We left at 7am in the morning (not so fun to get up for), and arrived into Jardín around 1030/11am. Once we arrived, we went to our hostel to drop of our bags and then walked around the main plaza in the town. Since it was a festivo weekend the town was PACKED with people. It had a great atmosphere, people were filling restaurants, there was live musical entertainment, kids were out playing with toys, balloons etc. The whole town just gave off a very fun, yet low key and welcoming vibe. After walking around a bit, we headed back to our hostel to grab some lunch. We had a typical Colombian lunch called Bandeja. Which consists of a piece of meat, rice, patacon, beans, salad and arepa. Pretty standard.
After lunch, we walked to check out Jardín's metrocable. Medellín has 2 metrocables, both of which are pretty impressive and offer some incredible views of the city. Jardín, being a smaller town of course would have a smaller metrocable... unfortunately it was so small it only had 1 cable car to carry 6 people at a time, which meant a long wait to head up the mountain to see the views of the town. BUT luckily I was travelling wtih great friends, and all we needed was some Spanish conversation to keep us occupied and laughing during the 40 min wait.
Once we reached the top, it was definitely worth the wait. It was a beautiful day, and basking in the sunshine we were able to see the entire town of Jardín while being surrounded by exotic flowers, plants, trees and coffee plants! We grabbed a drink and chilled at the top for a bit taking in the view with some photos.
Later on we walked up through the town to a place we were recommended to check out.... Jardín's candy factory. Um yes please. Upon arriving it was packed with people ordering various sweets, jellies, and cookies. I ended up buying a jar of arequipe (Colombian caramel sauce), fresh strawberry jam and some chocolate covered arequipe balls. Can you tell i like arequipe?
After getting our sweet tooth fix, we headed back to the main plaza and rented horses for a half an hour. The people of Jardín are very trusting, as they dont require you to give them a valuable or piece of ID to ensure youll come back on time or pay the fee. They just help you up on the horse, tell you to enjoy yourself and comeback in roughly 30 min. Gotta love Colombians. So that's what we did.... we each got up on a horse, and trotted/galloped through the tiny town of Jardín for the next 30 minutes.
Sara and I are making it a tradition that every time we go travelling together we want to ride horses, as we did that in Guatapé. It was a ton of fun, and the horses were really well behaved and followed our instructions well when we needed them to. We all just felt so free and relaxed just going around town on horses under the beautiful sunshine, it was definitely a great way to spend a part of our afternoon. Here are some examples of what the town of Jardín looks like....
For dinner we walked around town until we found one that offered a decent price for what we were looking for. And just what were we looking for? FISH. Jardín is located in an area where there are a lot of trout, and that's exactly what we wanted for dinner. Thomas, Leo and I had Bandeja de Trucha (trout dish) and Sara had Bandeja de Cerdo (pork dish). It was very tasty, again served with rice, beans, french fries, arepa, and salad.
After dinner we decided to chill in the main plaza for a bit drinking coffee and beer, and watching the sun go down. Afterwards we went back to our hostel and played cards for a bit on the porch overlooking the bustling plaza below. There were a lot of people riding horses throughout the night, and making the horses perform a specific trot, not sure what its called or the reasoning behind it, but it made the horses seem very uptight, with tight quick trots as they went up and down the streets. They did this for most of the afternoon and until about 12midnight. Very strange, but very impressive to watch. Thomas and Leo were more interested in the pretty women who were riding the horses :P
Monday morning we all got up early, ate some traditional Colombian breakfast (arepa, quesito, scrambled eggs, chocolate con leche) and then took a taxi to a local fishing place. Over breakfast we decided to place a bet.... the first person who catches a fish wins $20.000 pesos.
Arriving at the fishing place it was also a place where they make panela. Which is a like a block of brown sugar that is used for a typical hot colombian tea beverage. So we were able to see how that was made.
Then we were handed our fishing rods, which was a bamboo stick, with string/hook attached and bread/dough for bait. Hmm, this was basic fishing at its best. And so it began, the race to catch the first fish. ..... and the winner? .... surprisingly ... ME !
I ended up catching 3 fish, 2 one right after the other! Sara also caught a fish which she was ecstatic about. The boys? They unfortunately didnt catch anything. haha which was sort of funny and slightly amusing, that the girls were the ones providing the food!
After catching our fish, we had the kitchen prepare them for us, so we actually got to eat the fish we caught. Over lunch, Sara handed me my $20.000 that I rightfully won which a big smile on my face! After lunch we rushed back to Jardín, quickly paid our hostel and then jumped on a bus back to Medellín. Shockingly, our bus was EARLY! It only took 3 hours to get back, where as it was 4 on the way there.
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