Richard McGuire

The Casa Terracota, a mud house a short bicycle ride from Villa de Leyva, Colombia, was the dream of architect Octavio Mendoza. He wanted to create a unique house with an abundant local building material — clay. Covered in giant bugs and other creatures, it’s now a popular tourist attraction.

My mountain biking trip among the wax palms near Salento, Colombia got off to a rough start. But soon the ride became an enjoyable way to view the magnificent scenery.

A visit to a coffee plantation near Salamina, Colombia convinced me I’m not cut out to be a coffee picker.

San Félix is about 30 km from Salamina and some 1,000 metres higher. It made for a great day trip with guide Felipe Toro to see the wax palms, Colombia’s national tree.

I highly recommend Felipe Toro as a guide, either in Spanish or English. He is knowledgeable about local history, culture, plants, animals and birds.

His phone is: +57-315-834-6262.

His email is casacarolasalamina@gmail.com or fetoro@gmail.com.

Salamina sits on a table in Colombia’s Cordellera Central. It’s a colourful heritage town you can explore on foot, though there are some hills to climb.

Manizales is a pleasant Colombian city of close to 400,000 people in the heart of coffee country. I only had one day and night to see it, but for me its most noteworthy feature was its rapid transit system – two cable car lines taking passengers high over the city.

At Truchera y Molienda la Argelia outside Jardin, Colombia, we watch how panela is made. These bricks of raw sugar are used as a major sweetener in Colombia.

Computers are complicated, travel is challenging and then there’s that piece of wisdom from the eternal pessimist, Murphy, that if anything can go wrong, it will.

That’s why the last post here was done nearly a week ago, and even it was done with material several days old.

At the outset I said I was new to vlogging and this would be a learning experience. It has been, but I still have a lot to learn.

First an SSD drive with videos of Medellin failed and I was only able to salvage those I’d backed up elsewhere. It’s obvious you should be backing up everything, but that’s easier said than done when you’re living out of a backpack, moving from place to place, and when internet is slow and unreliable.

The good news now is that I’ve seen and videoed some remarkable locations in Colombia and spectacular scenery: Jardin, Manizales, Salamina, Pereira and Salento. I’ve gathered footage that hopefully will become interesting edited video.

The bad news is that first my video editing software, Corel VideoStudio Ultimate, ceased launching. I’ve been back and forth with Corel for several days, but the problem isn’t resolved.

Then last night my computer, a small Acer Aspire Switch, failed to boot.

That means I can’t copy video from cards onto hard drives or do any editing the way I intended. I’m going to have to rethink my entire approach.

I’ll be trying a combination of using my phone in place of the computer – smart phones these days are sophisticated computers after all – and using computers at internet cafes.

As a learning experience, this will give me a chance to try all kinds of solutions. And hopefully you the viewer will get to see some interesting images of Colombia.

I’m leaving Salento this morning for Armenia and then on to Cali tonight. After two days there I plan to spend a week in the colonial city of Popayan, known for its white buildings.

Onward.

Jardin,Colombia – a town of flowers and a homemade cable car from Richard McGuire on Vimeo.

Flying to Medellin, Colombia and leaving winter behind from Richard McGuire on Vimeo.