“Chévere”

The second half of our trip in Colombia flew by! I’ve hardly had time to write about it because we’ve been doing, doing, doing from morning till evening.

The week included an amazing day exploring Chicauqe, hiking up and down seeing amazing views and fluffy llamas. We also had a lovely visit to Julián’s grandma’s home in a small village about 2 hours outside of Bogota. She’s probably one of the strongest 80 year olds I’ve ever met. Mariela proudly showed us around her property, picking mandarines from her trees for us and showing us her “little fincas” that she’s painted and decorated her yard with.

We arrived in the afternoon and promptly went shopping to start the preparation of the tamales! We used her outdoor, wood oven with the help of her friend. We gathered leafs from the plantain trees, washed and cut them and then began the assembly of the other ingredients: corn, carrots (to absorb the acid from the meat), lots of meat…, and hard boiled eggs.

Julian went to go drop off her friend in the village so for awhile it was just Mariela and I. I was attentively following her every instruction to make the tamales. Mariela and I had good conversation about how you should never stop learning things. She said she’s a doer and never wants to stop working on her property because it’s what makes her happy. We spent about 5 hours prepping the tamales and then put them in boiling water overnight. 

The next morning we had some sweet bread and then later the tamales, yum!! They were delicious. The late morning was accompanied by Mariela and Julian playing guitar and singing together. This was my favorite part of the time here because it warmed my heart to see and hear them sing together. Mariela even sang a song about going to Chile for me and included me in some songs.

Mariela didn’t want us to go but we had to get back to prep for the climbing weekend in La Mojarra. After some gringo stories, Julian and I were on our way back to Bogota. We stopped by El Salto del Tequendama to take some photos of the waterfall. I remember researching this place before our trip, it was crazy to actually stand on the ground I was seeing Google images of months before. I learned about the history and myths from Julian as we drove by. 

The next thing on the agenda was the 12 hr bus ride through the night. So worth it. We arrived early in the morning to a hostel on a cliff of a mountain, with trails below it leading to a platheura of climbing routes. So damn beautiful. 

We climbed for three days straight! Kendall and I got to meet so many lovely people. It was so amazing to be able to use Spanish to laugh, climb, and bond with everyone. The group had varying levels of climbers with the intent to just introduce people to outdoor climbing, no stress attached. The gym that was behind this was the gym that Julián opened with a partner. The atmosphere that they created was sincerely unique and incredible. Everyone supported everyone, it didn’t matter what you climbed. We met a lot of climber hippes that reminded us of friends back in Missoula. I think people like this exist all over the world. I got waves of happiness and gratitude for where I was as I walked around the hostel at the top of the mountain just thinking how lucky I am to be here.

It’s bittersweet to be saying goodbye to Colombia. I hope it’s a place that I can come back to because I know there’s still so much left to see. The people have made it one of the most welcoming places I’ve ever been to. Kendall and I have talked about how fast our trip is going to go by…How do you hold onto time when you see it flying by right in front of you?