Colombia! – The Colors

How was your New Year’s Eve? I went over to a neighbor’s house for a fun party and it was awesome to have a two minute commute walking home when it was all said and done. If this weekend was any indication of things to come, it is going to be an awesome year! On Friday, we went to a birthday party for our dear friends’ daughters and later we met up with my cousins who were in town from New Jersey and Michigan. It was such great day of spending time with great people and watching Nouri have fun discovering new houses and people. Saturday we had a family day filled with pancake breakfast, shopping and hanging out at and on Sunday we had some more friends over. It was a perfect weekend full of people we care about. Hoping there is much more of that in 2016!

Now, back to Colombia! I wanted to share some pictures and will do that over a few posts.

Our trip was just five days and was in and out. It’s hard to know what we would do in the future, but five days is too short for a good holiday! But the idea of being away from Nouri longer than that is also hard to swallow. Maybe the best compromise is to take a nanny (er, Khala) with you on vacation? Then you can do the things that aren’t as kid friendly but still get to cuddle them at night?

When I was looking at our pictures, a few broad categories jumped out to me- one of them being COLOR. There were so many beautiful pictures of the vibrant buildings that were all over Bogota and Cartagena, the two cities that we visited.

A walk through Bogota quickly reveals the rich graffiti culture in the city. Artists have actually relocated to Bogota from all over the world to share their craft on the building walls. Police do not fine or remove the artist’s work and the artists have a code among each other not to paint over someone else’s work. The result is stunning political, comedic and historic pieces throughout the city.

Cartagena’s caribbean vibe is very different from Bogota but it too pops with color and architectural treasures. The Colonial era old town is full of narrow streets and beautiful structures with integrate balconies and doors in beautifully preserved or restored buildings.

Here are some pictures of the buildings in the two cities. Can you tell which city you are looking at?