Colombia 2014

I'm writing this quite a bit after the trip. It's been a while. The reality is that I kinda' gave up on writing here. But recently I've been thinking of starting again.

Back five-plus years ago, the idea was to have a place to share what I was doing and also as a way to remember everything. It wasn't until this past week when I was searching for something that I came across a story I didn't remember writing so I started thinking about it more and more. When I read through the story, it brought back so much. Anyway, that's why I'm here again. I don't want to lose this stuff. I need to do some catching up.

Back in Colombia! I love it there. My third trip was a quick but good one - just two weeks this time. My flights took me from Barcelona through Miami and on to Bogota. It's amazing when you consider that I was on three continents within about 15 hours. The world is so small!

I'm not sure if I qualify as European now that I've been living outside the United States for over five years (!!!), but I can always spot other Americans in airports. A few years ago it was sweat pants (or pajamas) and Ugg boots. Now it's definitely yoga pants. It seemed like 50% of the females I saw during my stopover in Miami were wearing them.

This trip I spent just about half the time in Bogota and the other half in Chiquinquira where Diana's parents have a small farm house and 15 or so dairy cows. It's about three hours via car north of Bogota and it's paradise in so many ways.

Love it!

Even though it's a working farm, there's always time to enjoy the open space and fresh air with Diana's mom and dad, who still make the trip from Bogota a couple of times a month.

Having grown up in Philadelphia, my exposure to farm life was limited to an occasional school trip or a visit to Amish country. Turns out that I love the open space, the nature, and hanging out with the animals like this new-born calf. The gringo, cow, and sheep are all easy to spot but can you find the chicken?

One of the best parts of going "out to the farm" is spending some time in Chiquinquira's "downtown".

I'm sure for folks like Diana's parents who grew up there, the town's changed quite a bit but, for me, it feels like it's probably been mostly the same for a hundred years.

A shoe rack at a Chiquinquira farm-supply store:

Of course I had to stop by one of my favorite businesses to buy arepas while we were in town. Arepas are sort of like a solid, made-from-corn-meal English muffin. I prefer the ones from the Boyaca region of Colombia because they (often) have cheese in the middle. The ones from the place below (the woman standing in the doorway - that's the entire shop - can you say low overhead!) are heated on a small charcoal grill.

And there's no way I could travel all the way there and not eat longaniza in Sutamarchan. Longaniza-picada selfie with Diana and her mom:

Finally, I thought I'd share this picture of one of the cows that always gets down on her knees (are they knees?) to reach under the electrical wire to eat grass. The wire, which keeps the cows from trampling all the grass, gets moved a few feet each morning. The funny thing is that there's plenty of untrampled grass to eat but maybe she believes the grass is greener on the other side?

Thanks again to Diana's parents and family for the wonderful visit (and luxurious new bed!). Oh, and sorry there are no photos from Bogota. Definitely next time!

What's Colombian Food Like? (Part 2)

For some reason while thinking about writing this story yesterday, my friend Armando in Germany popped into my head and I could hear his voice saying "Your blog's mostly about food, right?" I'd like to think not but, in his honor, and as a way to thank Diana's mom and dad for all the great food we ate together in Colombia, here's Part 2 of my ode to Colombian food! (And, if you're interested, you can read the first one I wrote a little while ago.)

Note that these food photos aren't in any particular order...

First up is a photo that I used in the story about visiting Tierra Caliente near Bogota a couple of months ago. Diana's friend Angelica's in-laws own a small second home out there and they served us up this Sancocho stew (on the right), which has yucca, plantain (non-sweet banana), and corn all grown in their garden along with (cow) meat, pork, potato, and cilantro. The other plate has rice, avocado (also grown in their garden), and gallo (rooster) leg and thigh meat. The small bowl is filled with home-made aji (Colombian salsa), which was delish! Oh, and this was just my serving of lunch!

For desert that day, they served Jalea de Guayaba (guava sauce) along with a serving of soft, homemade (farmer) cheese. It's a strange (for me) combination even if I've had it before many times but it makes for a great dessert.

Probably my favorite Colombian food, other the Bandeja Paisa, is Ajiaco (ahh-hee-ahh-koh), which is a potato-based soup that has corn, chicken, and avocados in it. Ajiaco is a local-Bogota specialty and this version, which Diana's mom made, also has cream poured in it and is topped with capers. Just looking at this photo makes my mouth water!

While we were out in Chiquinquira with my dad, we stopped at a nearby Piqueteadero restaurant, which we had gone to before with Diana's folks. Piquetear basically means "chopped" and all the food is served chopped into small pieces that are often eaten with a toothpick. It's always some combination of carne asada, sausages including Morcilla (Spanish blood sausage), potatoes, arepas, and sometimes some other ingredients mixed in. It's not the healthiest of meals, I'm told, but who cares! It's definitely one of the best meals in Colombia.

