Pics of the Day: Farm Life

September 2nd, 2011

Today’s pics feature our Rio Negro Tour, where you can visit a real Colombian farm and even milk some real Colombian cows! Crops of corn, potatoes, and strawberries can also be found on the farm. Nothing tastes quite as good as a fresh-picked strawberry!

Diana milking her first cow!

Ezra returns the favor and feeds a 2 month old calf.

Cows are happier in Colombia--it's science.

The coolest place we hope you never read about…

April 12th, 2011

…that is, except for here.  We were recently turned on to the coolest little bar, so cool in fact, we’re not going to tell you its name.  This bar, we’ll call it The Cabana, is so amazing that our biggest fear is that some guidebook will find out about it and flood it with tourists.  The only gringos we want to see there are ourselves and our guests!

What makes it worth the secrecy you ask?  Well for one, two nights a week they feature a live band playing traditional Argentinean and Colombian music.  There’s no stage; the six or so members gather around a small table with their glasses of beer and empty shot glasses and play whatever strikes their fancy.  It’s more like sitting in on a close group of friends having a jam session than listening to a band play.

Every night the experience is completely different, thanks to the local musicians dropping in to lend their voice, guitar, or harp to the band (yes, I said harp).  One night we had Argentineans belting out mournful songs, followed by a local singer/cab driver leading the crowd in a rousing version of Tengo Mil Novias (I have a thousand girlfriends).  Another night we witnessed a man playing the wooden spoons and an Andean flutist putting Ron Burgundy to shame.  We have no doubt that our next visit will bring an entirely different experience.

The owner keeps the drinks simple: aguardiente, rum, and Heineken beer.  However, the accompanying snacks are anything but.  Served with your drinks are no fewer than four bowls for the fritos, cheese flavored bread balls, mango, fresh coconut pieces, orange slices, grapes, and tree tomatoes (didn’t know some tomatoes grow in trees, did you?)  And if that array of munchies doesn’t cut it for you, the tasty pizza joint across the street will bring you your choice of crispy-crusted pizza.  ¡Delicioso!

The thing that brings everything together is the ambiance of The Cabana.  The entire bar is perhaps the size of a living room and barely fits 10 small tables, which encourages the intermingling of the patrons.  Adorning the walls are a variety of musical instruments, portraits, and vintage advertisements for various Colombian beers featuring pin-up girls.  Vinyl records are haphazardly stacked on random shelves and in nooks and crannies between the assortment of antique amplifiers, record players and sound equipment.  On nights when the band isn’t playing these records are filling the air with the traditional sounds of tango, and if you’re a music buff, you can make requests for your favorite Colombian or Argentinean song.

Rest assured, if you come visit us in Medellin, we’ll show you a good time at The Cabana.  But until then, let’s just keep this secret between us.

More photos of The Cabana can be found here.

Going on a Wild Turkey Chase in Medellín, Colombia

December 13th, 2010

WARNING! This story contains brief descriptions of a live turkey being killed in order for us to have it for Thanksgiving. If you find that subject distasteful or perhaps unsettling, you may not want to read on.

Hola! How is everyone enjoying the holiday season? I hope you’re getting to enjoy some time relaxing with family, time away from work, hopefully stress-free travel, and especially some delicious foods. I know it’s about a week too late, but I still wanted to relate to you a great experience that happened back before Thanksgiving. Let me explain…

Back in early November, we were looking ahead to achieving two major life accomplishments in the same meal: both hosting our first Thanksgiving as a married couple in another country and being the ones to put those delicious, comfort foods on the table. We couldn’t do it alone, but we got help in a most unconventional way. Instead of a full house of familial workers sharing traditional recipes and warm stories, our help came in the form of US care packages, hand-delivered from friends traveling to Colombia. They sacrificed sacred suitcase space in order for us to have so many of the Thanksgiving staples we otherwise would be going without. And for that we are extremely thankful.

They brought the classic Thanksgiving staples like green bean casserole, candied yams, cranberry sauce, and stuffing fixings, among others. The only thing they couldn’t fit in their luggage was a turkey, which I could obviously get in Medellín, right? Well, Medellín proved extremely fickle about producing on her end of the bargain.

Getting our Thanksgiving turkey was one of the biggest challenges I’d faced since moving to Medellín 11 months ago. I started out where anyone in my position would: the meat section at the super market. Unfortunately, after a translation error and a quick trip to the sliced meats section, I returned and clarified that I was looking for a whole turkey, one to feed a crowd. He chuckled and told to come back in December (turkeys are big for Christmas here). But then he suggested that if I was up for it, I could just go to the forest and kill one. We shared a laugh.

