Sunday, February 16th, 2014

I went to bed last night at 11pm, fell asleep relatively quickly, got up twice during the night, woke up at 6 and got up at 6:30.

We had breakfast at Mall de Laureles; I had my usual at Pacman and Jim had the Ranchero, which looked pretty pretty good to me, at El Comedor de Chava.

At 10pm we got on a minibus for a tour to Santafe.  There was another bus going with us with a few nice looking ladies on it.  Part way there we stopped at a roadside diner named Parador Rancho Alegre for people to grab a snack or use their restroom.

The next stop was just outside Santafe where we saw a suspension bridge 8 years in the making.  That was when we started mixing a little with the people from the other bus.

An older lady I thought was the mother turned out to be the oldest sister.  She is Colombian but lives in Connecticut.  Her daughter works for Proctor & Gamble in Ohio.  She said that all her family speaks English.  Yay!  When we got to the hotel – Hosteria de la Plaza Menor – after talking to the older sister for a while, we exchanged phone numbers (she has an apartment she is trying to rent).  I asked which of her sisters are married and she said all of them.  :-(  I thought 2 of them, about 45 years old, were attractive.

The entire trip only cost us 60mil ($30) apiece and Jim thought the scenery on the way there more than paid for the trip.  At one point they stopped the bus and we saw cable cars that are used to carry vegetables from the fields.

The public areas of the hotel are very nice although the bedrooms are small.  Lunch and later a snack were included and we swam for a while in the pool.  I also lazed around for a while in a hammock reading my Nook book.

Just before our 7pm departure we walked around town, saw a 190 year old church, horses used for rides, mini cabs, vendors, etc.   

We stopped in an old but fancy hotel named the Hotel Mariscal Robledo, just a block down from our hotel.  It costs between 90mil and 160mil per night depending on the season, day of the week and meal plan you choose.  A sign says it’s a Trip Advisor 2013 winner.