Mindfully Modern: December 2013

Tuesday, December 31, 2013

Medellin…

…was awesome. It has a very interesting history but is also very modern.

We stayed in El Poblado, where all the bars/restaurants are. And we were there the weekend of the holiday light festival, so in the photo above, the lights you see behind me are the holiday lights decorating Parque Lleras. The park was a total party- there were groups of friends hanging out & drinking (apparently there’s no open container ban!) then heading to the bars surrounding the park.

Culture-wise, we hit up the Museo de Antioquia and took photos around all the Botero sculptures outside (I love how voluptuous they are). We also spent time up in Parque Arvi, even meeting some really nice locals on our ride over there. All the sites were super easy to reach by using Medellin’s metro system, which includes cable cars.

We ate a lot of empanadas there (they were $1 and so tasty), but had sit-down meals as well. My favorite was at El Graspo de Uva. We had walked by it at one point (it’s in El Poblado) and then I saw this blog post singing its praises, so we went for dinner and loved it.

All in all it was an awesome weekend, and I can now say that Medellin is a great city for exploring.

Thursday, December 26, 2013

View of Medellin from the metro cable

Sunday, December 22, 2013

Cartagena Sunsets

Left photo on the city wall near Las Bovedas, right photo on the rooftop of the Hotel Charleston Santa Teresa

Friday, December 20, 2013

Bogota

Most flights to Colombia will take you through Bogota. This was the 2nd time I’ve been to Bogota, and I like the city, but I may skip it next time. But, if you’re there, here’s what I recommend to check out:

La Candelaria - just walk around aimlessly. It’s fun

Monseratte - take the cable car ride up to the chapel, and hope for a cloudless day so you can see all of Bogota

eat/drink at Andres - whether at the original site in Chia or at the new one right in Bogota, it’s such a fun experience

dine at Leo Cocina y Cava. The chef/owner, Leonor Espinosa, puts Colombian food on the map. The ingredients are staples of Colombian food but used in very interesting ways. We had snails, octopus, lobster, and beef medallions. There was sauce made from corozo, and foam made out of… foam? We asked the kitchen to make us their favorite dishes, and they’ve now become ours.

Tuesday, December 17, 2013

humansofnewyork:

TIME: “30 Under 30: Meet Brandon Stanton, the Photographer Behind Humans of New York”

When I lost my job at 26, I automatically assumed I was disqualified from things like this. Quite an honor and thanks to TIME for choosing me.

(Source: http://download.macromedia.com/)

The 2 places you have to go to in Cartagena: Bazurto Social Club & Cafe Havana.

Friday, December 13, 2013

Please and Thank You

"This is your home": Hotel Charleston Santa Teresa

I’ve been having an incredible time in Colombia these past two weeks. There was a slight misstep when we realized an expensive boutique hotel we’d reserved in Cartagena was a) more run-down than their beautiful website let on, and b) under renovation, so we left after one night. Luckily we did not have to pay for the additional nights we had reserved. And even luckier (more luckily?), there was a room available at the Hotel Charleston Santa Teresa. Our new room is perfect and the hotel and staff are magnificent. They let me check in early and when they brought me to the room they said, “If you want anything, let us know. This is your home.”

"This is your home": Hotel Charleston Santa Teresa