Great stay in Medellin, but alas, now it’s time to brave our way out of town.  We spent some time in the morning trying to catch up on the blog (Do your homework as Gio says) and getting breakfast while we waited for the 10:00 am deadline on the smog restrictions for our license plates.  Saved a cool $400 combined.  NBD.  As soon as we left, it started raining, so we stopped by the Medellin Harley Davidson dealer, but their power was out, so it was like a sauna in there.  We loaded up and left in the rain.  And then immediately lost each other.  I went the wrong way down a one-way road, and Gio went elsewhere.  We rendezvoused back at Harley and then finally hit the road.

Leaving Medellin was, again, the worst, and to make matters worse, I missed a turn (fully blame Google) that forced us back through two “cloverleafs.” These are not the smooth, civilized giant loops we know and love at home. These are roller derby routes, and some of these girls are big and mean, and they all want off the ramp at the same time.  I’m pretty sure these loops were built as one lane, but they’re used as 2-3 lanes.  Depending.  On what I have no idea.  But we battled through while sweating our assess off and moved as quickly as was safe.  I would put our car passing via lane splitting into the hundreds this morning.  And I didn’t hit anything!  Well, until about 15 minutes later in some construction when I took out 4 construction cones.  Pretty sure that’s normal though.

After that city exodus, it was big sweeping turns along the river with comfortable speeds, great roads, and huge views.  Just really really great riding.  As we get closer to Jardin, the coffee and banana (plantain?) farms start up, and topography changes to lush lush tropical jungle.  We tried to take some shots to show our route and the beginning of the coffee zone of Colombia.

Taking a quick break to get a few scenery shots.

Amazingly beautiful – we have entered the coffee zone, and you can tell.

We have entered the coffee zone.

Really beautiful.

One last shot of the view.

Our route and view along the river.

More of our view along the river.

And then we arrive in Jardin, and the pueblo lives up to its name.  (It translates to garden for the Spanish illiterate.)  Colors abound everywhere, and it’s clear that this is another city enjoyed by Colombians from the bigger city – this time Medellin – just like Villa de Leyva is for Colombians from Bogota.  Great vibe.​

Our hotel is right on the main square, and we have a balcony overlooking all the action.  My room is very basic, and after showering I realize that I have a super smelly room again.  What the?  Oh wait, this time I’m pretty sure it’s me – MIGHT be time for new socks tomorrow.  Good grief.  Today’s super sweaty ride out of Medellin took these socks past their expiration date.  I almost took a knee when I walked back into my room from outside.  These are the details you’re looking for right?

The view from our balcony of the church (Pretty sure the Immaculate Conception – same name as the church where my parents were married) and one of the many cafes on the square next to it.

Flowers everywhere!

So green and lush.

Center of Jardin.

Working on dinner options at the coffee shop over a limonada de coco. Number 14 or so?

We pass these tomorrow on a road they barely fit on, so we learned to pull up INTO the jungle.

We walked the streets, enjoyed some pizza and then bought cow hides.  What, whaaat?  Yea, we found a local leather man, and we bought some hides from his daughter, Jessie.  As many of you know, I’m doing a renovation at my house, and Gio needed a good gift, so we each bought a hide.  I managed to pose with mine, and I’m pretty huge on Instagram right now after Jessie posted me to her page.  I have no clue how Instagram works, but I’m trending.

Meet Jessie! Her dad is the leather maker who made the hide I purchased.

Jessie posted me on Instagram (I do not have Instagram so Gio shared this photos with me). At the time of this writing, I had 15 likes out of her 139 fans! Huuuuge!

And then we went to dinner where our strong hold of the Spanish language let us down a bit.  Astounding.  First, we walk into the restaurant, and there’s a woman standing there.  So, I say “dos” (two) and hold up two fingers – you know, for like a table for dos – to which she deadpan replies “dos que?” (Two what?) . Hahahaha.  Yea, she doesn’t work there.  And she has no idea why Gio and I are laughing so hard.  So, we find an actual employee and sit down.

Yuuuuum. Liminoda de coco numero 15?

The menu offers many kinds of arapes and plantain things, and we decide to order 4 total to share.  Our server even brings out the one person who “speaks English” to help us communicate that we intend to share.  We were confident we got the point across.  Until dinner arrived, and yes, there were four items.  Each.  Oops.  No wonder they looked at us like glutinous fools.  Well, it was delicious, but we could not finish it all.  And I’m pretty sure we looked ridiculous.  But, maybe the best limonada de coco yet!  Look at all the coconut!  I had NO idea that I even really liked coconut.  I don’t think I used to.

After dinner, it was obviously ice cream cones again and then a stroll through the square.  Ugh, my tummy is still not right. Gio wanted to walk across the square because he heard live music, and I responded like this: um yea no dude I can’t wander that far from the room in fact yea see ya.  And I slithered back to the hotel.  But, I think the war is over, and now we’ve just entered some final battles. Skirmishes really.  If you want to know that is.  I mean, it’s central to the story.  Come on folks, you’re along for the ride, and you get the smelly socks and all the bad stuff along with the glamor shots.

Speaking of, a shout out to Little G back home.  Newly off to school, and he’s facing quite the epic battle of his own.  You show that Number 2 who he works for G.  You the man.

We called it an early night – we were both pretty beat.  The setting moon was pretty amazing behind the church.

And then I sat on my bed. Holy shit. This bed. I am not exaggerating – it’s easily the hardest bed I have ever seen – more like a thin foam pad wrapped around plywood.  You could EASILY play quarters on it.  Do the kids still do that?  God I was good at that game.

​As usual, I’ve updated our route below.  Now, this isn’t fully representative of our actual route anymore – Google has limits on the number of waypoints, but it shows the general route by the main cities we visited, and I have tried to show most of the exact roads we used.  Our routes between the cities were just sometimes a little different.  As in better than shown.