Medellin, Colombia 🇨🇴 somewhere over the rainbow...

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Greetings from the City of Eternal Spring, aka Medellin =)

The lush green in Colombia is always what leaves me marveling when I visit there—-in contrast to the arid desert that rings the home I left behind, in Egypt 🇪🇬

My wife is half Colombian and, after visiting around 12 times or so over the past dozen years, I'm beginning to feel that way, too!

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The tropics are a world unto themselves. Everything is touched up, it’s like the life-force is amplified: fruits are like flowers, flowers like trees, and frogs... are the size of small chickens!

At the farm where we are, guests are visiting, salsa music kicking in and the drinking games have begun...

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Colombians are warm generous souls... Pity that negative news, and stereotypes overshadow the richness of this culture.

All the facile jokes about drugs and violence have come to pain me, since I've seen first hand how much this place has to offer, and how this perception shortchanges the people/culture.

My 1st visit, around 13 years ago, I was fortunate to attend a city-wide poetry festival.

What impressed me was not only the massive turnout (larger than any I'd see elsewhere) but also how poetry belonged to the people - not just the academy or special few.

Subsequent trips I was marked by how well they knew how to live, fully & share what they have (little or much).

Parallels to my Egyptian culture emerged: how they love to eat, dance & family is paramount.

And, you don't have to take my word for it, here's a marvelous video of Colombia the Beautiful :