Colombia 1

This begins my second full day here.  Not really a lot to report.  The weather is pleasant, sunny and just over twenty degrees, I think.  Spending a lot of time with my host when he's not working, especially giving him support in English.  He is very kind and is spoiling me.   He lives in a small six story apartment in a brick building, one of sixteen small towers in a fairly new complex by the highway.  The guest room is pleasant, quiet and bright.  Yesterday he took me on a tour of Madrid, which is the name of the town where he lives.  It is a satellite city to Bogotá, which is about twenty miles away.  It looks pretty hardscrabble, and the people look like they really have to struggle.  But it looks worth exploring, I think particularly because it is so basic and unpretentious, which I think also describes a lot of Colombians.  I would say that of the many people I have known from all over Latin America and Spain, my most positive experience has been with  Colombians.  They are warm, open, generous, have little patience for bullshit, and their word is as good as gold.  And they live out loud.  Bring earplugs!  Of course, they're not all like that, and I have  had some negative experiences with Colombians but those are the exception.

We also visited a town that is very close, called Mosquera. It seems more upscale, and very attractive with lots of old architecture.  We did some grocery shopping in a supermarket in a mall, did some walking, and stopped for a cold drink in one of the many bakery cafes that are so quintessentially Colombian.  People here don't seem to be in a great hurry, have time for each other, and people watching can be something amazing here.

When we returned home I got to work on cooking dinner, since my host isn't very huge on cooking, so I prepared something basic, but good and nutritious and tasty too.  I took two cups of the dry red lentils we bought, cooked them in a big pot, and added garlic and onion that we had also bought, sauteed in butter.  Then I put in a lot of soy sauce and a good chunk of extra old cheddar.  I steamed some broccoli, and baked potatoes in the microwave.  We had the lentil and cheese mixture served over the broccoli and potatoes.  It was pretty good, not my best effort but my friend loved it and had seconds.  Which reminds me of how much I miss cooking for people, since it is very difficult having guests over in my tiny apartment.

After dinner, just after sunset, we did a super long walk, of about an hour or so, and ended up in rather a large mall where we had Jamaica to drink in a food court.  Jamaica is a popular beverage in many Latin American countries and it is basically chilled hibiscus tea, sweetened and it is wonderful.  I told my friend about how I used to make something similar, brewing red zinger tea then cooling it in the fridge and having it on ice.  Very refreshing.

Today, while my friend is at work, I'm just laying low, resting and finally catching up on my sleep.  I will do a couple of walks in the area, but mostly I'm going to stay close to home and get oriented to the neighbourhood.