My Visitors

I have been so lucky to have so many visitors while down here! I am honored to be able to share with people the beauty, diversity, and culture of Colombia. It is a country that many people in the United States misunderstand and prejudge unfairly. While drugs, guerillas, and Plan Colombia are a reality, it is not a visible part of everyday life. People shop in both street markets and Target-like grocery stores, ride donkeys or drive private cars, eat traditional rice and beans and fish or MacDonalds... it is obvious that globalization has effected Colombia, but it still has a strong and independent culture, and even within the country there is tremendous variation in food, language, and traditions.

So, thank you to...

my family

Gaby and Bert (not shown)

Erin and her parents (not shown either... sorry!)

Megan

Lindsey

...and Emily Scatterday (for some reason I have 0 pictures of our time together here)

for taking the time to enjoy and learn about a new far off place. I hope you have all been able to bring good experiences and attitudes back to the USA to share with everyone there what an amazing place Colombia is and how welcoming and warm the people are.

If there is anything you are interested in learning about Colombia, please feel free to ask and I can go into anything in more detail (as far as my knowledge and my experiences, I don't claim to be an expert.) And ask those pictured above for their stories as well! I am sure they would love to tell their stories!

Peace,

Lani

The City of the Bikes

Bienvenidos a Mompos

Meg and I decided we needed a vacation from our constant vacationing, so we headed out for a relaxing weekend in Mompox, a sleepy town a few hours southeast of Cartagena. Honestly, the most exciting part of the trip was getting there and back (although back was much more entertaining because we were accompanied by a British man who spoke no Spanish, but definitely spoke his fair share of English, if you catch my drift...)

It is a nice town on the banks of a river (requiring a ferry ride to reach). We really didn't find much to do there, so we mostly ate and read. Not a bad weekend if you ask me. One interesting thing I found was that there were hardly any cars there; most everyone chose bicycles or motocycles as their mode of transportation. Megan and I indulged ourselves in a moto ride one afternoon, and our new friend took us all over the town, pointing out the highlights (like, "Here is a church. Here is another church. Here you can buy cheese. Here is church.")

We also took a boat ride up the river. Since it is not high tourist season right now we ended up being the only people on the boat ride with our guide, a friendly man who loved to point out all the wildlife and share all of his knowledge about the river (and so naturally we ended up talking about politics and the upcoming presidential election and the changes that need to be made in Colombia. An excellent conversation.) Basically, we got to see a zoo-full of animals, but with no bars, no glass, and no protection from flying poop...

King Fisher

Iguana

(We saw too many of these for my liking.)

Our guide and a flock of birds he scared out of the tree for us.

Monkeys!

(Yes, poop throwing was attempted.)

Cow

(Never a complete trip in Colombia without a cow.)

Just beautiful.

I love el horno!

So I am pretty sure I mentioned before that I bought an oven to pursue my baking dreams. I just wanted to update on how fantastic life with an oven is. Mind you, it is a toaster oven, but it is just a treat to have.

We bake many things in the oven (as well as other people in the hotel since it is common knowledge that we have one and it is often out on loan.) Megan has become an expert experimenter with her bread (http://allthingscolombia.blogspot.com/2010/03/mamando-gallo.html), while I have perfected a brownie recipe, now available with Peanut Butter, arequipe (like caramel), or coffee flavor. I have also collected a little gang of helpers (who even fight over who will wash the dishes!) Basically the oven (and anything that comes out of it) is a big hit here, and it makes me super happy to have this simple pleasure in my life here.

Megan's bread

The Brownies

Pedro, David, and Theo breaking eggs.

P.S. Not everything that comes out of the oven is a masterpiece. The other day Meg and I tried to make a cucumber bread that was just nasty. After trying to convince ourselves it was delicious by covering it up with loads of peanut butter, we deemed it inedible and ended up throwing half of it away. All a part of the learning process. Successful items include: pumpkin bread, poppyseed bread, muffins of all flavors, cheesecake, toasted sandwiches pizza, raspberry bread, banana bread, chocolate cake, granola, etc.

Views of La Guajira

Megan, Manon, and I decided to do a bit of traveling last week since it was Semana Santa and we had some free time. After a bit of a fiasco in which we boarded a bus that would mosey its way to the transportation terminal in an hour and a half when we only had 40 minutes causing Manon to demand our money back and transfer us to a taxi who speed his way through the back streets of Cartagena, we finally arrived at the terminal in time to buy tickets to Mompox, a small little town that everyone says is just divine, and to sit down to have a juice before leaving. While gulping our juices (it is impossible to drink such satisfying juice slowly), we came to the realization that we didn't want to go to south... we wanted to go northeast. So, relying on Manon's fantastic negotiating skills, we changed our tickets and headed to Riohacha instead.

