good-bye colombia!

we are now in the good ol' us of a.  we left cartagena this morning, flew to bogota and then onto fort lauderdale, florida.  we will fly home to oregon in the morning.

we said good-bye to colombia this morning (and really to south america and our whole adventure, but that is a much bigger post).  colombia, though was hard to say good-bye to.....it ended up being our favorite country and the country we hope to come back to someday.

we loved all the countries we visited but this one struck a cord somehow.  the people for starters were amazingly friendly and open.  not sure if it was the years of war, or the lack of tourism (and thus being so un-jaded with tourist), or if this is just the simple nature of colombians, but they are a wonderfully open, happy and beautiful people.  the people, as always, define a place and the colombians made this place special.

a colombian guy who was selling drinks on the walls of cartagena but graced us with a big smile and laugh....so typical of colombia!!

we will also, as always, miss the street food...... which in colombia is the arepa.   a corn meal pancake served in a variety of ways, but on the streets it is served warm with cheese....yum!

and the fruit! who can forget the fruit!!  so many mango smoothies and yet not nearly enough!!

in the end the kids think they would be happy in salento (and who can blame them, the coffee region is amazing), but i think i might go back to villa de leyva or guatape....with frequent visits to the coffee region, medellin and the caribbean coast of course! we loved loved loved colombia!

and so we say good-bye colombia......we will miss you soooooooo much!
hasta luego!