Easter Week

The week leading up to Easter is called Semana Santa (Holy Week) in Colombia. All schools have off and many people have off work as well. Many families travel/vacation or at least spend lots of time together at home.

Olga and I took a trip to the "Paisa" region of Colombia over Semana Santa, visiting the cities of Manizales and Medellin as well as surrounding towns and attractions.

Here is a video summary of our trip, followed by some highlights! Enjoy!

Trip Tidbits & Highlights:

• We spent a total of 55 hours on transportation: buses, taxis, cars, a van, a chivita, the metro, and cable cars! (Some of it was added time do to roads being closed because of flooding and mud slides.) It was worth it though, Colombia has "beautiful landscapes" (just ask cousin Jorge, our English-practicing Medellin tour guide)!
• We spent zero money on accommodations and little money on food, thanks to the hospitality of Olga's extended family in Colombia. This helped to keep our trip expenses very minimal. And, of course, staying with them made our trip very full of authentic Colombian cultural experiences and Colombian food (lots of arepas for breakfast and meat and rice for lunch)!
• In Manizales, we saw street crossing signs for cows, possums, AND armadillos!
• During a very interesting tour of a coffee factory, we were gifted a souvenir poncho, part of the traditional Colombian Paisa dress. I love free stuff and I love random souvenirs...so, this made my day! :)
• There was lots of rain the week before our trip as well as the week of our trip. This forced a lot of plans to change with our trip, but nevertheless we still got to do and see everything we wanted to, and more importantly we were kept safe--God is so good!
• Olga's family, as is much of Colombia, is Catholic. There is a big divide here between Catholicism and Christianity. On this trip, Olga was able to share her beliefs with her family as well as to explain some of the differences she has seen between the two churches. Some were more receptive to hearing this than others, but all were curious about why she is back in Colombia and what kind of church she goes to. We also had the experience of praying the rosary with some of her family members, an interesting experience.
• The mix of Olga and my languages and culture seems to interest and attract people to us. When it's just the two of us out and about somewhere, it's interesting how people seem so interested in talking with us and hearing our story and sharing with us. It has given us the chance to share with people, get to know them, and even build relationships, whether they were the people sitting behind us on the bus or the people selling us something at their store/restaurant. This trip had a few of these unique opportunities.
• For the first time in my life, I experienced the feeling as if I was going to faint. Thankfully, though, after a little time, I was back to normal. On this trip I learned that high altitude does affect me! Oh, and now I also know that I can get car sick! The Nevado del Ruiz trip was rough in these ways, but still a very beautiful and worth-while trip! We got to observe a very rare ecosystem there and see snow for the first time in over a year!
• The only sad note about the trip is that our bus trip home took 5 more hours than initially expected, which got us home in the afternoon instead of early morning and did not allow us to attend the Easter Sunday church service. But, we did get to see many interesting Easter traditions throughout the week.

Blessings,

Sophie