where we saw one of the amazing wonders of nature. We actually witnessed a goat piss in its own mouth. What an intelligent and beautiful animal! I really thought I grew through that experience. We hiked through this super sketchy trail for about an hour. We were cutting through spider webs, walking through almost knee deep mud and cutting through thick bushes. It seemed like we were the first ones through this "trail". I was even doing this trail in sandals, haha. This waterfall wasn't showing up and lunch was fast approaching. I could lose my sandals in mud, I could be attacked by a armadillo, I could even be bitten by a goat that drinks it's own pee but there was no way I was going to miss lunch! So, we headed back....
After a delicious lunch we decided to hit the hot springs. I mean, that is why we went there. Whew, I was in there for over two hours. I feet and hands looked like they belonged to an 80 year old man. So, it was time to jump out and hike some more. I explored a bit and found some cool mini-waterfalls and some amazing vegetation. I swear some of the plants looked like they were gonna eat me. Don't worry, I kept my distance. After a little dessert we headed back to Pereira. Once we got back we met a bunch of Alexa's friends and family. That was Spanish 101 on the spot for me. It was great though. Everyone was very nice and quite interested in Canada. I don't know what it is about Colombians, but it seems that everyone wants to go there even though the first thing they ask about Canada is, "Isn't it really cold over there?" And Colombians aren't exactly the most cold resilient people I've met.
That night we headed out to a cool bar inside a bar and had a "cerveza giraffa". Haha, a giraffe beer eh? Isn't that cute? That's what Colombians call pitchers of beer. We drank that and played a pretty comical game of pool. Alexa showed us her pool skills followed by her ballet moves. It was quite the sight. I haven't seen ballet with a pool stick in hand. Bravo! But, it wasn't enough to take down to power house of Kean and Lizeth. Better luck next time guys! We headed to another bar for a little bit and then headed to bed.
The next morning I caught an early bus back to Medellin to meet up with Matt. Round 2 baby!
The next day we decided to do a little walking tour of the Pereira. The town isn't that big so it didn't take us long. We tried to hit these gardens at the university but apparently you have to be a student to see them. So why did they make it a tourist attraction on the map? Anyways, we decided to hit up the zoo to satisfy the child inside of us. I know I know, this is something you can easily do in Canada. This zoo was really cool though. It mostly had Amazonian animals and some that were quite rare. Some of the animals were really cool but my favourite were definitely the monkeys. How can't you love those lil guys? And I was pretty much screwing with them the whole time. Feeding them leaves, playing pass with pebbles and I even did the ET with one of the guys. Those little guys are so curious!
Once we got back to Pereira we arrived at our Couchsurfing place. We were staying with a nice Colombian girl named Alexa. We all went out for a beer in the party district, Zona Rosa, which was tranquil at the moment. Some hilarious stories were flying around in a mix of Spanish and English. My American friend couldn't really handle his manly bright blue Long Island ice tea that he couldn't finish, so we had to take him home :P
The next morning we headed out to Salento which is a nice small town with some great views. We did some hiking around the area and admired the views. That area look exactly like the country side of Switzerland. We were with a guy from Switzerland and he was tripping out from this fact. We decided to pass some time in the stream at the bottom of the hill. The water was quite chilling but not cold enough to jump out. Perfect for a hot day! After spending some time in the ol' watering hole we headed back up to the town for some lunch and then a quick tour of the area that has the famous giant palm trees. We all rode on jeeps and man do these guys pack the people on these tiny jeeps. I really don't think they have a max number in their minds for these jeeps. We rode their with probably 8 people on these jeeps with us hanging on the roof and standing on the bumper. After about 40 minutes of fore-arm wrenching holding on we made it. These palm trees were huge! They were about two or three times larger than the normal palm tree. They weren't even that thick. They were just really really tall. They were like some weird radioactive palm trees. We walked around the area for a bit but didn't have much time. We had to jump back onto the jeeps and this time there was even more people. The driver even decided to pack more people in the jeep because it was more money in his pocket. They packed 14 people on this jeep. I thought someone was going to fall off because he wasn't taking it easy on the turns either. Haha, I thought 14 was a lot but the other jeep had 16! They had 3 people on the cloth roof. These Colombians are crazy! Once we got back we went for some dinner and some drinks at this pretty cool lounge type bar. I had some of my favourite Mexican pizza and we chatted it up for the rest of the night.
The next day JP was off to Bogota and my Swiss friend and I headed off to the natural hot springs. These hot springs were amazing! They were very beautiful right in the middle of nature. We decided to be a bit ambitious and go for a hike to the waterfalls. Haha, on the way we were intercepted by a goat where we saw one of the amazing wonders of nature. We actually witnessed a goat piss in its own mouth. What an intelligent and beautiful animal! I really thought I grew through that experience. We hiked through this super sketchy trail for about an hour. We were cutting through spider webs, walking through almost knee deep mud and cutting through thick bushes. It seemed like we were the first ones through this "trail". I was even doing this trail in sandals, haha. This waterfall wasn't showing up and lunch was fast approaching. I could lose my sandals in mud, I could be attacked by a armadillo, I could even be bitten by a goat that drinks it's own pee but there was no way I was going to miss lunch! So, we headed back....
After a delicious lunch we decided to hit the hot springs. I mean, that is why we went there. Whew, I was in there for over two hours. I feet and hands looked like they belonged to an 80 year old man. So, it was time to jump out and hike some more. I explored a bit and found some cool mini-waterfalls and some amazing vegetation. I swear some of the plants looked like they were gonna eat me. Don't worry, I kept my distance. After a little dessert we headed back to Pereira. Once we got back we met a bunch of Alexa's friends and family. That was Spanish 101 on the spot for me. It was great though. Everyone was very nice and quite interested in Canada. I don't know what it is about Colombians, but it seems that everyone wants to go there even though the first thing they ask about Canada is, "Isn't it really cold over there?" And Colombians aren't exactly the most cold resilient people I've met.
That night we headed out to a cool bar inside a bar and had a "cerveza giraffa". Haha, a giraffe beer eh? Isn't that cute? That's what Colombians call pitchers of beer. We drank that and played a pretty comical game of pool. Alexa showed us her pool skills followed by her ballet moves. It was quite the sight. I haven't seen ballet with a pool stick in hand. Bravo! But, it wasn't enough to take down to power house of Kean and Lizeth. Better luck next time guys! We headed to another bar for a little bit and then headed to bed.
The next morning I caught an early bus back to Medellin to meet up with Matt. Round 2 baby!
posted by Kean @ 11:55 AM
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