There's no place like home.

14-15 September

Dorothy was right, "There's no place like home."

We had a wonderful long lunch with my cousins on Sunday at the Military Officer's Club.  It was great see all the Bogota and Bucaramanga cousins in Colombia.  Roger was overwhelmed by everybody's hospitality and enjoyed meeting and seeing everybody.

Our flight left Bogota after midnight, therefore it was a Monday morning departure to Houston.  Despite seat problems, the flight was easy and getting through Immigration and Customs was easy.  Of course it helps when you pack light.  The flight to San Antonio was on time and we were at home by 9 am.  We were greeted by a leaky toilet, malfunctioning air conditioner, and a dead car battery.  No shockers, because Lynda had kept us informed and fortunately turned the water off to the toilet and shut the AC off.  Once we got the car started, we were able to get the part for the toilet and Roger  got to do his least favorite household chore, plumbing.  The AC guy came right away due to our service contract and it was an easy fix, a wire had come loose.

Meanwhile we've enjoyed long hot showers and getting our clothes easily washed and dried.  I really have a greater appreciation for the convenience of having my washer and dryer at home.  Call me spoiled, but sleeping in our king bed is truly a treat.  There is no place like home.

The countryside of Bucaramanga

13 Sept

We went to Pilar's finca (farm) this morning.  It has changed a lot since the last time I was there.  She is down 4 fish tanks, due to lack of water along with losing about 25% of her coffee plants to a fungus.  She has to wait another year before she can replant the infected area, because her coffee is all certified organic.  This time she had some coffee on drying, as well as some on the plants, plus I'll be bringing home some of the freshly roasted and ground coffee she had ready for us.  Pilar also has citrus and avocado trees.  We learned that her citrus trees produce all year round, but her avocado trees only once a year and are much smaller than the lower elevation nearby trees.  The difference between the two fincas that we visited is altitude and water.  The Friday finca wasn't as high in altitude and has more water.  Pilar's finca is located on a area called La Mesa de los Santos, and the area has been getting drier with less rain over the last five years.  She also raises cabrilla, which is a member of the goat family, chickens (75) for eggs, chickens for eating (now just 6 because she axed 6 to take back to Bucaramanga), fish and six milk cows.

From the finca, we (Roger, Manuel, and I) went to Parque Nacional Chicamocha, which is a canyon that was formed by Rio Chicamocha.  The canyon is 2000m deep, 227km long, (a little deeper than the Grand Canyon, but not nearly as long or wide.)  We rode the 6.3 km cable car across the canyon, which happens to be one of the longest cable cars in the world.  The canyon land is very arid, with lots of cacti, free range goats, and cigar tobacco plots.  The river level was up some, because it had rained last night up stream.  Both ends of the cable car stations have little tourist kiosks and typical tourist items.  On one side the park system has also built a water park, and has adventure concessions that include zip lines and huge, over-the-canyon swings.  There's also a very interesting series of bronze figures that depict the struggle of the people of Santander during the 1800s.

In Bucaramanga, there's a 10 day Feria (fair) going on, which is a variety of cultural fairs across the area.  Today, outside the city in Mesa de los Santos, there was a cabalgata, which is a cavalcade of horseback riders gathering to share a common interest.  We guess that there were at least 500 horseback riders.  The cabalgata is not done in the city because there are animal rights groups against the ride, due to horses meeting up with cars and drunk riders.  It still was very interesting to see.  We even saw one horse with a tandem saddle and two small boys riding the horse.  There were also ponies, mules, and burros taking part.  Lots of the horses were "trotters" and the riders were making them prance (another no-no with the animal rights group.)  We left the cabalgata behind, only to encounter a bad traffic accident that involved a small white car, and two large trucks on a sharp mountain curve.  The rear truck had jack-knifed, but Manuel some how was able to get by without putting us over the side of the mountain.  This was the first of two amazing driving tricks Manuel performed today.

In Bucaramanga, we met a traffic jam, because there was a "desfile de carros antiguos" -- antique car parade.  This parade had all the major thoroughfares clogged.  Manuel ended up making a u-turn on a divided street and we were driving against traffic for a while, before he could make a right hand turn.  It was weird coming headlong into traffic on the wrong side of the road, but it got us started on getting around the congestion.

We stopped by to say hello to Adriana (one of Manuel's daughters), but unfortunately Sandra (another of Manuel's daughters) was working at the clinic so we didn't get to see her.  From there we went to say goodbye to Marta and then started our way back across town to out hotel.  The traffic was horrible, and there were lots of people out walking, which meant Manuel had to be all that much more diligent in looking out for things.

