Blue Bags and the Devils Nose

Today was an exciting day...we took off on a nine hour adventure through the great mountains that separate Bogota from Cali in Central Colombia. Bogota itself sits at around 6000 feet and the climate is quite mild. The Pan American Highway moves down from Bogota to around 330 feet, just before it shoots straight off into the clouds. Withing 100 kilometers, we had climbed over 9000 feet! When you are that high, up above the clouds, you can´t help but to reach your arm up in the air and, begging pull down an angel by it´s leg. So, as you could probably imagine, the temperatures today on our nine hour trip down to Palmira (outside of Cali) went from 60 degrees to 100 degrees to 50 degrees and back up to 100.
We passed fields of palm trees again, and this time, blue bags were placed hanging from an individual limb. They were collecting the sap to make the legendary Palm Wine that is sold on the side of the road. Also, on our mountain pass, we came around a corner to see a large rock projection reach over the highway 50 feet up from the road and about 200 feet across. It looked like a big nose hanging off the side of the mountain...they call it the Nose of the Devil. It was quite amazing...the entire trip through the mountains...almost euphoric as i sat their with a very tired ass. Colombia is nothing like any of us could have expected...it is truly a beautiful land with beautiful people, blue bags and the devil's nose (wonder what he´s been sniffin?).