Workout at sunset - On the road with photo enthusiasts - Colombia 2025 - 8
2025-02-19 - Workout at sunset
Today we say goodbye to Medellin again and drive about 3 hours south to Jerico de Antioquia [↗]. As soon as we get out of the early morning traffic jam, the journey continues quickly. Although the road has some potholes, it is far better than the ones we have been driving on for the last few days.
Most of the rooms are already ready, even though it's only 11am. My room is a bit special with a “window” to the corridor. It's actually just a hole in the wall with a wooden slider. But there is another hole under the ceiling in the bathroom for ventilation. The room is also tiny. Although I'm alone, the open suitcase doesn't fit anywhere.
Thomas tells me later that it's not that easy to find a hotel with 12 rooms here.
We meet half an hour later and are supposed to walk together to the botanical garden and the statue of Christ above the town. However, the first ones already get stuck in a café at the central square. In the end, there are four of us walking up the hill with Thomas. Everyone at his own pace. The view from the top is quite nice, but I don't know if I really need to go here for sunrise.
I walk back to the central square at a relaxed pace. Jerico is a nice little town with lots of brightly painted balconies. At the square, I meet up with some of the people who have stayed in the café and take a look at the pretty church.
I plan to have lunch in a small restaurant in an inner courtyard. They only serve a la carte in the evening, currently there is only a standard menu. Soup, chicken breast with rice and chips. Just like yesterday: simple, good and cheap.
I walk to the pink church and then back to the hotel. We want to meet at 3pm and take a chiva to the starting point of a hike. Our destination is a viewpoint from which we want to photograph the sunset. For this I need my tripod, and I'd better put on proper hiking boots.
The chiva is slightly bigger than the last one, but it's considerably rattlier. No problem for the few meters today, but tomorrow we'll take it to the next village.
The starting point of the hike is quickly reached. After a few discussions about when we will be picked up again, we set off. The tour was announced as “45 minutes on a flat path”. In reality, it is quite an up- and downhill hike. The path runs largely through the forest. So we have no problem with the sun this time, but it is relatively muddy and slippery. We certainly don't want to walk it after rain, especially as we have to return in the dark.
I'm in the first group of four to reach the top, but I'm panting like one of the trucks that struggle up the mountains here (we're at around 2300 meters). The only thing I'm not dragging behind me is the black plume of smut. The hike is actually not more difficult than the ascent to the Grünten near Sonthofen. But I haven't hiked that one since Corona either.
One by one, the rest of the group arrives. Only one had to give up on the way and let Thomas take him back to the road. We set up our tripods and then it's time to wait. The sun will set behind the mountains in front of us, but they are barely visible in the haze. At least I have a foreground with a fern and a moss-covered tree.
Today we are fulfilling all the clichés. 11 photographers have placed their tripods more or less in a row and are discussing nerdy stuff like diffraction blur with the aperture closed.
The sunset is so-so, especially as we can't wait another 20 minutes for the sun to really disappear behind the horizon and illuminate the clouds from below. In fact, the sky becomes much more colorful after we set off. But even with the little remaining light that we still have, the way down is adventurous under the light of the headlamps.
After a quick shower, we go for dinner in one of the restaurants at the main square. However, no one is really satisfied. In terms of food, Colombia is rather disappointing.