Guanabana and goat

12 Sept

Yesterday, when we were with Manuel Pinto, I mentioned that we prefer to see the countryside more than the city and especially enjoy seeing where things grow.  Manuel has a friend who owns a finca that grows oranges, mandarin oranges, two different types of limes, guanabana, yucca, plantains, and avocados.  So today we drove out to see the finca.  The avocados trees generally produce fruit twice a year.  Citrus grow all year round, as do guanabana.  Yucca stalks get planted in January and between 8 months and a year the roots mature for cutting.  Plantains produce semi-annually, but you can space the plants out to the point of having fruit all year.  It was really interesting seeing all the trees or plants up close.

The owner was particularly proud of their guanabana trees.  The trees were planted 4 years ago and have been producing fruit for the last two years.  The tree flowers all year round, so it's almost as good of a crop as citrus with a little better market price.  Once the guanabana tree flowers, the flower is hand-pollenated, to ensure a symmetrical fruit.  Symmetry doesn't make the fruit taste any different, but looks better for selling.  Once the flower forms the seed pod after pollination, a small fruit grows.  This fruit is put in a special bag with holes to protect it from insects and birds.  It takes about 3 to 4 months for the fruit to mature.

SInce I had never seen an avocado tree before, I liked seeing these trees as well.  Once again the trees were very young, but producing like gangbusters.  The avocados were huge, compared to what we can get in the USA.  Of course I was thinking that my Mom would love to just sit down with a knife and spoon and have a snack.

Yucca plants are the result of putting stalk into the ground.  The stalk will sprout roots and about 8 months later it will be time to harvest.  On the finca two different colors of yucca grow, white and yellow.  The root color depends on the acidity of the ground.  People prefer to buy yellow yucca, but there's no difference in taste between the two colors.  It is just a matter of what the buyer is accustomed to.

After seeing all this produce, we ended our "tour" with some very sweet, ripe, fresh pineapple that we had bought from a roadside stand on the way out.  It was the best pineapple I have ever eaten.  Roger really enjoyed it as well and ate 3 large slices.  Produce straight from the field tastes so much better than produce that has been picked green and then gets shipped to market.

We returned to Bucarramanga where we had a lunch of typical Colombian food, with Martha, Pilar, Juliana (one of Pilar's three daughters), her husband and their 3 year old daughter Julianetta, along with some neighbor lady friends that were invited.  The water in Buccarramanga was out, so lunch was brought in from a local restaurant.  The cabra (goat) was the best meat when compared to the beef and chicken.  There was also relleno rice, fried yucca, and some sort of pickled onions.  It was all very good, just way too much food was put on our plates for us to "provecho todos."  We both tried very had to explain that we don't like to waste food, and finally an extra plate was brought out to put what we weren't going to eat on it.  Once this occurred the neighbor lady friends also divvied up their food to much more manageable portions.  It was interesting to be involved in the social dynamics of being a good guest, not hurting feelings, or being required to eat more than what we wanted too.  Colombians love to eat good food.  Everything was very different and tasty.

After lunch we went to an Artesian Feria.  The next two weeks there are all sorts of cultural ferias happening around Bucarramanga.  I thought the Artesian Feria might be interesting, but it was more like going to the mall and seeing all the kiosks with handmade items.  Pictures were not allowed, and there wasn't anything that I felt obligated to buy.   However I did feel obligated to buy a swimsuit, since I was at the mall and hadn't packed one.  The hotel has a nice swimming pool with lap lanes and I wanted to do some swimming.  Unfortunately by the time we got back to the hotel it was raining and thundering, so no swimming for me.  In fact the hotel lost power twice when the worst of the thunderstorm and rain passed over.  It's little wonder that things grow so well here, because the climate is temperate, they get rain regularly and the sunlight hours don't change much during the year because of the proximity to the equator.

Plans have been made for tomorrow, which will make for another interesting day in Bucarramanga.

Bucarramanga

11 Sept

With a 4:30 am alarm set, our day began.  We took a cab to the airport and on the way there the driver asked us which airport?  Huh?  I didn't know that there was more than one airport in Bogota.  The cab driver then asked which airline, and I answered Avianca.  He thought we should be going to the commuter airport and not El Dorado.  This caused us to scramble in the dark for our tickets, to confirm which airport.  El Dorado was the right one, although after changing our tickets yesterday I wasn't 100% sure until we double checked.

Our flight from Bogota to Bucarramanga only took an hour, and when we landed Martha and Manuel were there to pick us up.  Manual then dropped us off at the boundary between Florida Blanca and Bucarramanga, because his car wasn't allowed to drive in Bucarramanga.  We took a cab to the hotel once we were dropped off.  It just seemed strange to switch rides at the edge of town.  Somehow or other (true to the Colombian way) Martha got Jaime's godfather to comp our room at the hotel.  At least I think that's what is happening.  Anyway once we dropped off our stuff in the room, Martha took us to meet Jaime's godfather so we could thank him for the room.  We spent some time "chatting" with him and then we caught another cab to the old house.  We waited there for Gloria to arrive and then went to lunch with Gloria and on to Giron to see the old capital of Santander and the historic district.  Giron is painted white and brown, as oppose to the white and green paint scheme we saw yesterday in Cucunuba.  After Giron we caught a cab back to Bucarramanga, where Gloria took us to see the house where Simon Bolivar lived for 3 months in April 1828.  There was a museum inside and the most interesting thing on display was the skulls of indigenous people and how they deliberately wore things to either elongate or flatten their heads.  Weird.  We then went to a cultural center to see what was going to happen this weekend.  There was a boy band rehearsing, with folk instruments.  By this time we were running out of gas, and Gloria took us back to the old house to check on Martha again, before we took a cab back to hotel.