Thank you but aren't you going to order something for yourself???

Diana's mom makes a homemade picada that uses only ingredients from the neighborhood markets. She often fries up chorizo, which is doubly evil. I think she'd cook this every day if I wanted since she knows that I love it but I'm sure that I'd weigh 400 pounds within six months and my blood would look something like poutine...

When we drive out to the farm in Chiquinquira, we sometimes stop for breakfast in a small town called Ubate and eat in the main plaza. They have a bunch of independently-owned stall restaurants each with picnic-style tables and chairs. To a foreigner (like me), they're a bit sketchy looking and they make you wonder if it's okay to eat there. But, just like in most places in the world, the street food's often the best.

One of the stands sells a corn-based Mute stew that's to die for. We took my dad there when he was in town and he was a bit apprehensive due to the setting but I think he enjoyed the flavor. This Mute is made with "cold country" corn (not that I'd know the difference but it's supposedly not as good as "warm country" corn - whatever) and is made with cow's foot (yes, cow's foot - damn good!), peas, carrots, and potatoes. It's definitely one of my favorite Colombian foods. When we go, I usually order TWO bowls!

I have to admit that, when we go out to a restaurant, I usually order a Bandeja Paisa since it's so addictive. But one day Diana pushed me to order something different so I asked the waiter what he recommended and he said the Costilla de Cerdo (pork ribs). This one was awesome! It had pork-rib meat that was super tender and it was covered with Hogado sauce, which is sorta' like a Mexican-style chunky salsa that's served warm, along with rice, peas, corn, yucca, avocado, and platano.

(Diana just looked over my shoulder at the photo below and asked me how I could show her photos of this delicious food around dinner time. Funny!)

That's it for my overview of Colombian food as I left Bogota last week. Again, just like last time, a big thank you to Diana's entire family for taking care of my every need while I was there (even ones I didn't know I had). Diana's mom and dad were awesome and made it super difficult to leave.

Fidu - I'll miss your company, your amazing food, and your eternal patience with my laughable Spanish. Juaco - I'll miss our walks around the neighborhood and our daily coffee klatch. To Diana's 152 brothers and sisters, you guys are awesome even if I haven't learned all your names yet! (That's a joke by the way.) Thanks for looking after me and making sure that I'm happy!

I'll leave this post and my most recent trip to Colombia with this photo of us buying Aromaticas in the street a couple of months ago. Aromaticas are a fruit-based drink that have different spices added. They're sorta' like a sweet version of mulled spice wine but without the wine, if that makes sense. I remember this day being particularly nice and that we had a fun time.

Ciao Fidu, Juaco, y toda la familia! Muchas, muchas gracias y nos vemos pronto! Les voy a extrañar!

Dad Visits Colombia!!! (Part 2)

This is part two of my dad's visit to Colombia. To read part one, click here.

After the cows were milked and, perhaps, a quick nap, the five of us (me, my dad, Diana, and her folks) went into Chiquinquira town. It was mostly a quick trip around a couple of pedestrian-only streets, a couple of churches, and a few shops. My dad had wanted to check out a local supermarket while he was in Colombia to see what they were like. We went to a small supermarket that's in one of the plazas and he bought some local drinking chocolate to take back to the United States.

While we were walking, an extremely well-behaved dog started following my dad, including waiting like 20 minutes for us while we were in the supermarket. We couldn't believe it. Before going back home, we stopped at a bakery and got some bread and snacks including a treat for my dad's new dog (no, he didn't take it home with him but I'm sure it'll wait for him until my dad returns one day).

The next morning Diana's parents needed to go back into town to take care of some farm business. My dad went with us and while they were in their meeting, we checked out the central market. He might be a little hard to spot because of his camouflaged outfit but that's my dad towards the right side of the photo in the yellow shirt blending in with the Colombian bananas and other fruit:

To celebrate Diana's birthday, we drove "down the hill" towards Villa de Leyva to have lunch in Sutamarchan. Sutamarchan is basically a tiny village at an intersection of two roads where an industry of small piqueteadero restaurants have popped up. Piqueteada means chopped and they all serve some combination of (chopped-up) local sausages called longaniza, blood sausages, chicharone (fried pig skin), yucca, mazorca (a type of corn), plantains (a non-sweet banana), and some other items on big-ole' platters. It's probably not the healthiest of foods - there's certainly no RDA guidelines - but it's damn good.