A few days later, I was downtown and I had the opportunity to investigate with one of the city’s high-end butcher shops. Surely they would have the missing piece to our Thanksgiving puzzle. Sadly, they didn’t. And don’t call me Shirley.

After that additional disappointment, I called the few remaining specialty grocery stores and various out-of-work magicians I thought might have or know how to procure our missing turkey. Sadly, still had no luck finding our bird.

At this point, I was about ready to give up and make the disappointing but still delicious switch to a pork roast. But a fortuitous trip to the local fruit market changed everything and our luck turned around. We were hosting a guest at our bed-and-breakfast in Medellín and during the Fruit Tasting Tour, while getting turned down by the dozens of butchers in the meat section of the market, one of them tipped us off as to where we might find a turkey.

Half excited but still a little skeptical based on my string of failures up to this point, I heeded their advice and went to the live animal section of the expansive market. Within seconds of arrival, a nice young man named Ronal came up and asked me what I was looking for. (I’m telling you, great service in this country!) I told him “pavo” which is the Spanish word for ‘turkey’. Well apparently “pavo” also means something else because he led me over to a confused looking peacock. I had to convince him I hadn’t come to the Minorista to find a peacock and after that, much to my surprise and sincere delight, he showed me what I had searched the entire city to find: our Thanksgiving Turkey. Increible!

From there, it was a simple matter of negotiating the price and Ronal told me I could come back whenever to pick it up. A week later, on the actual day of Thanksgiving when most of those now reading this would probably have been enjoying their own Thanksgiving turkey, we went down to the Minorista market on what was for us a normal Colombian Thursday and picked out our turkey much like one would pick out a lobster. Ronal let me hold several different turkeys by their legs to see which one was heavier and I picked the winner (or loser if you’re the turkey). While Marcela opted to look at puppies, hamsters, and ducklings, I went with Ronal up some stairs to a back room and watched the turkey get “prepared”. Without getting into too many details, I’ll just say it was certainly brutal to watch but it was completely humane, and Timmy the Turkey went with dignity. The fact is that most humans eat some sort of meat and in order to have that privilege, at some point a live animal needs to become a dead animal. After the butcher finished with the turkey, he wrapped it in several large, plastic bags, passed it over, and I went to share the long-awaited spoil with Marcela.

We returned home in a cab with Timmy sitting between us, still warm to the touch. Timmy’s death was not in vain, nor was the exhaustive search throughout Medellín. Timmy was delicious and juicy with a crisp exterior and made the perfect centerpiece at our authentic American Thanksgiving in Colombia.

Happy Holidays y feliz año Nuevo!

*A special Thank You! to Alexis, Jon, and Rin for taking the risk to traffic food into Colombia on our stomach’s behalf!

Feria de las Flores Day 5: Orchids, Birds, and Flowers

August 25th, 2010

We are in the middle of the Feria de las Flores (Flower Festival) Medellin’s biggest annual festival, and one of the most popular in all of Colombia. Everyday we’ll be bringing you multiple blogs and videos about the events we’re attending, such as concerts, parades and exhibitions. Viva la Feria!

The event everyone recommended we checkout during the feria was Orquideas, Pájaros y Flores (Orchids, Birds and Flowers) at the Botanical Gardens.  We beat the crowds by attending in the early afternoon on a weekday but still had to compete for space to see the thousands upon thousands of gorgeous flowers.  I never realized how many varieties of orchids existed, but I’m sure I saw just about every single one of them after an afternoon at the gardens.  In addition to the orchids there were tropical flowers, roses, lilies, gerbera daisies, chrysanthemums, and I could go on and on.  Take a look at some of our favorite flowers and don’t forget you can see more on our Picasa page.

Check out our Picasa albums to see our Feria de las Flores gallery as well as pictures from our other adventures in Colombia.

Read more about Feria de las Flores here.

Feria de las Flores, Day Two: Pet Parade

August 6th, 2010

We are in the middle of the Feria de las Flores (Flower Festival) Medellin’s biggest annual festival, and one of the most popular in all of Colombia.  Everyday we’ll be bringing you multiple blogs and videos about the events we’re attending, such as concerts, parades and exhibitions.  Viva la Feria!
Get ready for a post that will break your heart with adorableness.  Day two featured the Desfile de Mascotas (Pet Parade) which was a torturous place to go for a girl that wants a dog sooooo bad.  Enjoy the cuteness!

Check out our Picasa albums to see our Feria de las Flores gallery as well as pictures from our other adventures in Colombia.  We’ll write about experiences after the craziness of the fair is over.

Read more about Feria de las Flores here.