Our first bus had problems, so they let us off on the side of the road to wait for another. It arrived after a short wait. Super. But hang on a sec... with the addition of us on this bus they were short exactly three seats. Oops. So the driver motioned to have us sit up on the floor by him. What a kind gesture.

Megan in her first class luxury seat next to our new friend, the bus driver, on the way to Riohacha.

After a few more bus changes we finally ended up in Riohacha, which turns out to be a beautiful city on the main drag by the beach, but once inland, quite regular. This part of Colombia is known to be impoverished and inhabited mostly by the indigenous people called the Wayuu (More on them later). It is also mostly desert.

The next day we took a trip out into the desert with our trusty driver, and fan of reggaeton, champeta, and hiphop, Andres. The drive was quite interesting and I was fascinated by how he knew where to go when we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere.

The views out the front window changed from some dry vegetation...

... to absolutely nothing...

... to my favorite: a drive right along the shoreline. Quite beautiful and exciting. (I must remember this excellent feature of owning a jeep when looking into investing in an automobile of my own, although I am still set against buying a car that uses gas...)

After a few days exploring the northeastern peninsula of Colombia, Manon and I decided on a whim and some great reviews to go to a small, super touristy town called Taganga. We hopped on another extra crowded bus and after a few minutes we started hearing some strange whimpering noises and noticing some foul smells. The smells I attributed to the cute kid sitting at my side, and I thought maybe someone had brought their whimpering puppy along but I was having trouble locating it, until I felt a nip on my butt... I turned to look behind my seat and Manon let out a yelp when we noticed someone's cargo of live chickens that they decided to leave under our seats. Thanks fellow passenger. The chickens continued to squeak, reek, and peck at my buns until we arrived at our destination. Gotta love the transportation here!

Another view... not quite as pretty (nor comfortable nor entertaining) as traveling around with Andres!

It was a great trip filled with hammock sleeping, hiking, shell hunting, floating in the ocean, and sunset watching: a wonderful relaxing time getting to know the Caribbean Coast of Colombia even better.

How Megan Keeps Me Entertained

Having Megan here has really been a blessing. If you don't know the story, we have basically been best friends since age 7, so we've got quite the shared history and a chemistry that doesn't leave room for boredom. One of my favorite pass times of Megan's here in Colombia is her habit of listing off all the blogs she is going to write once she finds time to sit down and do it (seeing she is super busy with things like going to the beach, reading, talking about her hot dance teacher, and finding new recipes to try... just kidding Mego!) But they always have fantastic titles. Here are some recent ones that I remember:

-La Hora de los Besos: This blog deals with how at 5:00 if you walk through the park near our hotel you will find yourself surrounded by young couples making out and Megan found herself asking where her latin lover was.

-Los Viajes de una Langosta: Translated this means The Trips of a Lobster. Basically Megan was really burnt for a while. I would say she was more of an eggplant than a lobster since she was so burnt she turned almost purple.

-Come to Colombia and Lose your Clothes: This could have many different interpretations, but it really is about laundry. Megan actually did write this blog. If you want to check it out here is her site: http://allthingscolombia.blogspot.com/2010/03/ven-colombia-y-pierde-tu-ropa.html

-La Sonrisa de Not Understanding: This blog would deal with the smile that someone learning a foreign language learns to wear always, even when they have no clue what is going one. Nod and smile, nod and smile. It definitely has gotten me through some uncomfortable conversations.

-Las Galletas y la Leche: A blog about our eating habits. Meg and I have an obsession with graham crackers and milk. We eat them all the time. It is delicious. Try it.

Megan's blog is super entertaining really. So you should check it out:

http://allthingscolombia.blogspot.com/

She is telling me about her next entry and it should be really good. Keep an eye out for it.

Also, if you are interested in making bread... check out her dad's blog:

http://allthingsbread.blogspot.com/

Really great bread. We make it in Colombia in our toaster oven.

Peace! ~Lani (and Meg)

New Arrivals!

Below you can find the two greatest gifts I have received in the last week:

My mejor amiga from MN, Megan, arrived last week and we have lost no time in conquering Cartagena together. She will be here for two months and I am already abusing her by forcing her to follow me around to all of my classes and talk with my students (who, by the way, love her of course.) She is having a great time of it though and her Spanish has already improved immensely. She also already has a few private salsa dancing teachers...

I also just got new glasses! I love them so much I wear them more than my contacts! Crazy I know since I never used to wear glasses ever. What do you think?

Sending our love to everyone!

Love,

Lans and Megs