Colombia, the Good

Well let's start with some good stuff about Colombia and our life here.

We get most of our fruits from Peters Dad, he grows them on his Finca (like a cottage). We have never to buy a Guava, Orange, Banana, Limon, or Blackberry.

What we don't receive from him is equally as fresh and very cheap at the "Dinde" supermarket down the block. So far we've had strawberries, which are tiny, very red and very sweet, an entire fresh pineapple, so sweet!, sour green grapes (i'm told the red ones are the sweet ones).

Likewise for vegetables, cheap and fresh. The biggest orangest carrots I've ever seen, uncountable types of potatoes, onions and garlic piled high, red red red peppers, huge cucumbers and any other vegetable or fresh herb you want is easily aquired.

As readily as fresh vegetables there are at least 2 -3 fresh pastry places on every block. Every day Peters Mom, Gloria, and I go for a walk and try something new. Today so far I sampled Roscon, kinda like a bun, with arequipe inside and a sugar coating on top. Their version of a filled donut I guess. Peter also usually brings something home after work for me to sample. The other day it was a bag of Mantecada, a delicious sweet lemony cake. Last night it was "Obleas", hard to describe, but it was basically a thick layer of sweet, thick caramel between two thin wafers about 8 inches in diameter. DELICIOUS!!!

My neighbourhood has several schools in the vicinity, so it is very lively with young kids and college age students alike during the day. There are busy restuarants and enterprising Colombians with businesses ranging from selling paper to fixing leather goods, to selling fruit and vegetables on corners. My favourite is the soup guy, who goes through every day, on the dot at noon, yelling in a singsong voice "Masamorra!!!" and dishing out soup from the front of his little bicycle cart.

Other things I like are the view. The mountains are very pretty when the sun shines. I like that there are hundreds of photo ops on every corner, the cutest kids with rosy cheeks riding on the top of the sellers carts, piles of vegetables, near misses in traffic of award winning quality, smiles and laughs! I like that the lady that works at the bakery beside the supermarket we visit slips homeless people croissants out the window when she thinks no one is looking.

So that's a glimpse of Colombia, the good, I won't go into the bad yet, if ever.