Hey everyone!
A couple of weeks ago Marty and Cris, two of the italian girls that
were in Denmark doing exchange with me, came to Pereira, due to they both were in Colombia visiting Laura in Bogotá and getting to know some places in the country. I really can't describe the feeling of having seen them again, I was very shock and really happy at the same time. It was so much fun showing them my city, towns around it, my family, my way of live, my friends, the places where I like to go and different things that can only be seen and found in the Colombian Coffee area.
In company of Nicola and Nils, two exchange students from Germany that came to Colombia about 3 weeks ago and are staying in Pereira, my sister and some of my friends, Laura, Sebastian & Juan Camilo, we saw so many nice places here, but there are still so many thing that we didn't get to see because we had no enough time to it. (Hope Martina and Cristina come again next year to see more and more)
We all went to Salento, one of my favorite towns in Colombia. The town is 162 years old and all the houses are built with the coffee area style, they look all great, the balconies and doors are all different but very colorful.
In salento you can find a huge variety of handicrafts, landscapes, is amazing to see how people is trying to make a living there, they are all very creative, they have their own small car made out of wood and they take the kids for a ride around the "plaza" (main square of the town), or riding tourists in a wooden horse, so many different things.
There is a valley named Cocora, pretty close to the town and you can get to see it from a very nice looking point, also you can go there riding on a horse (a real one, not a wooden horse), or riding on a jeep willys, cars used in the small towns to take tourists to some other places or just to ride around the town, the willys driver charge about $2000 colombian pesos per person for a 30 minutes riding. It was so much fun hey, I see the willys quite often but I never tried to ride on one of them, I think that while you are trying to teach about your own culture you learn a lot more about it.
We had lunch together, Patacon (Fried smashed plantains) with meat, "guiso" (Colombian sauce) & cheese; afterwards we went to walk through the main street in Salento where all the stores with all kind of typical things (food, deserts, bracelets, bags, earings, figures and so on) are located, it was quite interesting because you can ask the sellers anything about every single thing they sell and they will come up with a story, each thing has its own meaning. After doing some shopping we walked to the end of the street, where you find a very long staircase (238 stairs I think, Nicola counted them all) It looks quite long when you are on the bottom, nobody was sure about going up, but we ended up doing it, we actually got pretty tired but it was very worthy, the nice view from upthere was so nice. 
All in all, we had so much fun, but I'm pretty sure that the day in Salento was the nicest one, everything was so relaxing, we were just listening to all the stories that people were telling, looking at all the handicrafts and trying all kind of food, desserts, watching the landscapes, and just experiencing new things.
A couple of weeks ago Marty and Cris, two of the italian girls that
were in Denmark doing exchange with me, came to Pereira, due to they both were in Colombia visiting Laura in Bogotá and getting to know some places in the country. I really can't describe the feeling of having seen them again, I was very shock and really happy at the same time. It was so much fun showing them my city, towns around it, my family, my way of live, my friends, the places where I like to go and different things that can only be seen and found in the Colombian Coffee area. 
In company of Nicola and Nils, two exchange students from Germany that came to Colombia about 3 weeks ago and are staying in Pereira, my sister and some of my friends, Laura, Sebastian & Juan Camilo, we saw so many nice places here, but there are still so many thing that we didn't get to see because we had no enough time to it. (Hope Martina and Cristina come again next year to see more and more)
We all went to Salento, one of my favorite towns in Colombia. The town is 162 years old and all the houses are built with the coffee area style, they look all great, the balconies and doors are all different but very colorful.
In salento you can find a huge variety of handicrafts, landscapes, is amazing to see how people is trying to make a living there, they are all very creative, they have their own small car made out of wood and they take the kids for a ride around the "plaza" (main square of the town), or riding tourists in a wooden horse, so many different things.
There is a valley named Cocora, pretty close to the town and you can get to see it from a very nice looking point, also you can go there riding on a horse (a real one, not a wooden horse), or riding on a jeep willys, cars used in the small towns to take tourists to some other places or just to ride around the town, the willys driver charge about $2000 colombian pesos per person for a 30 minutes riding. It was so much fun hey, I see the willys quite often but I never tried to ride on one of them, I think that while you are trying to teach about your own culture you learn a lot more about it.
We had lunch together, Patacon (Fried smashed plantains) with meat, "guiso" (Colombian sauce) & cheese; afterwards we went to walk through the main street in Salento where all the stores with all kind of typical things (food, deserts, bracelets, bags, earings, figures and so on) are located, it was quite interesting because you can ask the sellers anything about every single thing they sell and they will come up with a story, each thing has its own meaning. After doing some shopping we walked to the end of the street, where you find a very long staircase (238 stairs I think, Nicola counted them all) It looks quite long when you are on the bottom, nobody was sure about going up, but we ended up doing it, we actually got pretty tired but it was very worthy, the nice view from upthere was so nice. 
All in all, we had so much fun, but I'm pretty sure that the day in Salento was the nicest one, everything was so relaxing, we were just listening to all the stories that people were telling, looking at all the handicrafts and trying all kind of food, desserts, watching the landscapes, and just experiencing new things.
Here you can see some photos so you see how the town is like and what we did.
Marty and Cris... I love you girls, thank you for a great time!
Spero che ci vediamo presto!
Spero che ci vediamo presto!
