Colombia

This past weekend we hiked to the Valle de Cascadas, which means the Valley of Waterfalls. This was a two day hike. We hiked into the Valle de Cascadas and stayed there one night and then hiked back a different route the next day.  Starting our hike, before we got muddy Our guide's name was Nestor and he was really nice. He was born in the mountains in the jungle and has lived there his whole life. He told us his family was indigenous to the area and his ancestors have always lived in the jungle canyon.   It was supposed to rain a lot, but we were very lucky, and we didn't get rained on at all. It was still super muddy and extremely wet, and we all ended up with soaking shoes. The hike was hard, and lasted about six hours of actual hike time each day, but we took lots of breaks to see different things, to eat, and to swim so we were busy all day.  Our guide would cut lemons off trees and give them to us to mix with our waters. It made them taste really good. He said ...

  The first town we stayed in was called El Carmen de Viboral. This town is a big town; about 65,000 people live here. It is known for all of its ceramics. Greenhouses and plant nurseries are everywhere.  The ceramics are painted with colorful pigments by hand and they are really pretty. They are also all around the city on houses and buildings for decoration.  Building decorated with ceramic plates Tiles were also a common decoration.  Why aren't pharmacies so pretty in the U.S.?  Even the planters are decorated!  This is the bottom of a lamppost decorated with tiles and ceramic plates.  We had the opportunity to paint some ceramics and it was really hard, but it was really cool. It took a long time.  This is the ceramic plate I painted.  This shows examples of some of the more traditional designs.  A cute little hand painted tea set We're staying a little bit out of town and there are greenhouses all around us. The farm we're staying o...