Entrerrios, Colombia

Entrerrios surprised us. We didn’t expect that this small town would be unforgettable. After the noise at Santa Rosa de Osos, the first impression we felt when we arrived at the main square of Entrerrios, Colombia, was pleasant. It is surrounded by elegant colonial buildings, clean, and not many people around that made us feel calmer.

The town

While we were looking for a place to stay, we saw a bike shop near the main square – Monkey Bike. Later on we become friends with the owner, Julian. We found out that even Monkey Bike is a small bike shop, it has almost everything we need at a good price!

Julian’s passion for bicycles made him have a lot of knowledge about it and he was happy to share it with us. One of the tips he gave when he saw my back tire getting bald was saving the cash to buy a new one.

“Just change the front tire to the back and back tire to the front. And it will last longer, at least until you reach Ecuador”, he said.

We were happy that day. Julian was fun and a lovely friend. He even tried to talk with me in Indonesian with translation application. For me, it was unique, and I appreciated it. I rarely meet people who want to struggle to talk with me in Indonesian here – especially in a small town like Entrerrios, Colombia.

On the next day, when we commuting to the town, Luis was attracted to sketch the neighborhood. So, we stopped right in front of Casa de Cultura. While Luis was sketching, I talked with the locals. I learned that before being named Entrerríos, the district was called Don Diego, in homage to one of the first settlers, Don Diego del Castillo. The current name is because the town is located between two rivers: the Rio Grande and the Rio Chico.

Entrerrios, Colombia, is rich in fresh water and has a cold climate. Its landscapes of different shades of green and the Peñón de Entrerríos are famous – a monolith 75 meters high. Similar to the famous Rock of Guatapé located in the Antioquia municipality of Guatapé, although smaller.

It’s also well-known as lechera, which means milkmaid. This said it’s easy to get fresh milk. Even for coffee milk, they would put fresh milk instead of coffee cream or milk box. Yummy!

Around the village

On the day when we were supposed to continue our trip, we canceled. The hotel owner where we stayed in Entrerrios, Colombia, invited us to stay one more night. He felt that he won’t meet us again in the future. So, he could drove us around the village and spent more time with us. And so, we went to La Piedra. The view from the top of the rock was beautiful indeed!

With my limitation of speaking Spanish, I lost a lot of information. Such as I knew that our hotel host was a nice person. But I felt that he wasn’t too expressive as most Colombian we’ve ever met. Later on, I learned from Luis that he used to be ‘wild’ until he got an accident, and he got coma for a month. When he woke up, he lost feeling and expression. That’s why when we were spending time with him, Luis laugh a lot but he didn’t. And me? I was happy enough to enjoy the beauty around us.

Luis didn’t climb up, his passion for sketching made him stay to do what he does the best.

He showed us a little bit of the route that we will pass for the next day to San Pedro de Los Milagros. He drove us through a beautiful hilly-greeny farm.

On the next morning – with full of energy and good memories of Entrerrios, Colombia – we are ready for another good surprise.

We didn’t need to wait too long to get surprised. When we passed Rio Chico, we got amazed by the landscape. And Luis won’t skip this opportunity to capture it into a sketch.