Sunday, January 13, 2013

Bucaramanga, Colombia--my trip in photos

by Leslie

Hi all!  Wow, it seems like it's been quite a long time since I've connected with you all here at The Test Nest.  I have missed it!  One of the reasons I've been gone is because I was literally...gone.  Jaime and I took our second (!!) trip of the year to Colombia.  The first was in January.  The trip in January was great, minus a horrible bout of food poisoning, but this trip was excellent, as well.

We went with the intention of helping Jaime's mom recover from knee surgery.  Jaime's sister had been there for several weeks and we caught her at the tail end of her trip.  Although the circumstances weren't the best, we still had a great time and Jaime's mom is making a full recovery!

Here are a few photos and tips from our trip this time.

We stayed in the sweet ALoft hotel the one night we were in Bógota.  We got there at 11 pm and left at 4 am.    I doubt we got to experience all the amenities.

Loved the showers.  You could vaguely see the person showering if you were in the bedroom part of the hotel.  

As soon as we reached Jaime's mother's apartment, I had to see progress on the building going up across the street.  They are moving along quickly and soon the beautiful mountain view will be all but a memory.  :(



We got to go to the fruit market to buy a week's work of fruits for the family.  Look at the size of those avocados!  They are bigger than the mangos, which are even larger than mangos here!

My favorite part of our daily visit to Carrefour (the grocery store) was the bread section!  They had walls of fresh sweet breads.  My favorite was the roscon--a donut-shaped sweet bread filled with arequipe, a dulce de leche-like caramel.  Delicious!

Although the weather didn't put me in the holiday spirit, the abundance of Christmas lights did!  Notice the lady in the bottom of the picture fanning the coals of her grill.  She was selling meat kabobs and grilled corn on the cob.

Bucaramanga has an awesome statue by the famous Colombian artist,  Fernando Botero.

Every night the mall had a special holiday music program.  This particular night we got to see a huge mariachi band.  I love their white outfits!

I had to make a stop at my favorite snack place, Fruchetta.  They make chocolate dipped strawberries.  This woman was so nice.  She had already closed and made ours anyway!







We even got in a little babysitting in.  This is Jaime's cousin's son, John Alejandro.  Too cute, right?
This is Jaime's cousin's house.  He grew up in one much the same.  The upstairs is a separate apartment.



We saw these lovely flags on our visit to San Francisco, part of the leather district.  If you like shoes and handbags, this is your place!  Santander is known for its leather, so they manufacture tons of shoes there.  Surprisingly, I didn't buy any shoes, but I did buy two purses!

Miles of shoes!  Every store window looked like this and there were HUNDREDS of stores, all in a row.  How does one choose?

Holiday traffic jam.  

This is Jaime's mother's church.  Isn't it beautiful?  All of those small squares are filled with colored  glass.  It is very airy and fresh inside.

A long hard walk to the mall calls for a banana split and a mandarina (fresh mandarine juice blended with ice).

During a visit to Jaime's uncle Alvaro's we checked out his garden.  Look at that Poinsettia bush!

Jaime, his cousin, and I took a visit to El Parque de Agua in Bucaramanga.  They have it decked out for the holidays.

 Jaime and his cousin Aminta.

Sweet lights!

Jaime and I stopped for an afternoon snack.  For me, pan de yucca.  For him?  Mystery meat stuffed in mystery meat.

Jaime had to stop for a hot dog at some point.  They really do gourmet dogs.  I don't remember what was on this one, but it was pretty good.  Lots of sauces and cheese.  They enjoy their mayonnaise in Colombia.

A beautiful park with beautiful trees.

Tutti Frutti!

I had a to grab a photo of Jaime and his mom in front of some animatronic singing bears!

This sunrise marks the end of our trip.  It was taken from the airport!

2 comments:

  1. Amazing photo story, Bucaramanga is a must-see in Colombia, but travelers must remember that there're a lot of others places that need to be to visit, it's better planing a long trip around Colombia if you don't have a car I recommend you to visit: http://andestransit.com/ here there're tons of information about buse around Colombia, routes, companies, schedules, trip times, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We stay at Aloft too! It is really nice, and you missed the breakfast, but it is good too. They have a carafe of black coffee, and one of cafe con leche that is nice and hot. I loved that :) I recognized most of the places in your photos! It was fun to see all the places you went! I didn't know that they have leather bags in San Francisco! I thought they only have shoes! I will definitely need to go back to look for some.

