Jardin

This is by far our favorite town so far. We’ll have to see as the trip goes on, but it’s a really tough act to beat. This is a small colonial town about 3 hours drive south of Medellin.

Just about every building or apartment is freshly painted in bright colors…

… and the streets all seem to end in gorgeous mountain views…

… no matter which way you look!

This picture is emblematic of Jardin: the colorful local bus between towns…

… and the locals sitting around sipping coffee and people watching.

It’s also a town surrounded by working farms, as evidenced by various means of transportation -

The streets are very clean; most doors are solid wood, and the windows are covered with ornate wooden screens -

The town square is beautiful and welcoming…

… and definitely enjoyed by the locals at all hours:

On the one full day we had in town, we hiked out to a waterfall…

… enjoying the views and lushness along the way -

Even the isolated farms were brightly painted!

The waterfall just wasn’t all ‘that’…

… but we enjoyed the walk nonetheless.

Actually our favorite experience was at Gallito de Roca Preserve (Cock of the Rock). During our Peru trip, we actually stayed at a lodge named “Cock of the Rock”, after the namesake flamboyant birds of the forest. The males gather in a lek, to compete for attention by jumping, flapping and squawking. I thought I got some really nice pictures while in Peru, but they were nothing compared to the ones I got here.

And from the back, the plumage is also striking -

We had front row seats for their exhibition — (to see the video, drop down to the bottom of the blog email and click on “read in browser” and be sure to have your audio on)

I just love their fuzzy pantaloons. :)

Okay, enough birds… I’ll close with my favorite shot of the town in morning light -