Posted: November 1st, 2022 | Filed under: Out Of Town
Our three weeks in Colombia were amazing: stunning natural beauty, great food and so much deep and profound history to learn about — both recent and past.
Bogotá, July 2-4, 2022
July 2, 2022
Landed late so took it easy on our first day and went for a delicious late breakfast at La Puerta Falsa — our introduction to ajiaco soup and Colombian-style tamales, not to mention the oddly satisfying “Chocolate Completo,” which comes with a hunk of cheese you can dip in your beverage (!):
We then journeyed from Plaza de Bolívar to Estación de la Sabana to buy tickets for the Turistren to Zipaquirá, after which we visited to the Plaza de Mercado Paloquemao market where you can purchase exotic (at least to us!) Colombian fruit:
Dinner: Salvo Patria.
July 3, 2022
Took the Turistren to Zipaquirá where the main attraction is the wonderful and inspired Catedral de Sal, or Salt Cathedral:
July 4, 2022
Visited the Cementerio Central de Bogotá:
. . . after which we happened upon the Centro de Memoria, Paz y Reconciliación and neighboring Parque El Renacimiento. Centro de Memoria was closed for the holiday, unfortunately, but we did get to see the outdoor columbarios, structures meant to hold funerary urns, in this case memorializing all the dead during the years of civil unrest and drug wars:
Cartagena, July 5-9, 2022
July 5, 2022
In Cartagena, we experienced 90-degree heat and 78-degree dew points and quickly learned why people seem to stay inside during the day! On our first day, we walked around Old Town, then had lunch at La Cevichería:
It was so insanely hot we retreated back our hotel in adorable Getsemaní to spend the rest of the afternoon in the pool:
That evening after the heat broke we enjoyed the La Fantástica Pirate Ship Sunset Tour (with all-you-can-drink pirate punch):
Coming back to Getsemaní we saw how lively the neighborhood gets at night, especially around Plaza de la Trinidad:
July 6, 2022
All-day catamaran excursion to the Rosario Islands:
July 7, 2022
Braved the heat to see the view from the Castillo San Felipe de Barajas:
After that we got back in the pool, then did a wonderful cooking class through Foodies where we learned how to make arepas de huevos and a couple of other dishes typical of the region . . .
July 8, 2022
A stroll through Parque del Centenario, where, no kidding, there are monkeys and sloths:
Dinner: Restaurante Coroncoro.
July 9, 2022
Final day, where we stayed cool at a movie theater in Bocagrande and went back into Old Town to take in the (surprisingly!) interesting/engaging Museo Naval del Caribe:
Medellín, July 10-13, 2022
July 10, 2022
The beautiful Jardín Botánico followed by a fun soccer match between hometown club Atlético Nacional and their Primera A rival Cortuluá at Estadio Atanasio Girardot:
July 11, 2022
Plaza Botero and a ride on Metrocable Línea P:
Dinner: Mondongo’s El Poblado.
July 12, 2022
The very informative/highly recommended Comuna 13 tour guides you through the formerly troubled and violent epicenter of Colombia’s civil and drug wars. It focuses on the neighborhood’s renaissance and rich graffiti culture:
Dinner: La Matriarca.
July 13, 2022
Placita de Flórez market and Museo Casa de la Memoria:
Then some of us went to a science museum and others took the Metrocable Línea K and Metrocable Línea L to Parque Arví in the mountains above the city:
Salento, July 14-17, 2022
July 14, 2022
After flying into Pereira and taking a car service to Salento, we walked around the hilltop town’s cute streets and lovely town square with its church that has actual bells that someone has to ring:
Also, learned how tejo works at Cancha De Tejo Los Amigos.
Dinner: Donde Laurita where we tried “trucha,” the local trout fish dish and Quindú Restaurante.
July 15, 2022
Enjoyed the incredibly informative, very thorough and highly recommended Finca Don Eduardo Tour, where the English proprietor generously shares his time, knowledge and expertise he has gleaned from his experience nursing a 100-plus-year-old coffee farm back into production. Again, highly recommended and perhaps even worth visiting Salento for (details here):
After, we took in the views from the town’s two miradors — Mirador Alto de la Cruz and Mirador de Salento that look over the town and out toward the Cocoro Valley:
July 16, 2022
Spent most of the day at the Seussically Instagrammable Valle de Cocora/Cocora Valley, which is accessible from Salento via jeeps that are called “Willies”:
And more trucha for dinner at Restaurante Bar Shalem:
Pereira, July 17-18, 2022
July 17, 2022
We had one last coffee in Salento at Café Jesús Martín before our drive to Pereira, where we walked around a bit in the neighborhood near Plaza de Bolívar and the hotel before enjoying the Circo Vegas Fantasy at Coliseo Mayor Rafael Cuartas Gaviria:
Bogotá, July 18-21, 2022
July 18, 2022
Back to Bogotá . . .
July 19, 2022
The Museo del Oro tells the story of gold in Colombia and is as fascinating as it is visually appealing:
July 20, 2022
The view from Monserrate, high above the city:
And the wild and wonderful Andrés Carne de Res:
July 21, 2022
Our final day in Colombia, another fun cooking class and dinner at Mini-Mal before getting on the plane to return home:
Posted: September 7th, 2021 | Filed under: Out Of Town
It took a bit of research and exploring to find good places to run while we were in Mexico City. There are a couple obvious spots — people run along Paseo de la Reforma, through Bosque de Chapultepec and along Avenida Ámsterdam for example — but I also found a couple of routes that took advantage of the pleasant pedestrian malls along the center of streets in Roma and the pedestrian-only streets in Centro Histórico.
