Because today is the second Colombian Monday Holiday in a row (and once again, no one seems to be able to tell me what we are celebrating) there is no work for Colombians today. For the long weekend I was invited to a nearby colonial town called Barichara to stay at the house of Pacho Serrano, the owner of a Colombian grocery store chain called Distraves. I went with Silvia, Dr. Barrera's younger sister and her boyfriend Nelson on the two-hour, incredibly scenic drive through the jungle to San Gil and then Barichara. When we got there, I met Pacho and his youngest daughter Angela who came in from Bogota, as well as his son and his son's wife. Pacho's house may have taken up an entire block of Barichara, I think it might have had 15 rooms. Angela taught me how to make sushi (picture below)and we made about ten rolls for dinner for everyone in the large but very rustic kitchen of Pacho's block-house. I also found a picture of Pacho with Colombian President Uribe (also below). Saturday we went very early on another scenic (and bumpy) drive to swim in the "quebrada" or creek on Pacho's finca. They neglected to tell me that I needed to bring my swimsuit for this little outing so I had to wear Pacho's sweet 80's Miami disco swim trunks and a Santos Presidential Candidate T-shirt (that Sofia and Juanita gave me earlier this week). I had to include a picture, I hope you think it is as funny as I felt. We spent the entire day driving around Pacho's finca, which I think was an entire mountain, looking at his cafe, cacao, and maize plants as well as checking up on the hundreds of goats, cows, búfalos, and chickens. I was literally in "la mitad de la Nada".
Barichara is a nice town with lots of little stores to shop in (yay!), and a pretty church (of course) but not much else. In the middle of the night I killed what may have been the biggest beetle I've ever seen, except for those in the Amazon (you know which ones I'm talking about, Juliana). I am now back in civilization and am returning to the Fundación tomorrow. It's hot and humid and this week we are going to a karaoke bar. xoxokr
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