Oh, Say Can You See…Happy Thanksgiving, Take II

Though the Columbus School really is a Colombian school, they think of themselves as a binational Colombian/American school. This is only out of respect to the teachers, though half of the import teachers Canadian. None the less American Thanksgiving is celebrated with gusto here; including a formal staff dinner sponsored by the ASOPOF (PTA), an all school (kindergarten 4 to 12th grade) assembly, and a four and a half day weekend.

Many teachers take the long weekend to get away and explore Colombia. Not us! We decided to stay and celebrate in style at Mike and Jen’s house. Mike and Jen are from San Francisco. They have two beautiful girls; Quincy, who has just turned 2, and Sydney, who was born in August. Mike and Jen love their football. They have a satellite football feed and get every NFL game live at their house. The last time we were there was for a football party with both girls wearing San Francisco 49ers cheerleading outfits.

Thanksgiving was done in true American style with 11 of us watching the football games, attempting to play a game in the yard, and gorging ourselves on copious amounts of food.
Henley, our dog, was also invited to join the festivities and play with his buddies, Comino, Xiao, and Kika. The dogs were the most successful playing football, making more blocks and tackles then all of their human counterparts combined. After getting completely filthy in the yard we set down to a traditional Thanksgiving meal: Turkey, stuffing, mashed potatoes, homemade rolls, green beans, yams, salad, and pumpkin and apple pie for dessert. The rest of the evening was sitting around the fireplace sipping apple cider and being thankful for our new friends.

Wading through, and to, waterfalls

Last week we went on a hike with Javi, who also happens to be my local bicycle buddy. Javi has lived in the area for many years and knows where the hidden spots are that foreigners rarely see. We met in Envigado, a suburb south of Medellin, where Javi picked us up in his car and we sped up the mountain. Apparently this area was off-limits during Pablo Escobar's time. The jail that was built especially for Escobar is located in the hills above our hike. However, with Pablo gone, the region has been opened up again.
 
We start at the end of a quickly disintegrating paved road, parking at a small convenience store/house. We traverse the mountain's contours, slowly descending to the river that drains in the valley below. Finally, the dirt path we were following disappeared, being replaced by the river itself. What followed was about an hour of moving up the riverbed, seraching out the best path over small cascades, boulders, and (up to) thigh-deep pools. The carrot at the top was a beautiful waterfall, cascading from perhaps 150 feet above.

We finished the hike by climbing up above the waterfall and looping back to the car on cowpaths and eroded dirt roads. Along the way we were met with a beautiful panoramic view of Medellin. (Click on the image to see a larger version in Flickr.)