Colombia

Have you ever been in a hot spring? I bet you've been in a hot tub. It is like that, except it is natural, so the earth heats it up.  We went up to some hot springs in the mountains, in the middle of nowhere. The hotel we stayed at was the only thing around. It was called Termales Del Ruiz. Our altitude was over 11,000 feet high, so we had to drink a lot of water so we wouldn't get headaches or altitude sickness.  In addition to hot springs, there were trails and places to view birds. Most of the birds were hummingbirds. We were given little plastic containers that you can put nectar in, and the hummingbirds will fly onto your hands to drink the nectar. It was exciting every time the birds would come to you, and it never got old. Some of the hot springs from our hotel room Me getting ready to go in a hot spring Us in the hot springs The first hummingbird that landed on my hand A hummingbird flying to my hand.  We went to a waterfall and walked down the stream and rock...

We stayed in a town called Jerico for two weeks. The town is known for a type of purse for men, called a Carriel. “Carry-All” They were in every gift shop.  Carriel (Picture from Google Images) This town was in the Andes mountains in the region most known for coffee in Colombia. Since it was in the mountains, there was a hill on almost every single street and some of them are really steep. We got a lot of exercise. All of the houses in town were very colorful. There was even a pink church that looked like a castle. Christmas and New Years Decorations in the town square Most towns here have a mirador, which is a viewpoint. You climb up to them, and they have some statue, usually Mary, and there is a great view of the town.  At the top of the mirador Mirador from the bottom  Entrance to the botanical gardens. It goes right from town to botanical gardens.  We did our school work in the botanical gardens one day.  This is called the Road of 100 Steps.   Th...

Did you know that Colombia is one of the places that produces the most coffee in the world? Here are some interesting facts about how they do it. We are staying on a coffee farm, and the coffee harvesting season is just being wrapped up. The typical harvest last two months. During the harvest, the farmers hire coffee pickers to pick the coffee berries off plants. When the coffee fruit is ripe and ready to be picked, it is dark red. The fruit around the coffee bean tastes sweet and juicy. When you eat it, you eat the flesh off the bean, not bean itself. The coffee field that we can see from our porch Me picking ripe coffee fruit to taste A bag of coffee berries collected that day A worker getting what he collected weighed Coffee pickers are paid based on the weight of coffee they pick. When they are done collecting for the day, they hang their bags on a scale to see how much money they will get. They get paid 1,200 pesos per kilogram they pick. Today, this is about $0.28 for every 2.2 l...