National Holidays and Botanical Garden

So, apparently I'm not very good at consistently updating my blog...

Anyways, yesterday and last Monday were both national holidays. Last week was for Corpus Christi, and Monday was Sacred Heart of Jesus. In case you didn't know, Colombia is overwhelmingly Roman Catholic. So last Monday I went with Katie, AnaCe, Pati, Guadalupe, and Armando to the Botanical Gardens. It was overcast at first, but soon turned into a beautiful sunny day. I took tons of photos, but I will only post a few here.

This is the full name of the garden. It's named after......some guy. He was kind of a big deal back in the day, so look him up if you're interested/motivated.

Right outside the gates, you can buy all sorts of cool plants. Katie and AnaCe are on the left.

There was a temporary butterfly exhibit, so the front entrance was decorated appropriately.

They are currently constructing this beautiful bridge leading to....something, but right now it's kind of a mess and the water is all nasty, but when it's done it will be really nice.

Haha, these are the naturally occurring "Elephant Trees," named so for their ears. Just kidding, I don't know who decided it was a good idea to put ears on them, but we got a kick out of it.

This guy was walking around like he owned the place. The nerve!

There were a bunch of animal statues, but if you look closely at the spots on this leopard, you might notice a few things...

There was a little girl playing near the dolphin, and it was just such a perfect photo with the tall flowers in the background that I couldn't help myself.

Katie and AnaCe taking a quick break.

Finally, the sun came out!

They had roses in all colors, shapes, and sizes.

AnaCe by (well, on) a fountain, with the gardens all around here and the mountains in the background. It was all so beautiful! (Ha, I bet you didn't think I was going to work the mountains into the Botanical Gardens, but boy, were you wrong!)

There were some really strange but beautiful tropical plants.

You can't run, you can't hide from.....this flower? Yes, that's right, it's a flower. Pretty crazy, huh?

I don't know what kind of plant this is, but the colors were pretty and I loved the water trapped in the middle.

There were winding paths in the greenhouses. It was just incredible to be surrounded by so many exotic plants.

I love these little flowers! They hang from a tree and look like ribbons. So pretty!

This looks like your cliche, run-of-the-mill tropical flower, but it's still beautiful.

Here's a real butterfly! There were prettier ones, but they never landed close enough to get a decent photo.

Yes, I realize this is not a flower, but it's pink and green and oh-so-pretty. :)

I don't even know what to call this one, but it's pretty awesome.

Ooh, ooh, I know this one! It's called "Bird of Paradise" and is an awesome plant.

Yes, this is a leaf, but it's not just a leaf. Look at those incredible colors and the droplets of water. Yeah, that's right. Leaves can be beautiful, too.

Here are some crazy vines growing near the lily pond. Enough said.

A little turtle looked very happy in the lily pond. Isn't he adorable?!? (Btw, the correct answer is 'yes,' in case you were wondering.)

Some more tropical flowers. I just marvel at all the incredible shapes and colors.

This is just a really pretty flower sprouting up among the lily pads. It's so serene.

On to the desert! These are some colorful cacti.

This plant has huge, thick leaves that people have used as a sort of living graffiti. It's a cool concept, that the stuff near the edges is older and the plant keeps growing, so as years pass it gets bigger and more marked up.

Wow, those are huge flowers....oh, they're not real. I thought it was kind of funny to have a fake flower patch in the botanical gardens.

Here's Katie doing a handstand. What prompted her? I have no idea.

AnaCe meditating in front of the Herbal Medicine garden.

Haha, flower people! Maybe the sun was getting to our heads, or maybe those 'herbal medicines' were stronger than we thought...

Snapshot of AnaCe and I.

Here's me standing in front of some huge herbal medicine plant. It sort of looks like kelp, but, you know, not underwater.

Haha, Katie was tired so she took a very short catnap. We couldn't just let her lay there completely undisturbed...

I found the entrance to the Secret Garden!! Well, okay, not really, but I am contemplating the angle at which this photo was taken...

Aww how cute! Guadalupe and Armando, our token couple. Katie and AnaCe sometimes call him the "Alpha Male" because he's so often the only man with all us ladies.

Here's a great shot of Pati. Her glasses matched the color of the flowers in this bush! I just with the sun had been out when I took this.

Las Hermanas Gringas! Everyone asks if Katie and I are sisters, because there aren't a whole lot of white people down here.

You might be thinking to yourself, "that wasn't a few photos, that was a lot!" Trust me, I had a hard enough time narrowing it down to this many. I took over 200 pictures that day.


Ooookay, so like I said, yesterday was another holiday. Did I do something fun and exciting? Not really, unless you count unclogging a shower drain in that category. I am pleased to report that it's now working quite well. I also went to the supermarket. A woman asked me if I understood English, which isn't a question I get very often. I said yes, and it turns out she needed help reading a package of cat litter, which was in English. Terribly exciting, I know.

This week I'm going to explore a little more of the city. Hopefully I will blog more frequently. No promises, though. Adios.