ODO: 325,755
The power of staying in a hotel has KoKo feeling significantly better. Which is good because we have plans this morning. A friend from home has introduced us to his friend that lives down here, so we’re off to meet a stranger in the mountains. He is the owner of a birding lodge, and has been giving us hot tips on places to visit in Colombia. The lodge is beautiful. Clean design that fits into the landscape and is surrounded by beautiful plants. Later we learn that Chris’s (the owner), father plans gardens, and has done extensive planning around the lodge. Our first adventure is a run to the local hardware stores. Berne is excited, he loves a good hardware store wander, and he gest to wander through a few. This also gives us a tour of the nearby town, and a chance to start getting to know our new friend.
Adventure number two is a stop at Chris’s favorite restaurant to make sure we get some of the local food. The restaurant is a log cabin style building thoroughly decorated for Christmas. We try a soup, arepas (a corn flatbread/chewy cracker thing), and some steak, all of which are delicious. After lunch, it’s back to the lodge for a quick tour of the property and some bird watching. Colombia sees more birds than anywhere else in the world between birds that live there and birds that migrate though. We watch an insane number of hummingbirds, and several other birds we cant remember the names of, but Chris knows them all. Dinner at the lodge is homemade using ingredients grown on the property, and is incredible. We go to sleep very full.
Breakfast does not disappoint either. Eggs, breads, fruit, homemade granola and juices for the win. Adventure number three is a couple mile hike around the property. There is a trail that follows a creek though the woods, but even with the shade, the humidity is kicking our butts. Half way though out hike we stumble upon a family of spectacled owls, which according to our host are very rare. He is VERY excited to see them, he even madea call to one of his guides to let them know about this discovery. After a nap and a shower, we enjoy another amazing dinner, and some (several) drinks late into the night.
Our driver arrives as promised, promptly at 2am. The 20 mile drive down the mountain is an adventure. Our driver must know this road well because he flies through the curves, tossing us around in the back. This is bad news for KoKo who gets pretty car sick, which is not where you want to be before starting ten hours of flying. Unfortunately between the car ride and the several planes, she will be sick from this for most of the following week, but she doesn’t know that yet. At 5am EST (2am PST) we start the flying and don’t stop until we land in San Francisco at 7pm PST, very long day. Since this is not our first rodeo, while we Uber to the hotel, we order our dinner (the best pho around) to meet us shortly after we arrive. Now we have an entire weekend ahead of us to recover and get ready for two crazy weeks in the office, two Christmas parties, and some friend dinners.
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