JERICO BEAUTIFUL JERICO Part 1

   JERICO; Famous Jerico, known for many things, the first and foremost its first saint in Colombia, mother Laura, proud of this heritage, the town has now capitilized on this, and has become a largely toured Pueblo of Colombia.Laura Montoya Upegui who as born in Jerico in 1874 , the name of this town.  In the southwestern Antioqui has been heard all around Colombia, the publicly given to this Colombian Heritage Village is also justified by its moutains, and many traditions such as the manufacturing of the Antioquia Carriel a leather handbag,that is the emblem of this region. Even though I heard it is known all over the country, but not all the people here know where it is. Its about 3-5 hours away from Medellin, depending on the traffic. Some of the roads are not all paved, and there is some damage from a storm on one road, we went thru Bolombolo, that was to stay the least interesting! A long trip but really vale de Pena,  is the expression used. Its worth the pain of doing it.
Over winding mountainsides of the Andes, along giant strong rivers, over bridges,  up hills down hills, view the largest peak on the Andes, its super pointed almost pyramid shape extremly tall. That was interesting, the scenery all the way to Jerico is just beautiful, it changes and the climate changes as well, but so worth the drive, you can take the bus from Medellin  between 44- 46 million pesos, roughly, around 18 dollars round trip. 

                                                                                                   

  We drove in a very small car with five people, crammed into this like a sardine can, swerving in the            rain, avoiding multiple motorcycles, Incase you have never been in a Latin country the majority of people own motorcycles, and they literally control the roads!  We had a little tire trouble and stopped   twice ended up in this hot valley town called Bolombolo, filled with people this roadside town,  bursting with life and music and food, we had the tired changed at dusk in this old run down mostly   dirt tire shop.I walked to this little roadside open air restaurant and waited on them to fix the tire, while my friend had a few beers,we just watched the craziness of this little hill town, the traffic was  backed up as this was a puente weekend so they called it     

  three day weekend so the traffic was insane.   

Back on the road with an old tire with very little tread on it, squeeling around the curvy roads up the mountainside we came to the town of Jerico.

                        

                        

It was dark about nine about 9:00 o'clock at night, we parked and walked to the plaza the roads are all in stones and only arterias are allowed cars, the rest are walking streets, When we entered the Plaza,  it was filled with music laugher, loud talking and lots and lots of people.Various stands of food, and other items were still up and running. We met up with a group of people I did not know, it was some friends and relatives of my friends. I and my friend were giving the opportunity to stay in this   fabulous old world house in the center of town free, the owners of YASA floral in Bogota, offered the  use of there vacation home there, and so I called the care taker he walked up to meet us in the plaza   and walked us  back this fabulous home. No one would ever think that this beautiful place was located in the center of the city, preserved and hidden by large Spanish gates and walls to apprear as a building, but once you open the gate you step into a lush beautiful colorful garden and the entrance to    this wonderful home!

        THE ENTRANCE       

     WALK     THRU    HERE TO   THE  ENTRANCE. 

   KITCHEN   AND    BACK  AREA 

   SIDE YARD      

    ANTHIRIUMS  AND NAVEL ORANGES 

The whole group was in awe but I knew the house was going to be cool because the night before I spent the evening with the owners wife, her house was amazing piece of art, that is a whole not her story but I was not shocked as to what I saw as I knew already how this woman's eye for art and color was very similar to mine. This was a peaceful ZEN place! I enjoyed it ememsely here are some more photos mind you this is in the center of the city. 

       

       

    OLD CHURCH   IN THE BACK YARD 

       

    KITCHEN  OPEN  TO THE GARDEN 

         

        

     THESE  WERE  SOME OF  MY MOTHERS FAVORITES THE CARE TAKER PUT THEM ON THE TABLE FOR ME. 

We all return  to  the plaza after viewing the house now around 10:30 pm, walked up the streets and  

saw many churches, and into the plaza we all had a drink and people watched, they came back and  they had a little celebration till about 3 am! While I tried to sleep but practically impossible!  The  sounds of the bells of th church began early in the morning. I got up fairly early around 6:30 got cleaned up dressed, walked around the fabulous old style garden, taking photos and watching all the birds, all the while listening to all the bells of the 19 churches that are in this cow, banana, coffee, leather, orange growing cowboy town.  So beautiful to hear all them, not at the same time mind you all have there own sequences of bells and timing so all day you hear bells pretty much! I walked  around while everyone was still asleep had a typical breakfast, enjoyed the conversation with the manager of this small hotel where I ate, and then searched for the four museums I heard we're in the Pueblo, filled with action already, people setting up booths for vegetable, and fruits. Food stands, hats panchos and scarfs, saddle gear, statures of Laura,  tons of articles for the churches, Coffee vendors  candy vendors it was just tremendous amount of people and booths, I saw one of the campo buses,   these buses are for the locals who work in the farms or don't mind the open air windows, the old time buses are mostly old Fords, some are International like the one I have photos of here.  

   

   

    

    

These buses are all painted different I think depending on the driver and the area, I have seen them in.  Many colors its so fun to see them filled with people loud music blasting as they pass. I went to looked for the museums and finding all the fronts the facades of the buildings all painted very similar to the buses 

  

 

   

I eventually found a museum it cost me all of a dollar to view and to my surprise most of the furnishings and art work were Italian or Spanish in this old historic home that was owned by one of the most wealthy men in the history of the town, I went to see another museum, they were preparing for a huge holy Christmas display, I did not get photos of that but it was interesting to watch them paint figures and place paper to make mountains and scenary, this particular museum was filled with modern art as well and had a plaza in the center filled with trees and plants very restful place.