I woke up today with high expections. I expected to trek into town to explore the happening area of Manizales. I get up and it is a morning of waiting. Boo! I had to wait to shower and wait for breakfast since a large group was at the table.
Okay, no worries, cause I am taking it easy and planning to explore the town to see what's up. I sit down to eat and to my surprise the cook, Rosa, remembered I did not drink coffee and got me some hot chocolate. *blushes* This means the day is gonna be good. The stars are in alignment, I HAVE HOT CHOCOLATE. Wellllllll, my aspirations were deflated when a couple of backpackers say the walk between here and my exploration area really has NOTHING to indulge in, offer, ooo and awww. I mean NOTHING! They said I could share a cab with them as they were headed in that direction. And their assessment was correct, the ride to "town" sucked. It was just block after block of traffic and little storefronts. What kind of city and/or college town is this?!
Anywho, they had some business to attend to and I just sat idle. At this point, all I wanna do is try this coffee shop that Lonely Planet (the traveler's handbook, which has been hit and miss) recommended as the best hot chocolate ever. We find the place and it's cute..
I open the menu and I am overtaken by the assortment of hot chocolates they have. You can have it plain, with mexican spice, with chantilly, with anything!
I ordered the plain hot chocolate, but the couple next to me ordered the one with marshmallows. Who knew they had marshmallows. Then the lady said they made their own marshmallows and it was super good. Okay, sounds like a sales pitch to me, but I am convinced I should try it. Guyssssss, it comes out and I am like.. Fashion Shoot! I've got to get this chocolate from all angles.
I sip into it, decadent, rich, creamy, already sweetened.. The marshmallows were just a bonus! I am in heaven. It got two thumbs up from me!
On our walk back to the hostel, I saw two pretty interesting things.. One, this model had hooters. They were soo massive, I needed to take a picture!
Second, I wonder what would Beyonce say if she knew she was endorsing a small shop in Manizales?
My food highlight for the day was this soup I made! It's a wonderful way to use up vegetables and make something tasty with limited ingredients. I was soo proud of myself.. It turned out great.
Just one caveat, I got some peppers from Salento. They are fabulous, fabulous, fabulous peppers, but uhm if you are not careful, they will burn a hole in your intestine. I still enjoyed them though. A couple in the hostel tried it and it gave them the sniffles. They coined my soup Mironda's Spicy Salento Pepper Soup.
The rest of the evening was blase.. I thought we were going to be able to walk to the top of the Cathedral to see views of the city. The sky cleared up and it would have been perfect. We found out that the lookout was closed because of construction. Ohh boo!!! But for your and my viewing pleasure, here is the back of the statue in front of the Cathedral.
I thought the work was amazing. I mean you can see every muscle in this winged-human thing of a thing. The picture does not do it justice, but just thought I would share!
Oh my favorite part of the evening is the check-in, curfew things of sorts. The person at the front desk told me I needed to tell him if I was going out by 10pm because they needed to know who was going out and that maybe they would need to give me a key. First of all, what the hell do I need to tell you I am going out for?! Next, why are you NOT going to be around to let me in. What kinda plans you got besides making sure all your "guests" are safe and sound. *sighs* They are NOT going to be in business long if they operate like this. I gotz a lot of tripadvisoring to do, and they'll get a special shout out.
Oh well, off to bed. I plan to be in the bus terminal by 6:15am so I can catch an early bus to Medellin to get to Guatepe. I can't wait!
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