To my non-family readers, I apologize for all the family news.  However I know my most faithful reader is digesting every word and examining every picture in detail.

Cucunuba y Ubate

10 Sept

At 9:30 our van and driver showed up to take Jaime, Maria Helena, Roger and I for our outing.  Colombia's cities have a law called "Pico de Placa."  This law restricts driving to only certain days of the week, based on the vehicle's license plate.  Maria Helena's car could be driven on Tuesday but not on Wednesday.  Mario and Maritza's car wasn't big enough for 6 adults, so they decided to hire a driver and van for the day.  So after we were picked up, the van went to get Mario and Maritza.

We drove north out of the city through the flower zone, the brick manufacturing area, and the dairy area to a quaint little town called Cucunuba.  We walked around the center of town and just generally enjoyed spending time with the cousins.  From Cucunuba we went to Ubate, which is a much larger town and the dairy capital of Colombia.  While in the van there was a realization that Roger and I were coming back to Bogota "too late" on Sunday.  Maritza and Mario were planning a small family get together for lunch on Sunday, but we weren't coming back until 3 pm.  Well, there was a lot of discussion and it was decided that Roger and I needed to see if we could change our flight arrangements.  In Ubate, there was an Avianca office and we found out that we could get flights that better suited the family get together.  Fortunately I had bought refundable tickets on Expedia, so the next thing I had to do was cancel our tickets on Expedia.  I spent some time on the phone, but eventually did get it all straight while Roger was dealing with the Avianca lady buying the new air tickets.  The tricky thing about the change is that apparently this weekend there's going to be a big fair in Bucarramanga and several flights were sold out.

We had lunch at a nice restaurant in Ubate.  Roger really enjoyed his trout and my chicken was OK.  From the restaurant we went to the cheese shop, where Maritza and Maria Helena bought what appeared to be several kilos of cheese, eriquipe, and chinchuron.  The drive back was enjoyable for Roger, because traffic was terrible and he wasn't driving.

Viejita and Male Model

9 Sept Addendum

When we went to pay for the funicular, the lady sold us four tickets.  When we got to the ticket taker, we thought we didn't have enough tickets. Roger had a ticket and Jaime had two senior tickets.  So we went back to the ticket counter and asked the lady for the fourth ticket.  She said she sold us three seniors, and one adult.  This meant that she had sold my ticket as a senior ticket.  It's the white hair.  This greatly humored Jaime and Roger, to the point they were still laughing like two little kids at the Museo del Oro.

This is written to ensure that I am doing honest blogging.

Yes, the viejita IS honest!  --Roger

What Roger failed to mention in his above comment was that he was quite the male model.  At Monserrate a man came up to him and asked him to talk in English about Monserrate, while the man took video of Roger.  The man told Roger he didn't understand English, but just wanted some video of a person speaking English.  Then at the Museo del Oro two different women asked Roger if they could take his picture.  Roger must have looked exceptionally photogenic in his old Spurs Championship hat. 

Tourist in Bogota

9 Sept

We did the two major tourist attractions in Bogota today.  First stop was the parking lot by the funicular up to Monserrate.  We rode the train up and I didn't remember the long tunnel.  There were some clouds, but the view from 10,000+ feet is still great when you can see the valley where Bogota is.  We walked around some, and I'm happy to say everybody was sucking in the Oxygen, the locals included.  Unfortunately the gondolas were closed due to maintenance, so we had to go back down on the funicular.  It would have been nice to get a different perspective, but we understand the need for maintenance as well.

From Monserrate, Maria Helena drove us to the Museo del Oro.  The Gold Museum has a large collection of pre-Colombia gold, as well as presenting an in depth history of metallurgy in the Western Hemisphere.  The collection of gold, silver, platinum and copper figurines is impressive, and left one wonder how much bigger the collection could have been if the Conquistadors didn't melt down all the precious metals they stole from the vanquished.    The two big famous items in the collection are the Coca jug and El Dorado.  The lake raft of El Dorado is about postcard size, but the detail and the way it was made are fascinating to me.  The majority of the gold work in the museum is hammered or using the "lost wax technique."  This technique requires the formation of a mold in beeswax and then the gold is poured inside the mold and the wax melts away (therefor the mold and wax are lost.)  Instead of writing more, I think I'll just upload pictures.