    ReplyDelete

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Sunday, January 13, 2013

Bucaramanga, Colombia--my trip in photos

by Leslie

Hi all!  Wow, it seems like it's been quite a long time since I've connected with you all here at The Test Nest.  I have missed it!  One of the reasons I've been gone is because I was literally...gone.  Jaime and I took our second (!!) trip of the year to Colombia.  The first was in January.  The trip in January was great, minus a horrible bout of food poisoning, but this trip was excellent, as well.

We went with the intention of helping Jaime's mom recover from knee surgery.  Jaime's sister had been there for several weeks and we caught her at the tail end of her trip.  Although the circumstances weren't the best, we still had a great time and Jaime's mom is making a full recovery!

Here are a few photos and tips from our trip this time.

We stayed in the sweet ALoft hotel the one night we were in Bógota.  We got there at 11 pm and left at 4 am.    I doubt we got to experience all the amenities.

Loved the showers.  You could vaguely see the person showering if you were in the bedroom part of the hotel.  

As soon as we reached Jaime's mother's apartment, I had to see progress on the building going up across the street.  They are moving along quickly and soon the beautiful mountain view will be all but a memory.  :(



We got to go to the fruit market to buy a week's work of fruits for the family.  Look at the size of those avocados!  They are bigger than the mangos, which are even larger than mangos here!

My favorite part of our daily visit to Carrefour (the grocery store) was the bread section!  They had walls of fresh sweet breads.  My favorite was the roscon--a donut-shaped sweet bread filled with arequipe, a dulce de leche-like caramel.  Delicious!

Although the weather didn't put me in the holiday spirit, the abundance of Christmas lights did!  Notice the lady in the bottom of the picture fanning the coals of her grill.  She was selling meat kabobs and grilled corn on the cob.

Bucaramanga has an awesome statue by the famous Colombian artist,  Fernando Botero.

Every night the mall had a special holiday music program.  This particular night we got to see a huge mariachi band.  I love their white outfits!

I had to make a stop at my favorite snack place, Fruchetta.  They make chocolate dipped strawberries.  This woman was so nice.  She had already closed and made ours anyway!







We even got in a little babysitting in.  This is Jaime's cousin's son, John Alejandro.  Too cute, right?
This is Jaime's cousin's house.  He grew up in one much the same.  The upstairs is a separate apartment.



We saw these lovely flags on our visit to San Francisco, part of the leather district.  If you like shoes and handbags, this is your place!  Santander is known for its leather, so they manufacture tons of shoes there.  Surprisingly, I didn't buy any shoes, but I did buy two purses!

Miles of shoes!  Every store window looked like this and there were HUNDREDS of stores, all in a row.  How does one choose?

Holiday traffic jam.  

This is Jaime's mother's church.  Isn't it beautiful?  All of those small squares are filled with colored  glass.  It is very airy and fresh inside.

A long hard walk to the mall calls for a banana split and a mandarina (fresh mandarine juice blended with ice).

During a visit to Jaime's uncle Alvaro's we checked out his garden.  Look at that Poinsettia bush!

Jaime, his cousin, and I took a visit to El Parque de Agua in Bucaramanga.  They have it decked out for the holidays.

 Jaime and his cousin Aminta.

Sweet lights!

Jaime and I stopped for an afternoon snack.  For me, pan de yucca.  For him?  Mystery meat stuffed in mystery meat.

Jaime had to stop for a hot dog at some point.  They really do gourmet dogs.  I don't remember what was on this one, but it was pretty good.  Lots of sauces and cheese.  They enjoy their mayonnaise in Colombia.

A beautiful park with beautiful trees.

Tutti Frutti!

I had a to grab a photo of Jaime and his mom in front of some animatronic singing bears!

This sunrise marks the end of our trip.  It was taken from the airport!

2 comments:

  1. Amazing photo story, Bucaramanga is a must-see in Colombia, but travelers must remember that there're a lot of others places that need to be to visit, it's better planing a long trip around Colombia if you don't have a car I recommend you to visit: http://andestransit.com/ here there're tons of information about buse around Colombia, routes, companies, schedules, trip times, etc.

    ReplyDelete
  2. We stay at Aloft too! It is really nice, and you missed the breakfast, but it is good too. They have a carafe of black coffee, and one of cafe con leche that is nice and hot. I loved that :) I recognized most of the places in your photos! It was fun to see all the places you went! I didn't know that they have leather bags in San Francisco! I thought they only have shoes! I will definitely need to go back to look for some.

    ReplyDelete

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