categories

• daily life (1)
• baby (1)
• south america (14)
• colombia (10)
• peru (4)
• cuba (0)
• trip (9)
• trip preparation (5)
• volunteering (7)

archives

photos

links

B&M wedding slideshow

subscribe

• Atom
• RSS 2.0

Childhood Memories

Did I ever mention that it´s pretty neat to have family and friends living all over the world?! The great thing about it is that you get to go to places where otherwise you wouldn´t. Especially in Colombia.

The past weekend we drove 3 hours from Bucaramanga to Suaita, to the farm where Manuel´s grandparents used to live. One of his uncles now lives there. Several years ago it wouldn’t have been safe for us to travel there (chance of kidnapping by FARC or paramilitary groups...), but thanks to president Uribe things have gotten better in this area, and these days it´s safe to go. And so the family took us there.

Absolutely gorgeous there. Super green, very countryside. I’ll let Manuel continue from here...:

The village of Suaita is located some 14 Km from the main road that leads to Bogota. To my surprise this road is now paved and took us only a fraction of the time it used to take to reach the village. Itwas also nice to see that the church ws finally finished after several years of ongoing restorations. All in all the village looks much better now than the last time I visited, 19 years ago.
From suaita is a 15 minute drive to the farm on a dirt road. Not much change here.

Arriving at the farm was an almost surreal experience. Everything look a bit different but the small details I remember from my childhood were still there, such as the general layoutof the house, the patios where my Grandfather used to dry the coffee, the smell of the vegetation and the taste of the home-brewed “guarapo” (Local drink made of corn and honey which depending on how long is fermented can kick your ass after a couple of mouthfulls).

Although the kitchen now has a gas stove as well, they prefer to cook the old way, using wood, on a clay-made stove which believe it or not makes the food taste much better! After a late lunch we went for a tour of the farmland and showed B coffee, casava, plantains, mangoes, lemon and pineapple plantations.
As all things Colombian, no family reunion is complete without music and dancing. We salsa and reggaetoned until the wee hours of the evening.

I would have loved for us to stayed longer but time was against us. Nevertheless, it was great to have part of my family reunited in the farm like old times.

Comments:

Return to Home