Summer holidays in Colombia: A day at Villa Claudia

About an hour down and out of Pasto near the airport, some relatives have a house with a pool.  This is the temperate zone....not to hot and not too cold.  Tio Lucho and Maria admiring the view down to the Rio Juanambu.

Wilson and Tomas

Picked up some blue-green chicken eggs from the neighbors.

Maria doing some laps.

Las chicas....

The old man with two young chics.

Yipee!

Maria talking chisme with Tia Cris

Hector and Diana taking a break from the big city life in Cali.

Hector and Diana

Isa, Carolina, Chinchon, Ramon

And the namesake of the Villa.....su hija Claudia....friends with Maria since they were young kids.

Summer holidays in Colombia: a few misc pics

Carolina about to go for a ride

Carla trying to eat a carrot

A hike up to la cruz

La mami catching some rays out the front door.

Chinchon learning to ride a bike uphill....as he is from flat Cali.

...and you thought Maria was small?  Carla is taller than the 90 year old lady beside her.....

....is making us some coffee at the local hotsprings she runs

Tocayos

Chinchon and his dad not playing soccer for a change.

The store in the house.  There is a store like this on every corner in Colombia and then some.  The kids love to help out and of course....get treats.

double banana

Summer holidays in Colombia: Quinceanero-Isa´s 15th birthday party

15th birthday is a big deal in latin america

Carla leading the way in with Isa behind

This girl is all legs...which means she plays basketball.  First dance is with dad.

Diana, Isa, Hector

The young ones.....

Summer holidays in Colombia: Up and over Volcan Azufral

What a spectacular and difficult ride.  Lots of single track, which I don´t normally do.  Fell over the handle bars a few times in the decsent.  About 15 km up to 4000m, traverse along the top of the volcano, and then way, way down for a total of about 45km.  Spent the night in Piedrancha and rode back up the main hiway the next day.  There were about 300 cyclists in this ´tour´...not a race.  Above: from Pasto to Tuquerres in a Chiva.

Chuchinga!  Cuando nos vamos para Mocoa, sin montar en volqueta???

Cool shirt... the dedo de dios, finger of god they call it....in a foto below

Laguna Verde below, where Maria and I camped 20 years ago.  Never imagined riding a bike up this volcano!

Extreme wind and a wee bit chilly....

Awesome trail....

...in the sandy paramo

Frailejon

El Dedo de Dios......

The dude who patched me up after my crash.  Thanks bub!

The gingo-Canada fame thing...

Mini tour of Colombia cheering squad.  Great that the locals came out to cheer us on!

Is there another option???

....maybe thru this field of opium poppies....amapola

OK...so they don´t call me ´joven´ any more (young person)...but theCanadian jersey still pulls in the chicks :)   

Shaking down down some guayabas for breakfast the next morning.

....gee....I wonder why.

Back up the Nariz del diablo

Quinoa