Running first thing in the morning is pretty manageable. Keep in mind that the sun basically rises in the 7 o’clock hour in Mexico City — earlier or later depending on the season and daylight saving time (in August while we were there it rose between 7:10 and 7:20 or so) — so you can’t go out too early. That said, it sort of seemed like things didn’t really start to get busy until closer to 9, so there were good opportunities to run along the sidewalks relatively unimpeded — the routes below took advantage of this: while I generally tried to follow car-free paths, it was necessary to go on regular streets at some point, but early in the morning it wasn’t ever too crowded.
We stayed by the Cuauhtémoc metro station, on the very edge of Juárez, which afforded great access to Roma to the south, the Centro Histórico to the east and Paseo de la Reforma and Bosque de Chapultepec to the north and west. All of these runs start from around Cuauhtémoc — Avenida Bucareli and the quiet streets leading to Paseo de la Reforma were fine to use in the morning (or any time of day, to be honest).
With the exception of Alameda Central and Avenida Francisco I. Madero, most of the paths tended to have uneven spots — definitely keep your eyes open — but it wasn’t too bad overall (definitely not a dealbreaker).
Avenida Álvaro Obregón and Avenida Ámsterdam
There are several pedestrian malls in the center of the avenues in Roma, and Avenida Álvaro Obregón is one of them. Running down the center is lovely:
A little past Avenida Insurgentes, make a left onto Calle Cacahuamilpa which connects to the horsetrack-shaped Avenida Ámsterdam, which follows an oval around Colonia Hipódromo. The median around Avenida Ámsterdam is narrow, but morning is a nice time to run through there. On the way back I was able to bypass the pedestrian traffic along Avenida Cuauhtémoc by using the quiet Morelia up to Avenida Chapultepec — a good option with a traffic light at the end. This whole route was 4.3 miles.
Roma Pedestrian Malls: Calle de Durango, Avenida Mazatlan, Alfonso Reyes, Avenida Nuevo León, Avenida Álvaro Obregón
This route follows the pedestrian malls around Roma and Condesa: Calle de Durango is a quiet street until you get to Plaza Villa de Madrid, after which it has a pedestrian mall in the center of the street. At the end of Durango, the path turns toward the southwest, where Avenida Mazatlan begins. About a block before the end of Mazatlan, turn left (east) onto Alfonso Reyes. Follow Alfonso Reyes until you reach Avenida Nuevo León, then turn left (north) and follow Avenida Nuevo León to Parque España, which puts you about a block away from Avenida Álvaro Obregón. Great route: about 5 miles from our spot near Cuauhtémoc metro station.
Paseo de la Reforma and Bosque de Chapultepec
Modeled after European boulevards like the Champs-Élysées, Paseo de la Reforma features two wide pedestrian malls on either side of the street that are great for running. The paths, situated between the main road and a service road, are uninterrupted between major roundabouts. Paseo de la Reforma is great any morning, but particularly Sundays, when the street is closed to vehicular traffic and you can run on the roadway itself.
Paseo de la Reforma runs right into the massive Bosque de Chapultepec, which has a nearly two-mile circular route that goes through the first section of the park. The part with the vendors gets crowded later in the day, but the morning is a great time to run through there.
This route is six miles, but I also took the subway to Chapultepec station one morning, ran around the park and back via Paseo de la Reforma, which was 4.2 miles.
Centro Histórico
I innocently thought it would be wonderful to run through the Zócalo in Mexico City’s historic center, but the Zócalo was blocked by the police every morning I ever went down that way. Not sure if this was protest season or whether it’s a normal thing, but there were still nice spots to run in the Centro Histórico.
North from Avenida Chapultepec via Avenida Bucareli, you make a right onto the wide sidewalks at Avenida Juárez where it meets the Paseo de la Reforma. In a few blocks you will pass Alameda Central, which is a nice place to run (with perfectly smooth sidewalks), but just past there at Torre Latinoamericana is the Avenida Francisco I. Madero pedestrian mall. That in itself is a great place to run, though you will have to stop at the cross streets:
If the Zócalo is impassable, just turn left onto the last possible street, then run up to the next open street and make a right (east) — for me, it was Donceles, which becomes Justo Sierra — these are the streets immediately to the north of the Zócalo and Templo Mayor and are quiet in the morning. A few blocks past Templo Mayor is Leona Vicario — turn right (south), and in a block it becomes a pedestrian-only street. On maps, this path is called De La Santisima, then Alhóndiga, then finally Talavera. Toward the end of Talavera you reach Plaza de Juan José Baz: make a right (west) onto Calle Regina. Calle Regina is a regular street for a while until it becomes pedestrian only at Avenida 20 de Noviembre.
At the end of Calle Regina, you have a choice to turn left (south) or right (north). The first time I went down I turned left and ran into José María Izazaga and the Salto del Agua metro station, which was too busy in the morning…
The next time I tried, I turned right, to the north, and eventually got to Plaza de San Juan, at the southern end of Calle Dolores, which becomes Barrio Chino, or Chinatown. The northern end of Dolores is Avenida Juárez…here’s what that route looks like, about 5.4 miles:
Posted: August 29th, 2021 | Filed under: Out Of Town
Panteón de Dolores, the huge city cemetery located between the second and third sections of Bosque de Chapultepec, is closed for covid — a lot of things in Mexico City have been closed for covid . . .
. . . so we walked over the pedestrian bridge adjoining the cemetery entrance into the Segunda Sección of the Bosque de Chapultepec. This part of the park dates to the 1960s and, compared to the primary section of the park, is scrappy and interesting in its own way:
The fish in the lakes must not get fed or something because they will almost jump out of the water when you approach:
As much as my Spanish would allow, I understood this all to be a big fountain, and part of an aeration system between the two lakes in the park:
Elsewhere, more of the waterworks:
