Mark's Coffee Country Experience

-
When Mark decided to come visit me in Colombia, I gave him the choice of where to go. It was his vacation, after all. I admit I had hoped he would choose the Amazon (since I hadn't yet been), but my photos from coffee country intrigued him. In the end, it was not so difficult for me to return to such a beautiful part of Colombia.

We flew to Pereira on Monday at noon. My former student (and now friend) Julian was there with his sister to pick us up from the airport! As we started driving, he told me about how they originally were going to have a family BBQ in the country that day because it was a national holiday, but they had changed plans because we were coming into town. I felt guilty until the car suddenly stopped...at the BBQ's new location in town! Haha, Mark and I felt a bit lost, but it was really cool to be invited to a family's house and BBQ. I was so touched that they changed the location so that we could come too. What a lovely family! After a couple hours, Julian took us to our hostel, and Mark and I relaxed for a few hours since the weather wasn't any good.

Around 8, Julian came and picked us up. We drove outside town to get the local treat, arepa con choclo. The arepas are made from a sweet corn and baked in a brick oven...they are so insanely delicious and are my favorite! Afterwards, Julian drove us outside town to a lookout point over Pereira. We picked up a couple beers, chatted on a swing set, and enjoyed the night skyline.

Relaxing in the hostel.

Arepas con choclo

Skyline of Pereira

The next morning Mark and I went on a walk around the hostel until it was time to catch our bus to Salento, our main destination. We quickly settled into our hostel, Tra La La, and went in search of a cheap lunch. Once we were satiated, we started the hour-long walk outside town towards a coffee finca. The walk was great - nice views and good weather. We went to the same coffee farm I had been to before, Don Elias, and it was a simple affair. Our guide showed us a small section of the farm and explained a bit of the process. At the end, we were given a cup of Joe and we both bought a bag of coffee beans to take home. We walked the hour back and I was exhausted! 

After a short rest, we went to eat dinner at a very typical Colombian restaurant so Mark could try more local cuisine...bandeja paisa (beans, meat, avocado, fried egg, plantain) and trucha and patacones (trout and fried plantains). Stuffed to the gills, we went to work it off at a bar called Los Amigos, which is popular for playing tejo, the game similar to horseshoes that uses packets of gunpowder! (See my earlier post about tejo in December, 2014).


Bandeja Paisa y Trucha con Patacones


We met a nice French couple to compete against. The boys were infinitely more serious than the girls, yet somehow both girls were the first to make an explosion! It became a joke that as soon as they guys hit one, we could quit...and the game went on and on and on. It was crazy because Mark kept missing by a fraction of an inch every time whereas my throws were often very erratic! Finally, we decided to cheap by adding 6-7 packets to the iron ring (instead of 4) and standing 5 feet in front of the ring instead of 15 and Mark finally got his explosion! Yay! Thank God, I could finally sleep!


Mark and his newfound favorite game, tejo.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Afternoon in La Calera

-
Image
One weekend, my friend Corrie asked if I wanted to wander outside of Bogotá for an afternoon. The answer was a resounding YES and we found a bus headed to La Calera for about $1.50. It only took 45 minutes and the drive took us up and above Bogotá, so we had some really picturesque views. The fun, winding roads reminded me of moped-ing in Bali...guess I need a moped now :) Once we arrived in La Calera, a very small town, we wandered through the streets to the main plaza. Since it was a lazy Sunday, there were also many lazy locals taking advantage of the calm. We all lounged in park benches in the plaza and watched the kids play with a ball in the middle. It fairly oozed small town vibe. Corrie, smart gal that she is, picked La Calera for one main reason: the food. We found our way to some food stalls and ordered some picada (I wrote about this dish before from Montserrate ). Even though the idea was the same, it was a slightly different variety. For example, less intestines and m...
Read more

A New Life in Bogota

-
Image
Here we are: my first week in Bogota! It all began with the flight, an easy, 5-hour direct flight from Atlanta. I even had a special guest to keep me company, a bobble head Rosie the Riveter! It was a going-away gift from my friend Sara, who told me it will remind me that YES, I can do it! I love it! I wonder where we will go together.... Now this is where it gets (more) interesting: At Georgia Tech, I had a student from Bogota (Natalia) who initially wanted me to stay with her family when I arrived. I thought that would be a bit much, so I turned it down. However, I did accept a ride from the airport because the plane would be arriving at 10:30pm. It was pretty funny to have Natalia’s mother, father, and older brother waiting for me with a sign that said “Kathleen!” I immediately realized how kind and generous they were, so I was not actually surprised when they just took me home with them. They were pretty much like “No, we’re your family now so you’re staying wi...
Read more

Museums of Shanghai

-
Image
I needed out at some of the museums of Shanghai, so let me give you a little taste of what I learned! The Shanghai Museum was my first stop, and it was phenomenal. First, it was free! Good job, China! Second, it had artifacts from thousands of years of Chinese history. As an American, that's hard to fathom. Imagine walking through galleries full of bronze, sculpture, ancient coins, and calligraphy scrolls. Some of my favorite things included traditional Chinese paintings, which were often scenic views of famous places in China, exquisite jade molded in shapes that ranged from name prints to elaborate dragons, and the ceramics, which included beautiful vases and tea and China sets (go figure). Another cool room was filled with ethnic minority costumes from the past. I thought it was really great that China chose to honor all of the minority groups in this way, especially since China is not well known for treating them equally (ahem, Tibet). I spent about 2 hours here, and I could ...
Read more