"I was heading to Colombia with high expectations of how colorful the country is. I was excited to learn more about its culture and overall feel the vibe of its people. Somehow, I was expecting it to be  similar to Mexico but to my surprise, so many things were completely different. My expectations were exceeded greatly. What a beautiful and vibrant place!

I was taken aback by how welcoming and warm and overall nice the people are, no matter their social status or what they do for a living. I felt that whenever I asked for directions or help in any way, literally anyone would stop what they were doing and take the proper time to help us out. The food was incredible, the colors were mesmerizing, but for sure its people made the most impact on my way of seeing this country.

Walking around the city and seeing how nearby the mountain range is from the actual city, was something I didn’t expect. I was not expecting to see such beautiful natural landscapes and scenery, literally anywhere from the city you can just look up and be impressed by how Bogotá is built in between so many mountains. Despite being a huge metropolis, getting to the mountains, even though it was a rough way there, was only a short drive.

I made an abstract representation of what I saw, ate, experienced and vibed on my stay there: The artwork is called  ́La Calera ́ because that was the name of the mountain area we stayed at, and for sure the one place that made the most impact on my way of thinking about Colombia, my own mental health and more. I incorporated elements and colors from its local flora and the bright Colombian yellow that is present at all times around the city. I added some shapes resembling the mountains and the scenes we saw from the whole city from up above Cerro de Montserrate."

Saturday, March 26, 2022

After yesterday's long trip, we had a warm welcome by the people in Colombia. Today was incredible, I woke up early, bought some local fruit, had a great Colombian coffee, and headed out to the Cundinamarca area in Bogotá, where I first went to see the Museum of Gold, which was a super interesting and a culturally rich experience, definitely a must-see. After that I went to a restaurant nearby where I had pasta, a berry mojito, and another coffee + some local desserts I had to try.

Headed to Botero's Museum, which happened to have a huge selection of not only Botero's paintings but also paintings from his personal collection that was donated to the museum, found some abstract gems I was super excited about!

Took a walk around the area and asked a few locals about places I shouldn't miss while in here. With their recommendations, I'm definitely thrilled for tomorrow :) Ended the day at the pool while watching the sunset come down from the 25th floor, it was simply majestic.

Sunday, March 27, 2022

We had a quick snack for breakfast this morning and headed out early to Cerro of Montserrate. It was a rainy, cold day and Since it was a Sunday, we had to wait in life for almost 1:30 hrs. This was totally worth the wait though, on the entrance, we got up on a train-like vehicle that took us up into the mountain, 3,000 meters above sea level: Seeing Bogotá from above there was simply a shocking experience. Up there we tried several other small local snacks like arepas and empanadas, and accompanied it with a delicious fresh coffee. We walked around and found a French restaurant that had an incredibly view and we rested there for a while, ate some risotto and salmon.

Took us a while to get out of there as well, but as soon as we did, we drove to an upscale part of the city where all major stores and restaurants are located. We had some desserts there and finally went back home. It was a great, full day.

Monday, March 28, 2022

Woke up early and grabbed some baked eggs and coffee on a nearby joint. Made our bags and quickly got into an Uber that would take us to our next Airbnb in the Andes mountains. This was a complete odyssey on its own: we got lost twice (because there was no reception in the mountain and google maps would take us to random places), the Uber car got stuck in the mud and with the help of their locals we pushed it out haha, and we picked up a second person to help us figure out our way here . After a 1:30 hrs off-road, we finally made it..can’t say it was a bad experience though, we were all laughing our whole way there, locals are honestly such warm and nice people.

Arriving here, I couldn’t believe the beauty of this place: The house is a minimal heaven and our view (the backyard) is basically hills and a lake, it’s so beautiful its almost ridiculous. We were welcomed by friendly dogs and a cat. Had a nice panini we cooked, walked around the hills a bit and opened a bottle of wine to end the day watching the sun set from our living room, chimney on. Amazing, simply amazing.

Tuesday, March 29, 2022

We realized that the fact that there was limited network signal was a great opportunity to unwind, take up from the landscapes as much as we could, rest, walk around picking up dandelions, playing board games, hanging with the dogs and cats (we became besties with them haha), take our time to make good food, talk about life, sketch some ideas and also do absolutely nothing. It was great, it made me think of how much I needed that and how I never really carve some time for ‘doing nothing’ time during a regular week. When we went into the town, we took some time to talk to the few locals we met along the way as well.

Thursday, March 31, 2022

We woke up really early and had our last breakfast in the mountains, grabbed a 2-hour ride back to the airport, we traveled all day and got home super exhausted but we were all just so happy for everything we experienced, saw, Everyone we met.. grateful would definitely be an understatement. Excited to show you all my piece I’ve been working on for this trip!