Day 36 - Salento (Food is a Common Denominator)

Today, I am mostly motivated by the new burst of wanting/dreading my Spanish lesson. Maybe part of me feels guilty that I am this far into my trip and now I am trying to officially learn. On the other hand, part of me feels fab because I know considerably more than I did some few weeks ago. I am a proud below functional estudiante. However, as the day would have it, I managed NOT to do any Spanish.. not sure how. I can't really tell you what I did or where the time went.

I would call today a splurge-y foodie kinda day. Dave and I walked into town, yaay! I know I am in the country when the highlight of the day are walks, especially into town. Weekends are kind of big here because everyone gathers in the town center. I am sure I have typed these same words before.. So we decided to just walk around the square and try to blend it with the locals.

We visited several artisan shops, but the food kept catching our attention. What was interesting was that every restaurant had the Football (Soccer) game on and everyone was soo attentive.

 

There was the taffy lady. If you could have seen her working this taffy with one hand and serving with the other.. You would have been amazed. It was interesting, but not enough for me to want to try it.

One of the artisan shops we went into had this puppet on a stick. It would roll forward but not roll back. Interesting contraption it was..












They also had cute displays to try and sell you quasi overpriced goods. Great attempt though. If I was not backpacking, I would have totally indulged..














The architecture and the color of the shops and restaurants is fascinating. Things are soo well maintained here and so vibrant. It's a nice change from stucko, toffee, brick, etc kinda buildings.

 

  

I walked passed this lady twice, then decided to stop.. She had this caramel-y stuff called arequipe on some thing wafer like things. It was tasty!

After a bit of exploring town, we got to do one of my favorite things. Pick out fresh fruit and vegetables and fresh bread! I can easily see how one could fall in love with shops like this. They make it soo easy to buy and it's fresh and hmmm...

 

I was trying to make a mad dash out of town, but was captured by these pancake-y things. Iono but they kept calling my name. I haven't seen Arepas like this anywhere in Colombia, so I had to indulge. and boyyyyyyyyyy this with queso was the business. It was like buttery goodness in my hands. Worth every bit of the 2500 pesos it cost.

Soo in an effort to use some of my previous purchased, I made a carb heavy lunch of potatoes, tomatoes, onions, and peppers. It was tasty and I got to use the last of my old stuff. With my favorite of cheese bread.

 

I made another advocado salad for a mid lunch and pre dinner snack. I took a picture of it for you this time!

 

Soo I guess when you have a lotta time, people create these games that can entertain you for hours, lol. This game of marbles and a wooden board, which I still don't know the name of, has people going for hours. The idea is that you can only jump horizonatally and vertically and the goal is to have only one marble on the board. It seems trivial but is quite mesmerizing. I may have to get one when I get settled. If someone knows the name, please do share!

 

We all got together for another group dinner. The theme was Mexican and everything was soo tasty.

 

Big thanks to our Chefs and Hosts, although all are not pictured below!














I was sitting at the dinner table last night and I got to thinking about some of the things I have really enjoyed about Colombia and these family style meals are my favorites. It's a group of "strangers" preparing, cooking, and enjoying a meal together. Our common denominator is that we have a love of travel and exploring the world.


















We don't know if we will cross paths again, but what we do know is that time around us has stopped because there is nothing more important than the people to the left, to the right, and in front of me. It's as if the stars have aligned and all is right with the world. These are the kind of experiences I want to continue to have when I get back to the states...