Medellín had some pretty dramatic thunderstorms, and we had front-row seats for the show.

Click here for a glimpse of these storms over Medellín

Breakfast of champions. The avocados we found in Colombia were huge and could have been entire meals in and of themselves.

Two hours from Medellín is the mysterious Piedra del Peñol; our guidebook stated “locals will try to tell you it is a meteorite[…]” but then did not go on to explain how this huge rock ended up in the middle of this area. A sign boasted that from the top of this 220m rocks is the world’s most beautiful view. I am generally leery of such bold statements but after climbing the 740 stairs (about 2^nd floor of the Eiffel Tower, this is how I see heights) I was, indeed, delightfully impressed by the view.

This area was flooded as part of a hydro-electric project.

An appreciator of the sport base-jumping, Julien was thrilled to learn that 10 world-champion base-jumpers would be leaping off the rock later in the day. That black and white board is the platform from which they would make the jump.

We hadn’t noticed on the way up, but there were two separate staircases, one for the way up and the other for the way down.

A most flashy tuk-tuk

Our ride was, perhaps, an introduction to the colorful city of Guatapé

Guatapé’s main plaza

Our guidebook described Guatapé as famous for its many zócalos. This was a bit confusing as in Mexico “zócalo” was the word for main plaza. How many main plazas could one town have? Come to find out, here “zócalo” referred to the colorful 3D decor found adorning the city’s walls, telling stories of the city and its people, from religion to agriculture to the first inhabitants.

Often times the zócalo depicted the profession of the people within, such as the milkmen here. The feature photo to this blog entry is where “Nacho,” the main zócalo-creator, lived.

Patiently awaiting the base-jumpers

About an hour later, the first one jumped

The view of Medellín from our bedroom. We left Medellín one sunny morning to head south to Salento, in the coffee region. We loved Medellín and even after 10 days it was hard to leave, our time undoubtedly enhanced by our time in Andy’s apartment soaking in Medellín’s atmosphere and hanging out with his canine companion.

Hasta la próxima Medellín!