Just one half block from our condo.

Every week we are to take one day to be our Preparation Day. This means we can take some time for ourselves to relax and enjoy some activity that is not missionary work. Today, we climbed a beautiful trail that begins in a park that is just one half block from our condo. We love Colombia. It is such a beautiful green country.

Many water falls along the way.

The trail follows a little stream with many little water falls. The park is incredibly beautiful. We feel so blessed to have this trail just one half block from our condo. The trail can go to the top of the mountain. but it is a very steep climb. Everyone tells us it is very safe and there are many hikers along the way.

The beginning of the trail.

As we started up the trail, the path was made from section cuts of tree trunks.

A huge Eucalyptus tree.

This enormous tree trunk is from a Eucalyptus tree. I wish we knew how old it is. There were several like this one, but also some huge tree trunks that are evergreens.

Algae grows on many rocks.

These big rocks have a type of yellow algae growing on them. Everything is a little damp on this trail which makes the rocks perfect for all kinds of growth.

A forest of Eucalyptus trees.

In the background are many Eucalyptus trees. This beautiful purple flower is like one we have in the states. We found them often along our trail.

Flowering bushes.

We love these red flowers on this bush. I don't know the name, but they are so pretty. Since we really don't have a winter here, we will have many beautiful flowering trees and bushes all year long.

A close up of the flower.

When we get up close to this beautiful flower, we can see that the bell is really many little flowers. It looks like it is growing up side down. Up the stem are more buds getting ready to bloom. There are a lot of large bushes with flowers like these.

A beautiful place to rest.

After climbing straight up for one hour, we came to this beautiful little valley. Everything is so green here. We rested for a few minutes and then continued our climb. We didn't make it to the top this time. We will have to get up earlier to try for the top. We had to turn around because the gate at the bottom closes at 10:00 A.M. We started at 7:00, but next time it will be at 6:00.