Me and dad in front of the La Fogata piquetadero in Sutamarchan:

After lunch, we made the trip back to Bogota and all slept like babies that night. Sunday was, sadly, dad's last full-day in Colombia. Before he arrived, there was only one thing he wanted to see (besides a supermarket) while here - Tequendama Falls. Diana and I were just there a couple of weeks ago with her best friend from growing up but we were happy to go back.

We saved Tequendama for our last day because we would have to drive across the entire city of Bogota to get there and we figured that Sunday would have the least amount of traffic. Well, we were partly right. It took us just under two hours  :-o  to make the trip that, distance-wise, would take about 40 minutes or less if there was a freeway/autobahn and/or no traffic.

We lucked out because it had been raining (quite heavily) in the days before so the waterfall was flowing heavily. The weather was partly cooperative in that it wasn't raining but it was a bit cloudy. What was extra cool was there was mist rising from the falls:

Oh, and the corn-on-the-cob Diana's eating? She's addicted to it. When we pulled up, the first word out of her mouth was mazorca (roasted corn on the cob) because a woman right next to where we were parked was selling it. Diana's never met a mazorca she'd didn't like!

Family self-portrait at El Salto Tequendama, Bogota, Colombia:

After visiting the falls, we continued driving down the hill for about 30 minutes so my dad I could check out the tropical scenery. We stopped at this road-side stand to buy some fruit and snacks to take back to Bogota. I love how rich this photo is with all the fruit and colors, but wait, is that a motorcycle and dog on the roof???

Why, yes it is! I walked across the street to get a better perspective of the fruit stand, the second floor, the and mountain behind it. It was more like an illusion as there's a small dirt road off to the left leading up to the "second level", which is a bit farther back than the first level. Still, a lovely scene - I could so live in place like this. Oh, and those damn tropical mini (finger) bananas are addictive!

We got back to Bogota just in time for dinner with the extended family and to celebrate Diana's birthday with a "ponque" (punk-kay), which, I believe, is a Spanglish for "pound cake". Feliz cumpleaños morenita!

It was great to have my dad come visit. I enjoyed it immensely and I think he did too. Actually, I think that he was surprised at how much he did. I'm hoping that he'll come back with us one day soon. After all, Diana's family seems to approve of him - their Go/No-Go criteria is how their dog Rises feels about you. I think we all can guess the answer:

__________________
Epilogue

Our hero's journey wasn't without its bumps. When we got to the Bogota airport for my dad's flight home, after about an hour in the check-in line(!!!), we found out that it had been delayed by 50 minutes. Since his connection was just over an hour, it looked likely that he might not make it (since he had to pass through immigration and customs first) but the airline sent him on to Florida anyway. My dad was a bit frustrated but what can you do? He ended up making it to his connecting gate in Florida before the doors were closed but the flight had been oversold so he would spend the night.

The airline really took care of him. He spent the night at a ("very nice") local Holiday Inn and had a ("delicious") free dinner where he ate with some other stranded passengers. Their war stories were far worse than what my dad was experiencing so his mood picked up. In the morning, he took a $130 (free-to-him) taxi ride to an airport in another city for his flight home, which was uneventful.

I feared calling my dad that day because I was afraid the delays might have ruined the whole trip for him. Quite the contrary when I finally did talk with him. He was so incredibly positive about the entire experience and how he learned and enjoyed so much. The trip to Colombia was great. The family was super nice. Where we stayed and what we did were great. The people were friendly. Even the more-than-24-hour journey home ended up being a great experience in the end. Odysseus had indeed made it home. I think he even said something about his next international trip! The question is where do we go next???

Dad Visits Colombia!!! (Part 1)

Wonders never cease!

I would have never in a million years thought that my dad would come to Colombia. It never even occurred to ask like I did probably 20-or-so times while we were in Germany. See, my dad's not a big traveler and never has been. He prefers his trips to be on the order of maybe four or five days (like to Wildwood, for example), which rules out the majority of international travel. He ends up traveling, for the most part, "only" to come visit me (where ever I am in the world). He and my mom visited me once when I lived in Ensenada, Mexico, (a big wow at the time) and he came to Barcelona twice, once for vacation and a second time with my family for the wedding. So he does get around a bit just not too often.

So imagine my surprise when my dad asked me innocently back in late December how long we'd be in Bogota. I told him that I didn't know. After the conversation, I turned to Diana and said that I think my dad wants to come to Colombia. Knowing my dad, she almost fell out of her chair but we immediately set into motion the planning just in case he decided to come down from Philadelphia.

