tierra dulce and guatape

we just finished up a week at a little farm called tierra dulce located a few hours outside of medellin.  our hosts cristina and daniel were just the sweetest young couple.  they have this lovely farmhouse which they shared with us.  we had our own room and our own beds and we were handed clean sheets and blankets on arrival!!

daniel had inherited the house and land a few years back from his grandfather.  it was interesting to hear how lives in the country were affected by the drug cartel and the guerillas.  the countryside fared worse in some regards as the farmers ended up caught in the middle.  in fact daniel's grandfather moved to medellin for many years and abandoned the house as it just wasn't safe.  the house survived its years of unoccupation unscathed and now daniel and cristina have big dreams and plans for its future.

the kids, as usual, thrived on the farm.  there were lots of animals. a pair of sweet dogs and four fabulous ducks that we never grew tired of watching waddle around.  plus a goat that liked to play a head butting game and some cows for milking.

millie and rocco

we loved the one with the fro!

to lucy's delight a baby mule was born while we were there and cristina bought ten baby chicks which lucy immediately appointed herself caretaker of.

we mostly worked in the garden and todd built a compost bin.

we ate our meals all together which were prepared by cristina.  the food was simple, traditional and delicious!

there was a very cool community project nearby that we visited one day.  the story goes that daniel's grandfather donated the land to the community and then the community won a grant to build a sugar cane processing building.  they grow the cane on the land and then processes it into a blocks of hard sugar called panela (commonly dissolved in water and drunk like a hot tea....with a squeeze of lime it is yum!) by boiling the cane juice down to a thick syrup that then hardens in molds.  then they sell the panela in town.   it was really really interesting!

this machine juices the cane

the mountain of dried sugar cane after juicing....it gets fed into the fire to boil the cane juice.  cool closed loop system, no waste!

feeding the fire

scooping the cane syrup

putting the cane syrup into the molds

the packaged end product ready for sale

it was a wonderful week for us.  we had the unfortunate news of the united states election results while there, but didn't have access to internet (which was a blessing).  both cristina and daniel were shocked by the results (as were we) since the prevailing opinion in colombia of our now president elect is not positive.  we found working in the garden to be very cathartic and healing and our psyches were improved by the weeks end.  instead of trolling the internet we spent our days helping to make arepas (traditional cornmeal pancake) and roasting coffee beans over a fire.

cooking arepas

roasting coffee beans

at the end of the week we said our good-byes to tierra dulce though we will hold this little colombian farm in our hearts always.

we caught a bus and made our way to the town of guatape.  this is a very popular tourist town for the folks of medellin.....and the town was packed with people!  the town is set on lake guatape and gives salento a run for its money in terms of colorful doors and balconies.

in addition to the color the town is known for its zolacos which are these colorfully designed freizes painted along the lower part of the buildings. some of the designs are really fun!

even the moto-taxis are colorful!

the main attraction is a huge rock just outside of town called la piedra penol.

there are stairs built along the side (659 steps in fact) to get to the top.

climbing up!

and the effort is worth it as you are rewarded with stunning views of the lake.

we had a few hours before our bus to medellin and the kids wanted to play in the lake.  there was this big slide and right next to it was what they called the 'blop'.  riley decided it looked pretty fun.....watch the video as words don't do it justice!

a fun little aside for our one day in guatape!!



we are now in medellin for the next few days.  todd and i have been watching narcos on netflix and being here in pablo escobar's town is super fun!!

we are down to the last two and half weeks of this crazy south american adventure!
hasta luego!