Casa Santander in Minca, Colombia

We have been in Minca for 4 days now, doing a different activity each day. River swimming is the main attraction here. Of course our sweet hotel, Casa Santander, is perched right on the river side.



A porch with hammocks face the river.


View from the garden to the river. The hotel caretaker, Rafa, is on the far right. A helpful and quiet sort of guy but he only speaks Spanish. Sometimes he is away for hrs at a time, which makes us feel as though this is our own place,which we kinda like. So far though we have been able to get our needs met. The hotel was spotless when we arrived. Although accommodation in Minca is more expensive than I anticipated, I think we are getting one of the better values in town. There are some backpacker places like Casa Lo Minca and Villa Silvia that cost about the same but we have this place, which feels more like a family summer vacation home, all to ourselves. We are paying 85,000 cop for all 4 of us, which is around 48 usd.









When Luis scouted out the hotel he came back with this report "there's bunk beds, hammocks, and a puppy". Of course the kids were sold on the puppy as the main reason why we should stay there.


We also have use of the kitchen, so I have prepared a few meals to save money.



Of course Maya was a big help. She and i have enjoyed sourcing our meals from several markets in town. Especially fun is a trip to the avocado dealer.



The house has rooms of avocados in various stages of ripeness and size. We watched machete toting rubber boot wearing boys around jacks age come to the house with a donkey carrying a huge sack of just picked from the forest avocados. These boys looked like they worked hard all day. If our family travels leave just one impression on the kids I hope with all my heart that they feel down to their soul that they live a charmed life.

On another visit to the avocado mecca there was a puppy, which extended our time there to about a half an hour.



We made a sort of a soup with pasta, sausage, peppers, carrots, and onion. Avocados are plentiful here so we made a nice plate with tomatoes and lime juice squeezed over it. Not my best meal but is was a fourth of the price of a restaurant meal.





Enjoying a family meal on the back porch.


And finally, jack enjoys his first cup of coffee!