We took an early morning flight from Bogota to Medellin on Viva Colombia. We reached Medellin at 10 am. We checked into the hotel. On the way, we saw a lot of Bajaj showrooms. It is very popular brand in Colombia.

Then we headed to have breakfast at Pergamino cafe. Medellin (often pronounced Medejin by the locals) is where Pablo Escobar operated. Lots of poor people in Medellin, including migrants from Venezuela. 

At 2 pm, went to take the walking tour of Medellin. German (pronounced "Heyrmaan") was our guide, a very entertaining person. Our first stop was an old railway station in Medellin. This railway station is now defunct. There are hardly any railways in South America because it is probably not profitable to build railways through such thinly populated mountainous terrain.

We then went to the city hall. German had warned us to be aware of pickpockets who might steal our belongings. So we were super careful.

Once Medellin started getting reformed in the late 1990s, they built a library for locals to come and read for free. This is a photo taken from the the entrance library. There is a series of pillars built in a nice pattern.

We then walked along the main avenue where there were lots of street vendors. We ate avocado icecream which was quite good.

We walked in front of the Botero museum where we saw a fat dog sculpted by Botero. We also saw some great murals near the metro station. Interestingly, Medellin has a metro while the capital city of Bogota does not have a train system. People in Medellin are very proud of their metro.

We ended the walking tour at around 5 pm at a San Antonio square. This square is significant because there was a terrorist  attack by FARC in 1995 in this square where a bomb went off  killed 30 people and injured 200 people. Botero's bird sculpture was heavily damaged. Later Botero donated an identical bird sculpture and they are now known as Birds of Peace. See below the damaged bird on the left.

After the walking tour, we checked into The Somos at around 6 pm. The hotel is a middle end hotel but favored by young travelers. It has a youth vibe and a beautiful view from the restaurant on the roof top.

In the night we walked to party area called Poblado. It had lots of restaurants and was extremely well lit. We decided on Subula Greek Sandwich shop and food turned out to be really really good.

We started the day with the included breakfast at The Somos, our hotel. We proceeded to a 10 am tour of Comuna 13. Once one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in Medellín, the Comuna 13, which clings to the mountainside above the San Javier metro station, has undergone an impressive transformation in recent times and is now considered safe to visit. The focal point of a trip to the comuna is the area around the escaleras electricas, the outdoor escalators that provide access to homes in marginalized barrios that were formerly isolated from the city below. There was a lot of drug related violence in this slum and FARC and M-19 groups fought for control. Pablo Escobar had a lot of support from people in this neighborhood. Our guide lived in the Comuna.

In October of 2002, the Orión Operation (a cleanup operation) was implemented. That was the last and biggest military intervention with more than 1,500 officers, two helicopters and one tank brought to Comuna 13. The Orión operation lasted for 3 days, in which the helicopters were shooting from the air affecting many houses with aluminum rooftops, injuring or killing innocent civilians hiding inside their houses. Our guide described the horrors of the operation. As a 5 year old, she hid under the bed hoping not to get shot. Shown below is a picture of the Comuna 13 slum from the top.

Now Comuna 13 is considered safe to visit. They have a series of escalators that allow people to go right up to the upper areas of the Comuna. It has beautiful murals.

We finished the walking tour at around 1 pm. We took a public bus to San Javier metro station and from there we traveled by metro to Acevedo station.

 Acevedo station has a teleferico (cable car) to Santo Domingo, another station within the favela (slum) of Santo Domingo. Santo Domingo is located on a mountain side.

We had gone to the favela with a little hesitation to the Santo Domingo favela, but we randomly picked a lunch place and we were very pleasantly surprised by the hospitality.  The favela did not feel dangerous.

We ate a delicious lunch in the favela at Santo Domingo. The dish is called Bandeja Paisa which consists of meat, soup, rice, plantain, avocado and salad. We ate it without the meat.

We headed back to Hotel Somos and reached at 4.15 pm. We left for the airport at 4.30 pm.  Reached the airport at 5 pm. The lady at the airport did not recognize my Star Alliance Premier 1K status, would not check in bags for free. Wasted 40 mins at check in. Finally, after a showing a lot of documents, she checked us into the Panama flight without charging us for bags.

We reached Hotel Tryp in Panama City at 10 pm.

We started our tour of Panama City with the intent to see the Panama Canal. The Panama Canal is an artificial 82 km (51 mi) waterway in Panama that connects the Atlantic Ocean with the Pacific Ocean and divides North and South America. The canal cuts across the Isthmus of Panama and is a conduit for maritime trade. One of the largest and most difficult engineering projects ever undertaken, the Panama Canal shortcut greatly reduces the time for ships to travel between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans. The United States opened the canal on August 15, 1914. The canal was taken over by the Panamanian government in 1999.

We started by visiting the Miraflores locks at 8.30 am. They supposedly have an appointment system, but once we got there, we realized that the appointments did not mean anything. Miraflores is the name of one of the three locks that form part of the Panama Canal, and the name of the small lake that separates these locks from the Pedro Miguel Locks upstream. In the Miraflores locks, vessels are lifted (or lowered) 54 feet (16.5 m) in two stages, allowing them to transit to or from the Pacific Ocean port of Balboa in Panama City. Ships cross below the Bridge of the Americas, which connects North and South America.

We saw three ships cross the canal including a ship called Navios Amber. The way the tugboats guide the ship through the canal is very interesting.

At lunch time, we went to old Panama City and ate a really nice burrito for lunch. With the vegan movement, it is getting easier for vegetarians to find options.

We walked around old town and saw some of the colonial buildings. The area around the Panama Canal was US territory until 1999.

