Brother Mark Comes to The Bog

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Imagine my delight when I received my fourth visitor from Atlanta...my brother! My excitement was only dampened because his wife Andrea was not able to come as well...I suppose being 6 months pregnant takes precedence :) We definitely missed her!

Mark arrived late on a Friday night, and my friend Gerreit was a rockstar and drove us home from the airport. I was a bad sister and didn't have many beers waiting for him. In my defense, I thought he should adapt to the elevation and then we'd buy beers the next day! But no, Mark was ready to drink and all I had was a semi-terrible Poker. My guilt was compounded by 10 when Mark revealed his presents to me...a bottle of Fireball and a 6-pack of 21st Amendment's "Hell or High Watermelon" beer - my favorites!

We woke the next morning to gloomy skies and drizzles, so after an arepa con huevo, we headed to La Candelaria and the Museo de Oro. Who doesn't enjoy a little bling in the morning? Afterwards, it was a bit brighter, and we went on a walk through La Candelaria. I had a good time showing Mark some of my favorite pieces of street art. I felt like a guide, which was funny because we even crossed paths with a group currently on the graffiti tour. We stopped at the university so he could look in the door (literally, I couldn't sign him in on the weekend) and then we decided to give Montserrate a try...weather be damned!

In La Candelaria.

Museo de Oro

La Candelaria's Street Art. 

I convinced Mark to take the cable car instead of walking. We could have done the hour climb, but we had already walked a lot that morning and still had a lot of plans for the night. If we had climbed, that would have been IT for the day! We were pretty lucky because when we reached the top, the skies were relatively clear! We had a good time wandering around before going to the food stalls for lunch. Mark was really eager to try everything Colombian, so I ordered a small plate of picada (liver, chorizo, blood sausage, potato, avocado) and a plantain with guava and queso. We devoured it!




Eating picada.

We worked off a bit of the picada walking around the top of the mountain, and then we took a cab home to take a nap. We were exhausted! We couldn't rest long because Colombia was having a friendly futbol game and we wanted to watch it. We went to my friend Angela's house, and Mark got a full dose of a Colombian group of friends yelling at the ref! We hung out at the house a while, drinking and talking (or in Mark's case, listening and looking slightly confused), and then we left with Andres to go to our favorite spot..the BBC bodega! We had a few beers there and played a dice game until Andres' friend arrived and we changed bars. Mark looked like he was going to pass out around 11, so I took him home :)

The next morning we headed back to La Candelaria for some more tourism. I was excited because we were going to do things I had never done before! I'm a bad tourist sometimes. First we went to the Plaza Bolivar to see the old colonial buildings and people watch. For some reason, there were llamas in the plaza...aren't they from Peru?? Then we went to an old Colombian restaurant, La Puerta Falsa, so Mark could try "onces," which is basically a typical snack of hot chocolate with cheese and almohabana, a tasty bread. Revived, we headed to our next destination - the Botero Museum.

Botero is a famous artist from Medellin who paints people in exaggerated forms. In other words, he paints fat people! The museum was free and really nice. There were several rooms of Botero, but many other rooms with different art forms from over the years. We had a really nice time there. 


Eating "onces" at La Puerta Falsa

Mark and Mona at the Museo Botero

After our museum adventures, we took a turn down the Septima, which is partly pedestrian and pretty crazy. Mark enjoyed watching the guinea pig races (see a short video in my previous post, "Bang Twins Re-united" in October, 2014). We tried some coconut candy and had another arepa. We were stuffed, but there were so many things to try!

We took another afternoon rest and then had a leisurely dinner at the house. My friends Gerriet and Corrie came over and my roommate Christina made an amazing lasagna for all of us. It was a nice way to chill and get to know my friends! 

 

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