These photos, taken in January of 2009, capture a small portion of our adventure to Columbia, South America. Mary and I were astonished by the natural beauty of this vast country. For those who don't know, Columbia is a massive country; ranking 26th in the world for square kilometers -- roughly twice the size of Texas. Needless to say, we did not have time to see all we wished to on our 2 week holiday. This picture is of Mary as we are hiking to the ranger station of Parque National de Iguaque. One characteristic of Columbia we soon came to appreciate were the dramatic and frequent changes in elevation! We hiked 3 km uphill to the ranger station (50 min). We then hiked about 4km to a remote mountain lake (3 hrs). Along the way we encountered huge rocks, mud, and slippery inclines that were quite treacherous to navigate.



























Colombian food was magnificent. Here I'm enjoying some fried plantains with fruit salsa. In the next picture I have a dish of troucha (trout) prepared locally--awesome!

The highest point of elevation on that hike was about 3600 meters (11.800 ft). I was completely out of breath every couple of steps, and had to stop and rest very frequently. Greatest hike of my life!

The picture of me with the backpack on is in front of a giant salt mine outside of Bogota. This enormous salt mine houses an underground "salt cathedral." It was truly amazing to see.