We then went to a place called Fuerte Amador, which is situated at the Pacific entrance to the Panama Canal. It is a man-made peninsula extending out into the Pacific Ocean. 

Kids used the Bird phone app to rent electric scooters. They had a lot of fun with the electric scooters.

We went back to The Tryp Hotel and then to the airport at 5 pm.

Again problem with check-in for Copa Airlines. We had to spend another 30 mins arguing about why bags should be checked in for free because of my Star Alliance status.

Reached Airbnb in Quito, Ecuador at 10 pm. It was a really nice 3 bed room apartment with plenty of space.

We started the morning by taking free walking tour at the local community hostel at 10 am.

We started in Quito Central market which had lots of fruit and vegetables. We drank some tropical fruit juice. Ecuador is known for 3 exports. #1 is oil, #2 is bananas, #3 is cut flowers (roses).

Then we walked around old town Quito.

The guide then took us to the terrace of a restaurant for a great view of the city.

We later visted the library and cultural center.

The next stop was some special tasting. We drank canelazo with alcohol. 

Final stop in the walking tour was a trip to Yumba, a brand for chocolate tasting. We tasted lots of different varieties of chocolate. blueberry, spice. According to them, good chocolate should have at least 60 percent chocolate. Hersheys has 7% chocolate.

We finished the tour at around 1.15 pm.

We walked along the street of seven crosses and passed seven churches.

Wte sandwich lunch in the square in front of the presidential palace. Ecuador uses the US dollar as its official currency since the year 2000. So no currency conversion is required.

We then visited to the statue of Virgin Mary on a hilltop in Quito. 

From the statue, we saw Mural de Pikachu, which was created on the 200th anniversary of Ecuador's independence by a foreign artist. This mural is often ridiculed by the locals because it is seems inappropriate to celebrate something as grand as the 200th year of independence.

From the statue of Virgin Mary, we took a taxi to Quito Basilica. We paid 2 dollars for entrance to the church. Those 2 dollars were a total waste. The basilica was no big deal. We then paid an additional 3 dollars for the entrance to the Basilica towers. Those had great views.

At around 7 pm, we headed back to our AirBnB apartment.

Cotopaxi is an active strato volcano in the Andes Mountains, located in Latacunga city of Cotopaxi Province, about 50 km (31 mi) south of Quito. It is the second highest summit in Ecuador, reaching a height of 19,347 ft. Cotopaxi is among the highest active volcanoes in the world.

 

We wanted to climb at least a part of Cotopaxi. We signed up with a tour agency recommended by the hostel. Cost was $55 per person. We left Quito (9,350 ft altitude) at 7 am from the apartment to the pickup point. We left from the pickup point at 7.30 am for a tour of Cotopaxi Volcanic park.

We reached the parking area inside Cotopaxi Volcanic park at around 9.50 am. There are no fees to visit Cotopaxi. The parking area is at about 15,000 feet altitude. When we got out, it was very windy. We had to put on all the warm clothing we had including gloves.

We reached the refuge area in about 1 hour. This refuge is a great place to eat, have coffee and get ready for the Cotopaxi ascent. This José F. Ribas Refuge is at 15,960 ft.

We then continued on to the glacier at the snow line and reached an altitude of 16,500 ft.

It was very interesting to experience going to such high altitude within a 1 day trip. It is possible to climb Cotopaxi in about 7 hours. So most climbers start at night (around 12 midnight and finish by 2 pm the next day).

We came back back from the glacier to the parking area around 1 pm.

The tour company had gotten mountain bikes. We biked down to the lake. There were gorgeous views of Cotopaxi from the lake.

We left the lake at around 2.30 pm, had a late lunch and finished around 3 pm. Potato soup, Canelazo and some vegetarian dish.

We returned to the apartment in Quito at around 5 pm.

We then went to an Indian restaurant called Indian Tadka in La Mariscal area. Lively party place. Run by a Gujarati called Siddhu Solanki from Bharuch. We had Dal Makhani, Paneer Butter Masala and Dum Aloo. Good food.

We finally had hot chocolate at Juan Valdez cafe. Juan Valdez Café is a multinational coffeehouse chain based in Colombia that specializes in coffee retail. It is similar to Starbucks.

At night, we came home at around 9.10 pm.

Left from the apartment at 9 am. We took the Cable car (Teleferico) to Mirador de Las Volcanos (Viewpoint of the Volcanos) at 13,400 ft. Price was about $8 per person.

We saw wonderful views of Quito city from the observation area. We had some hot chocolate and coffee in the warm cafe.

Another 4 hour trek from this viewpoint will take you to Mount Pichincha at 15,696 ft. 

We also played on the swings at the viewpoint.

After we came down, we ate lunch in Mexican restaurant. The food was extremely tasty.

We then went to a museum which is located on the Equator. They showed us various experiments related to the equator. Most of it is mainly show business, not actual scientific fact.

Finally, we went to Mitad Del Mundo (Monument to the Equator), which highlights the exact location of the Equator (from which the country takes its name) and commemorates the eighteenth century Franco-Spanish Geodesic Mission which fixed its approximate location. We spent a lot of time there, drank hot chocolate, ate ice cream and headed back to the apartment.

At dinner, we ate at  Pizzería El Hornero, which is like the Pizza Hut in the US. The pizza was excellent. 

We left for the airport around 9.45 pm and reached Quito airport at 10.30 pm. We had a United flight at 12.40 am on Sun, May 29 to Houston. 

We reached Houston at around 6 am in the morning on Sunday. Anu and Samir flew to Washington DC, Sahil flew to Dallas and Aditya flew to San Jose.

We had a wonderful family trip to Colombia, Panama and Ecuador.

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