Some of the flowers from the hostel garden in Jardin

Day 239 – October 27th, 2014.

Our second day in Jardin, Antioquia greeted us with wonderful weather and after some fruits and strong coffee for breakfast, we packed our stuff and left the hostel.

The views from the hostel in Jardin

We packed our rain jackets and umbrellas away for today and walked into town. The Hostel Selva y Cafe or Casa Del Lago is not far from the center of Jardin and is ideal if you want to stay away from it all.

Walking to Jardin town

It would have been a great day for paragliding and having got all jeed up only to find the shop closed. They close on Mondays and Thursdays so do some good research before you go to avoid disappointment. The local sweatshop in town was in full production though.

A local sweatshop in Jardin

Not far from that sweatshop was the famous sweet shop in Jardin Antioquia. A perfect pick-me-up for anyone even us bigger kids sulking.

“Dulces de Jardin is the famous sweet shop in Jardin”

Dulces Del Jardin the popular sweet shop

The sweet shop was quite busy and not just full of sweat things but also some quirky items like the lights and huge Halloween pumpkin shown in the photo above.

We sampled some of the products from sweets to suck on to spreads and biscuits all very nice and hard to resist. We a couple of jars of fig and condensed milk spread we forced ourselves to leave and continue to explore Jardin.

Colourful life in Jardin

“Having fun at school in Colombia”

Our walk took us past a school where the kids were outside playing. One spot was full of extra excitement, a teacher was entertaining the kids with a sort of ‘bubble screen’ thing, and Moni got to take a closer look amazing what a bit of sugar can do.

A school in Jardin

Full of energy with the sugar fix kicking in we decided to check out the horse riding tours that we had noticed the day before when taking the cable car to the Cristo Rey Hill with awesome views over Jardin.

Colourful painted leather chairs in Jardin

“Horse riding tour in Jardin”

The tours generally go for 3-5 hours and take you to some wonderful spots waterfalls, coffee farms with beautiful wildlife on the way which, well that’s what the photos looked like in the book. Unfortunately a long tour was not going to be possible as our return bus to Medellin was booked for 3pm.

The cable car entrance in Jardin next to the horse riding tours

But all was not lost and the rancho offered to take us for an hour to get a glimpse of what it was like, naturally jumped at the chance and had half an hour to grab a bite to eat before our mini horse riding tour began.

life in the main square in Jardin, Antioquia

After a quick snack from a place in the main square we headed back to meet our horses and saddle up.

Horse riding tours in Jardin

None of having much or any experience with horses felt comfortable riding out-of-town especially as the horses were well used to the noises of the bikes and trucks.

Riding through town and then on natural paths

Soon we were walking along a natural road away from the town and past a few farms (fincas) over a bridge or two, past a waterfall until we had to turn around and make our way back.

Horse riding tour in Jardin

Even though we only got as far as the entrance to a place where a lot of native colourful birds can be seen either early or later in the day, we had a great experience and said that we would definitely do the 5 hour round trip.

El Ranchero (Jamie Marin) with us and his coffee

“Coffee for Nestle in Canada from Jardin”

The Ranchero Jamie Marin has his own coffee finca plantation and he has a contract with Nestle to produce coffee for the Canadian market. He would also allow people to stay for some time at his coffee finca (farm). Our hour horse riding tour cost 15,000 Peso or $8.50 AUD per person.

After the horse riding tour in Jardin we said goodbye to Tom who had to take an earlier bus back to Medellin and we made our way to a place for a more substantial lunch before catching our bus at 3pm.

Walking around town you can’t help but notice many homes with open windows behind iron or wooden bars with very nice open space inside often with a courtyard full of natural light in the centre. Not all places are as large as this one that’s for sure and I didn’t want to be to intrusive taking pictures of people in their homes, so just this one.

Massive doors and looking inside a home in Jardin

“Fami-Hotel Mi Casa in Jardin”

A lady greeted us in English as we said ‘Hola’ outside of a hotel. The hotel happened to be hers and she invited us to take a look, again you can see the wonderful open space with natural light with all the rooms built around the courtyard.

When we come again to Jardin this will be our place to stay, it’s situated right on the colourful town square and has a really comfortable feel to it.

Fami-Hotel Mi Casa in Jardin

“Lunch at Restaurante El Zodiaco in Jardin”

Was very filling which was good as we had the three-hour bus ride back to Medellin and then a walk to our place in Envigado. Lucky for us the bus will actually let us off near our metro station saving us the extra trip back with a taxi.

Restaurante El Zodiaco in Jardin

“The bus journey back to Medellin”

With the Transporte Suroeste bus service was great. We left Jardin in beautiful sunshine and arrived in Medellin in darkness.  

Leaving Jardin and traveling towards Andes then to Medellin

A trip to Jardin is well worth doing, you can do a day trip but after seeing what we have done in just under two full days the longer the better.

Unique washing line on the way to Medellin