Valle de Cocora

Here are some pictures from earlier this week. We traveled from Bogota to Solento, where we visited with the fantastic Tia Rubiela (family of Marisa and Luisa), and saw the national tree - "la cocora". We also saw condors! They were smaller than the ones we have in California. The girls enjoyed feeding the fish - "la trucha".  Hiking along the trail of the Cocora trees reminded us of "The Lorax". 

We have one more night in Manizales, and tomorrow we head to Medellin via a 5 hr bus ride. We have been enjoying watching futbol, and are excited to watch USA v Colombia tonight! Benji is taking a big hike up santa Isabel (one of the peaks in Los Nevados National Park) today. I think it is 16,000 ft or so. He had to bring his beanie because there might be snow up at the top! Hard to believe there are so many gradients of temperature.

The people here are amazing! They are helpful, fun, friendly and endearing. Everyday we fall more in love with this fantastic country and we have only seen a very small portion.

The weather is perfect, although it might look overcast (it is) and cold (it is not). The altitude is high and the humidity is very high. In the subtropics this makes for an excellent environ with a ton of biodiversity. We have seen many orchids and bromeliads growing on the trees.