Jardin

Day 11 - 11 Nov 2012

Jardin is reputed to be one of the most beautiful pueblos in the whole of Colombia. It hasn't been easy to find out much about Jardin as information is scarce on the internet and it is hardly mentioned in most of the travel guide books. However, as I am keen to visit the nearby La Cueva del Esplendour which I will blog about later, I decided to go ahead and check out this place with whatever information I have on hand.

Turns out that Jardin can be easily reached with just a 3.5 hrs bus ride from Medellin's Terminal del Sur (South Terminal). As Jardin is not on the foreigners' radar, hostels are uncommon here and I have to settle to stay in a hotel instead which is located just a block away from the main plaza.

Communication with Irma, the lady boss of the hotel, proves to be a challenge as she does not speak English and nor do I speak Spanish. After a few minutes of trying to understand each other but to no avail, an idea strikes me. I whipped out my iPad, went to Google Translate, keyed in whatever I wanted to say to her and viola! It was translated into Spanish within a couple of seconds. Sigh, the beauty of technology...

After settling in at the hotel, I headed out to this nearby Italian cafe to grab a quick lunch. While waiting for my food to be served, I realised that I have attracted a lot of attention in this small little town. Local Colombians who walked past the cafe would always pause to take a second glance at me. In fact, an elderly Colombian man stood at the entrance of the cafe and was blatantly staring at me for a couple of minutes. Though I'm not really comfortable with all these staring, there's nothing much I can do about it since staring is a pretty common practice among the locals. Hence, I tried to act nonchalant and start reading my travel guide book instead.

After lunch, I spent the rest of the afternoon exploring this small town. In Jardin, whitewashed colonial buildings with green, blue, red, orange, or yellow doors and windows lined the streets against the backdrop of lush green hills. Besides the typical cars and motorcycles that will whipped past you every few minutes, horses and horse carts are a common sight here as well.

Similar to other pueblos, Jardin's plaza is surrounded by bars, cafes and a church in the centre. It is here where you will see Colombians of all ages - housewives, elderly men, young kids, students, and couples - chilling out. You can also hear loud Spanish music being played from the nearby bars/cafes. As coffee is really cheap at only US$0.35 a cup, many Colombians will hang around the plaza sipping coffee throughout the day. It is defintely the place to see and to be seen!