Tropical Abundance Tour

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Still waiting for hubby to get up.  Finally got a full night's sleep. We haven't been sleeping all that well the last few nights.  Not sure if its the traveling or maybe even the altitude.  We haven't seemed to have much problem during the day -- although yesterday's climb to 10,000 ft took a bit of air out of our lungs.

I am going to take this time to explain the Bogota street grid - which was the first lesson Walter gave us on the drive from the airport when we arrived.  Having the mountains on one side will always give you direction (I have experience with this from living in Boulder).  For the most part the streets are laid out in Calles (streets) which increase south to north and Carreras (roads) increase from east to west.  Our hotel's address is Calle 10 #5-72 - this means it is on calle 10 with the cross street carrera 5 and building 72. 

To this New Yorker, it sounds very much like the street grid of Manhattan. However, since Bogota has multiple zones and twists and turns there are many exceptions to this rule.  But for the most part it has worked out for us in our neighborhood of La Candelaria.  Walter tells us that Bogota used the same designer as NY, Gaston le Large.

Geoff's awake so I guess it is time to start the day.  I see blue sky amid the clouds. This seems to be standard for Bogota no matter what the weather report.  Made a quick call to my brother while we had time this morning -- all's well at home.

We weren't meeting Walter until 11am so we walked around the corner to the Botero Museum.  We will also be visiting his museum in Medellin, where he is from.  He has quiet a sense of humor with his art.

In the year of 2000 the Colombian artist Fernando Botero donated 208 art pieces, 123 of his own making and 85 of other international artists, to the Bank of the Republic. With this collection, the Botero Museum was founded in the neighborhood of La Candelaria, the historic center of Bogotá, in a colonial mansion that was acquired by the Bank of the Republic and made suitable to house the art collection by Fernando Botero himself. Since November 1, 2000, the museum has been open to the public free of charge.

Back to the hotel, we met up with Walter and Diana, our chef and tour guide.  Fortunately, we visited a different market than the one we visited on the bike tour.  This one was a bit more local and we liked it better.  Daniel met us there -- he is in charge of content and communications with Impulse Travel -- basically PR.  He tagged along today to shoot some promotional video of this tour.  We were also joined by JuanPablo, Diana's boyfriend and co-chef.  

We had a great time, not only picking out veggies for dinner, but partaking in some of the wares, as well.  We tasted some lulo fruit juice, and experienced a most fabulous fruit salad -- with cheese, yogurt, and all kinds of local fruit.  Could not leave the market without sampling the local dish of arepas:

Arepas are the most common traditional dish in Colombia and are served as an accompaniment or as a meal in itself. Arepas are served throughout Central and South America, but Colombia has its own original type of arepa. Arepas can come in a number of varieties, including arepas de choco (made from a sweet corn and filled with cheese), arepas con queso (filled with cheese), and arepas de huevo (an arepa which is deep fried with an egg cracked inside and then refried). Each region in Colombia has its own traditional way to eat and make arepas.

The cheese man was most accommodating, and we were able to taste a variety of cheeses. All local and all delicious.  Our last stop was outside the market -- Mr. Avocado man -- more tasting.  Finally loaded up the car and headed for Diana & JuanPablo's apartment.

We invited Walter to come up and join us.  We had a wonderful afternoon learning about this fabulous couple and Colombian cooking techniques.  Geoff helped out and was paying close attention for when we try to recreate some of these dishes.  Walter was kind enough to write down all the food dishes that they prepared. Here is the menu for the main meal:

Arepa de huevo. 
Patacones con aogao. 
Cubios rostisados
Ensalada de quino
Maiz tostao

And the cheeses from right to left: 

1)Queso campesino 

2)Queso 7 cueros 

3)Queso costeño 

4)Queso paipa

We finished off the meal with homemade truffles and some strong Colombian coffee, naturally.  There was much talk of the lifestyles, family and children -- so we had to brag about Deidre's art and I brought up her web page. Lots of oohs and aahs.  These are young people, and Geoff asked if they had ever heard of Kelly -- well if they didn't before, they did now.  Diana insisted on seeing OMG Shoes -- so they all gathered around Walter's cell phone for a dose of Kelly.  Lots of laughter. Everyone loved it!!  

What a wonderful afternoon, with some very fine people and lots of good fresh food.  We were able to learn so much about the culture and the country.  We are both very grateful for the opportunity to spend time in their home and share such a rich experience.  Oh I almost forgot about the cat and the dog -- got a dose of some puppy love and a bit of purr action.  Absolute purrrfection!!

Headed back to the hotel and got in a little after 5.  Said good bye to Walter.  We will see him bright and early tomorrow.  The sun was going down -- I grabbed the camera and got a few shots from the hotel restaurant.  A lovely evening.  Looks like it will be another early night for our last night in Bogota.  We are exhausted and we have to be ready by 8 am to get the train out of town.

As we are being serenaded by a group outside the Opera house, I can only say that our stay here has been nothing short of wonderful.  We could not have asked for a better experience. We want to say thank you to all of you who helped our Bogota experience become a most memorable one.  We now look forward to the rest of our adventure.


Next time...The Train to the Salt Cathedral