Top 5 Favorite Hotels 2010-2020: #4: Casa del Arzobispado Hotel, Cartagena, Colombia

The job of the Archbishop in Cartagena, Colombia, must've been a cushy gig, because I stayed at his house and it was awesome.

The Casa del Arzobispado (House of the Archbishop) was a small boutique hotel within the Old City walls of Cartagena, which, if you are going to stay overnight or three in Colombia's #1 international tourism destination, you really ought to stay in the Old City (rather than the high rise corridors of the Miami Beach knock-off Bocagrande neighborhood) (your other option). It doesn't look like much from the outside:

But inside those doors:

The hotel is a two-story, with only a few rooms, all around a central plaza with large pool:

The room also was quite large and quite comfortable:

I'm obsessive about picking the right hotel when I travel internationally (much less so domestically, when I'm more price-driven). I pick a neighborhood. Then I look for a hotel at a fair price in that neighborhood. I avoid American chains (again, the polar opposite of my domestic hotel search which is very chain-driven) (I love you, La Quinta). Boy did I luck out here. Great location. Spotlessly clean. Delicious breakfast. Reasonable price.

And if you climbed the ladder to the roof, the view was awesome (given that there are no high rises within the Old City walls):

I don't see me going back to Cartagena. I enjoyed the place, but it's a little too "romantic" for my tastes. And it's a Caribbean city. It's not South American in personality. But if I circumstances steer my toward Cartagena in the future, the first I will do is see if the Archbishop has a spare room available for me.

Phot-o' the Day: Wax Palms in the Valle de Cocora, outside Salento, Colombia

Wax palms are the Burj Khalifa of the palm tree world.* They are the tallest of the palm trees, which means they are very tall indeed. They are able to survive strong winds because of their slender shape. The place to see wax palms is the Valle de Cocora Nature Preserve in Quindio province, near Salento, in Central Colombia. This is the western slope of the Central Cordillera that runs through the middle of Colombia.

(Geology lesson o' the day. In southern Colombia, the Andes mountains split into three ranges, or cordilleras, as the mountains move northward to where the South American tectonic plate bangs up against the Caribbean. Or, if you prefer, the three mountain ranges that run like spines, north-south, through Colombia merge to form the single mountain range we know as the Andes, continuing all the way down to the very southern tip of the South American continent.)

Visited September 2012.
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 *  I have never been to Dubai. I have never seen the Burj Khalifa. I hear that it is tall. Hence the analogy.

Palm Sunday Church Phot-o' the Day: Iglesia Timana, Timana, Colombia

This is the strangest Palm Sunday since I converted to Catholicism back in '93. Since church is closed due to the COVID-19 lockdown, the Sunday Church Phot-o' the Day is a beautiful church building in a beautiful physical setting,

This is the Iglesia Timana, the Catholic church in the southern Colombia city of Timana. I passed through Timana on the five-hour drive from Neiva to San Agustin. Back when I was there, the closest airport to San Agustin and the amazing San Agustin Archaeological Park was in Neiva. Five hours away! The proprietor of the guest house where I was staying in San Agustin came to Neiva airport to pick me up. We stopped in Timana, about two-thirds of the way to San Agustin, just to take a look at this incredibly beautiful church. It has to be old and historic, too -- just look at it! -- but I do not know the back story. I could make one up, but that would be very inappropriate, especially on the Sunday when I should be in a church listening to the passion story.

Timana, Colombia. Passed through in September 2012.

Landscape Week! Phot-o' the Day: Southern Colombia, near San Agustin

All the cool kids on Facebook are posting landscape photos, I think as a distraction from the social distancing and self-quarantining associated with the coronavirus pandemic. I may not be cool. And I am not a kid. But I am slavishly devoted to following internet trends. And I have a boatload of landscape photos that I can post accumulated over years of travel.

So let's start with this one. This is the southern Andes of Colombia, near the town of San Agustin (and, more importantly, San Agustin Archaeological Park). The smoke in the foreground, right, is from a sugar cane house, squeezing the sugary juice out of the sugar cane stalks.

Landscape scenes are always more beautiful in person than in a two-dimensional photograph. So you don't get the full sense of how beautiful this area is, with the sheer cliffs and amazing greenery. You just have to visit here.

Visited September 2012.

Phot-o' the Day: Andres D.C., Bogota, Colombia

A glimpse back in the days before "social distancing."

The Phot-o' the Day is from a different era. This is Andrés D.C.- Bogotá. It is a streak house and a nightclub. Simultaneously. On the Las Vegas Strip, there are fancy restaurants that turn into fancy nightclubs as the hour gets late. Not so in Bogotá. Andrés D.C. is a loud, pulsating nightclub that serves delicious perfectly grilled steaks (and other meats) right in the midst of the nightclubbing.

Only in South America.

Visited November 2017.

Colombia: Country #16

I just flew into Colombia and, boy, are my arms tired.  It's true!  My arms really are tired.

I had to pack for an 11-day trip, visiting three different climate zones. So "Big Green," my large suitcase on wheels -- how the Hades did people travel before suitcases became wheeled -- weighed a ton. The messenger bag was packed with my old school laptop, multiple electronic devices (many of which I will be able to use on this trip!), some books and emergency toiletries in case I'm stranded without a suitcase. (See, e.g., my post from a Holiday Inn Express near the Frankfurt Airport last October.  So I over-packed and my bags were heavy.

I am here on the north side of beautiful Bogotá, staying at the Royal Park Metrotel is near, but not that near, the restaurant district:

Royal Park MetroTel

The hotel is just off Calle 74.  I will find out tomorrow how easy it is to get to the downtown and Old Town parts of Bogotá.

Bogotá is on a high plateau, with the Eastern Cordillera of the Andes walling in the city to the east.  The mountains look impressive from my hotel, but not from this picture:

Calle 74 street view

More pictures tomorrow.  Unless the narco-terrorists get me.