My trip to Colombia ended in much the same way it began: with amazing hospitality from Marci’s family and friends!
Marci is from Cali so this time I stayed with her parents. Two of her cousins came to collect me from the bus terminal and drove me back to the house. After staying in hostels of varying quality/ comfort levels for almost two weeks, it was lovely to be back in a proper house and to be looked after, with delicious home-cooking, a comfy bed and a shower with hot water (ahh, luxury!).
On my first day in Cali it poured with rain all day. Just the excuse I needed to rest indoors and have some quality time with my book... especially as I felt like I was getting a cold. In the afternoon Marci's Dad drove me around some of the main sights of the city and we stopped for ice cream (to help the sore throat, of course) and then empanadas... mmm.
Come to think of it, most of what I did in Cali was eat. The following day Marci’s friends Betty and Juan took me out for the day, with their little son Luca. After driving round some of the interesting bits of the city, we went for a delicious steak lunch, and then back to their house for cake. We then headed to some nearby waterfalls which you can swim in. It was pretty chilly up there though, and the water was icy cold, so I wimped out and left it to the boys!
Marci is from Cali so this time I stayed with her parents. Two of her cousins came to collect me from the bus terminal and drove me back to the house. After staying in hostels of varying quality/ comfort levels for almost two weeks, it was lovely to be back in a proper house and to be looked after, with delicious home-cooking, a comfy bed and a shower with hot water (ahh, luxury!).
On my first day in Cali it poured with rain all day. Just the excuse I needed to rest indoors and have some quality time with my book... especially as I felt like I was getting a cold. In the afternoon Marci's Dad drove me around some of the main sights of the city and we stopped for ice cream (to help the sore throat, of course) and then empanadas... mmm.
Come to think of it, most of what I did in Cali was eat. The following day Marci’s friends Betty and Juan took me out for the day, with their little son Luca. After driving round some of the interesting bits of the city, we went for a delicious steak lunch, and then back to their house for cake. We then headed to some nearby waterfalls which you can swim in. It was pretty chilly up there though, and the water was icy cold, so I wimped out and left it to the boys!
 |
| Wimp |
At this point it must've been at least two hours since we'd eaten, so we went to visit Juan’s parents, who own the cutest little coffee and cake shop. Juan’s dad was keen for me to try various different fruit/ coffee/ ice cream drinks he'd been experimenting with and obviously it would have been impolite of me to decline!
This seems like a good point to mention that Colombia has THE most amazing fruits, many of which are unique to the country, with names like Lulo (my personal favourite: hard to describe but it has a sweet citrus taste and is really refreshing), Tamarind, Guanábana, Granadilla etc. They are so delicious and I can't get enough of them! There's a huge selection of fresh juices to choose from in restaurants. Mango juice is almost always on the menu, as is Passionfruit juice. So, so sweet and fresh and good!
The first drink I tried at the coffee shop was Guanábana juice with frozen milk/ ice cream. Delicious. I had to try some of Juan’s mum’s cheesy biscuits at this point too. Then while Juan showed me around the shop, his Dad prepared a sample of his newest creation: "tropical" iced coffee. It was fresh passionfruit and other tropical fruits blended with coffee and iced milk/ cream and it was INCREDIBLE! I told him he could sell the recipe to Starbucks and retire, it was just SUCH a good flavour combination. I'm salivating now just thinking about it!
The first drink I tried at the coffee shop was Guanábana juice with frozen milk/ ice cream. Delicious. I had to try some of Juan’s mum’s cheesy biscuits at this point too. Then while Juan showed me around the shop, his Dad prepared a sample of his newest creation: "tropical" iced coffee. It was fresh passionfruit and other tropical fruits blended with coffee and iced milk/ cream and it was INCREDIBLE! I told him he could sell the recipe to Starbucks and retire, it was just SUCH a good flavour combination. I'm salivating now just thinking about it!
 |
| Tropical Coffee: I need to try to re-create this |
Juan and Betty also have their own business, which is a really successful outdoor/ sports clothing business and we popped into one of their shops to look around too. There was so much I could have bought but I had to make myself hold back until I wear out some of my current clothes: I can't fit anything else in the rucksack!
That evening we went to Betty’s friend’s house for dinner which was also nice. Everyone was so open and willing to share their lives with me.
On the Saturday I was flying to Quito in the early evening so had another quiet day, aside from, of course, a huge goodbye lunch with Marci’s parents. Again, they were just such lovely, kind people and I felt very much at home there. It was really nice to spend time with local people instead of other travellers.
That evening we went to Betty’s friend’s house for dinner which was also nice. Everyone was so open and willing to share their lives with me.
On the Saturday I was flying to Quito in the early evening so had another quiet day, aside from, of course, a huge goodbye lunch with Marci’s parents. Again, they were just such lovely, kind people and I felt very much at home there. It was really nice to spend time with local people instead of other travellers.
No comments:
Post a Comment