The sound of water was accompanied by the looping calls of tropical birds, and irresistible with the scent of flowers in bloom. Paradise can be found nestled in the foothills outside of Manizales, Colombia.

Welcome to Day #1, of #the50daysofsteem, my name is Erin and I am a proud member of Team Colombia - Los Cafeteros.

All pictures are my original photography.

Dear Diary - Paradise Has Been Found in Colombia

Every day begins early. I am always up by 6:00 AM, unless I decide to sleep in, in which case I am up by 7:00 AM. Later, I will tell you more about my typical morning routine, but today was special so I had to hurry to get ready.

By 8:25, I was out the door. I sent a quick message to my friend Antonio to notify him that I was on my way to our 9:00 meeting about a farm for sale. Since the border is going to stay closed until October or November, we decided to postpone the information gathering until we were closer to a more open economy. Farm properties will definitely be more interesting after all this as people ponder a future troubled by financial woes and crop shortages.

Termales Tierra Viva has 3 pools filled with natural thermal hot springs coming from a volcanic mountain system.

After my meeting, I caught the bus to Termales Tierra Viva, a small hot springs spa on the outskirts of Manizales. My friends and I agreed that we would all arrive according to our own internal clocks - no real need to agree on a definite time. Since I had left early, I decided to arrive at noon so I could eat lunch - but have enough time for my food to digest afterwards.

Time well spent with friends.

I had a vegetarian sandwich (I asked them to put an egg on it because they didn't have avocado). And, it was delicious! In fact, I couldn't even eat the fries that came with it. Next time I will order the sandwich by itself. I washed everything down with what Colombians call a pola, or cold beer. Total cost: $12 USD, or 23,000 COP (57 STEEM)

Vegetarian Sandwich with french fries, and a cold beer.

I also wandered the garden and grounds of Tierra Viva, falling in love with these exotic fuscia-colored flowers, and the jungle scenery of the surrounding hills. This is also a hotel. A night stay costs around $50 USD or 170,000 COP (238 STEEM). The style is boutique, and my friend tells me she felt that it was well worth the value when she stayed there.

The flowers on this tree are big, the size of my palm.

Finally, it was time to go enjoy the pools! Overall, the facilities are simple in structure, but adequately clean and neat. For an afternoon of relaxation it was well worth the 17,000 COP I paid for admission. $8 USD (38 STEEM) I would definitely recommend it as a great morning or afternoon activity, in between lockdowns, curfew, the COVID, and the occasional cielomoto, or Sky-Quake.

The water was too hot to douse myself fully.

Normally, the weather is a bit more chilly, but today we had tons of sun which actually made the heat of the water harder to endure. It was the perfect hot tub temperature flowing fresh out of mountain springs. There are three pools, but one was being cleaned, and remodeled, during our visit.

Too many beautiful pictures to share, but this one is definitely one of my favorites.

At 5:00 PM, I caught the bus home. My relaxation retreat in paradise had ended. I will definitely be back again soon. It was the perfect ending to my week and beginning of #TheDiaryGame!

If you feel a kindred spirit with my DIARY entry in times of Coronavirus, New Opportunities and Colombia, then do your part to help a neighbor! Be sure to upvote, comment and/or give me a resteem, of this post. Tell a friend - and join #thediarygame so we can all bring home the rewards of high quality content curation on the @SteemitBlog ecosystem during #the50daysofsteem

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