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I am going to do a huge departure from my normal process, which is no processing......, giving you the photos direct from the camera! I just don't have time tonight to do the extensive processing I normally do, but I definitely will at a later date, because some of the scenery was absolutely spectacular today!
I took a movie with the Nikon and converted it to a smaller format, to give you an idea... but the signal here is so poor that it won't download to the silly Blog. Sorry....
We took everyone's advice and took the $30 per person all-day tour to the Guatape area to mainly see the Piedra de Penol, a huge rock up in the mountains. But, while picturesque and famous, that wasn't what really blew our socks off....
We were picked up at our hotel (and dropped off later too) at 6:30am, and around 8am we were in the countryside having a supplied really poor breakfast... But they made up for that later with a supplied 5-star lunch.
The brochure is at the beginning of the photos to give you an idea of what we saw, and to explain the photos. For us the highlight was by far the gorgeous lake area and the boat ride, which also went by a property once owned by the infamous Pablo Escobar... From above, the spread of the lakes, hills and vegetation makes you want to stay there. 'Nuf said! Lake Of The Woods in Ontario came to mind....
Climbing the 639 steps of the Piedra Penol was not going to happen for us, and I am sure the view up there would have been spectacular,.... but I have walked more in the last 2 days than I have in the whole of the past year!!!! I will have to be happy with my many photos from different angles.
Our Greek friends, Dimitris and Rania, were on a different bus that was running basically 1/2 hour behind us, so we would always seem to meet them coming in as we were leaving, except in the area of the boat ride..
Those friends leave tomorrow, 3 hours before us, to arrive in Cartagena, so we will meet up there again for beers and laughs. They are there for 3 days I think, and we are booked for 5 days.
We have heard from Andalucia that our dogs are all doing good, which is a load off our minds.
Our final stop at the Chocho Llama Farm was interesting and, I thought, brilliant! They sell you two small buckets of carrots for $3 and you feed their animals for them!!! Pretty darn ingenuous!
3 times now we have been through the second-longest tunnel in South America (Argentina has one longer apparently) and it is 5 miles long, with no breaks, only one lane each way, no motorcycles allowed.... An accident anywhere in there would create a nightmare. Heck, even a flat tire would create havoc.... We will be doing that route again tomorrow as it is the quickest connection south, which holds the airport...
Lastly, I am going show you a relief map of South America that I stumbled across. The flat center of the Amazon and the Patagonia area is astounding!
I hope you enjoy the pictures. That was the day’s excitement.
Al
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Best bang for the buck Tour! 
Driver always distracted 
Breakfast place, nice but not great food today. 
Keeping track of our bus numbers
R
Rock Temple 
Church inside it 
Posing with borrowed clothes 
Local clothes on CostabRicans? 
Rania and Cristina 
Simon Bolivar in every square 
The lake area 
Srarting our boat ride 
Former property of Pablo Escobar 
He could afford properties everywhere 
Cristina bouncing to the music 
She was enjoying herself 
A view back to the Piedra Penol 
Misty view 
Another tour on another boat 
Coming back 
Piedra Penol makes Guatape world famous 
Another angle as we drive away 
Farther away 
Suddenly close again 
Painting where we had lunch 
This one too 
Our great lunch of chicharon (pork + rind) 
Another restaurant painting 
Old Guatape area 
Plaza de los Zocalos 
Really cool and shady 
Lots of shops of course for Cristina 
The other end 
The Malecon (Boardwalk) 
Street mural 
Gee, another church 
Very ornate inside 
Another Bolivar statue 
More art for sale 
This was funky 
$7 for a 45 minute ride around the place 
Driving up to Piedra Penol 
639 steps, remember.... 
Not for me today 
Still impressive 
Many shots taken 
Tourist area is busy 
I would have taken the balloon up there! 
One set up, one set down 
The far left was fascinating 
The stats in English 
$100 for a 6-minute chopper ride! 
The buzzards like the area 
This is what blew me away! BEAUTIFUL!!!! 
Hummingbird earrings 
Another set 
A simply astounding locale! 
Gorgeous eagle carving. 
Look at this view_ 
First shot at the Chocho llama farm 
You buy carrots to feed them. 
They mob anyone with carrots... 
Love their eyelashes 
Yin and Yang 
Handsome goat 
Even the horses mug for carrots 
#1 Ostrich 
#2 Ostrich 
Rolling in the dirt 
Sweet youg stallion 
Mature stallion 
I liked this one's markings 
A mural 
The 5-mile tunnel 
The relief map