Well, this past week, my dad arrived into Bogota's El Dorado airport! Woo-hoo! I'm not sure but I think that Diana's family was even more excited for his visit than I was. Of course, our first order of business was a big welcome lunch of Bandeja Paisa at a local Colombian-specialty restaurant with Diana's mom and dad:

Since Diana's parents couldn't make it to the wedding, it was the first time that our parents had a chance to meet. To make sure that he properly set expectations, my dad immediately let everyone know that he's a fun guy (or fungi as he says) and likes to play games:

His first night in town was spent hanging out at the family house for a few hours before we headed over to Diana's brother's apartment, which we'd be using as our home base while he was in Bogota. (A big thanks to Diana's brother, niece, and nephew for uprooting themselves and allowing us to use their place! Muchas gracias!!!)

We decided that it'd be best to spend the first full day exploring downtown Bogota including Plaza Bolivar and the cathedral (if you look closely, just to the left of the cathedral is la Casa del Florero, where Colombia's independence movement began):

as well as nearby Montserrate. Note the La Moreneta statue in the background. The church where Diana and I were married has almost the exact same statue. Oh, and the Catalan flag (on the right) is a nice touch too!

My dad and Diana checking out the view of downtown Bogota (elevation ~8500 feet) from the top of Montserrate (elevation ~10,000 feet):

Our day in the city center was cut a little short due to some rain and it being Bogota's annual day without cars. We were afraid that the Transmillenio buses would be super Trans-millena! Millena means full. :-)  So it was back to the apartment for a Diana home-cooked meal and an early night.

The second full day was spent going out to Chiquinquira to visit the farm and possibly milk some cows. On the way, we stopped just outside Bogota in Zippaquira at the Cathedral de Sal (Salt Cathedral). You can read my old story but, basically, it's a church that's been built in the previously-mined spaces of an active salt mine. The sense of scale and being under ground make it an unusual but well-worthwhile stop. That cross in the background is like 50 feet tall!

If you know my dad, you'll know that he loves to use bathrooms everywhere he goes. I think he's marking his territory or something. So, here's my dad in the Baño de Sal (salt bathroom):

We had a quick lunch in the main plaza of the small town of Ubate (oo-bah-TAY). There are maybe ten small restaurants there where you can get a bunch of different meals and our normal M.O. is to stop there for breakfast. Most opted for the Mute (moo-tay), which is a local stew. What this photo doesn't show is the "rustic-ness" of the restaurant including pots, which look like they were stolen from the local prison, on its wood-fired stove.

We arrived at the farm just in time for the afternoon milking and lucked out that the rain held off. Dad checking out the action:

Looking back on my dad's visit, I think he enjoyed Chiquinquira most. It's a bit "rustic" but I'm guessing the relaxed setting, beautiful scenery, and charming town won him over. Diana, Diana's mom, and my dad outstanding in their field:

A couple of hours later, we headed into town to walk around. It was Friday night and the place was jumping. My dad even made a friend while there! Check out Part 2 (coming soon) to read about the rest of my dad's visit.

Depends On Your Perspective

The neighborhood where we lived in Barcelona, Poble Sec, was amazing. We had everything a person could need within a block or two (at most) and many of the businesses were open until very late. In addition, the whole world lived there. You can stand in front of our old place and, in about 15 minutes or so, hear probably half the languages spoken. Seriously. The downside was that it was busy, really busy, and noisy, all the time. But, to tell you the truth, I can probably count on one hand the number of times that I couldn't sleep or was awoken by noise. My guess is that I just had built up some kind of tolerance.

I can remember being awoken a few times by noise in Stuttgart though. Even though the neighborhood we lived in, Vaihingen, was basically deserted during both the day and night, it wasn't the people (or cars or trains for that matter) that woke us up. It was the damn birds that hung out in the tree outside our window each morning to welcome daylight. Yes, I could sleep through a couple of million people squeezed into a tiny square next to the Mediterranean but I couldn't handle birds.

So now we're in Bogota. And, this time? First, since you can read about the other places we were living in the blog archives, a little background is probably good so that you can have an idea about our current neighborhood.

Diana and her family used to live in another area of Bogota called Kennedy (yes, after JFK) but her parents bought a lot in the northern end of the city in Prado Veraniego a little more than 30 years ago and built a house. The neighborhood grew up around them and is basically now heavily commercial (mainly retail). It's not a bad area though. Mostly it's small, independent, and/or family owned businesses with many of the owners living above the store fronts. It's a mix of mostly car-repair and car-parts shops but there are also a bunch of "neighborhoody" shops like restaurants, bakeries, butchers, salons, etc. Much like Poble Sec, almost everything a person could need is within a couple of blocks

It really comes alive between 7:30 and 8:00 am each morning. This was taken about 3:00 pm on the street that runs in front of their house. In it, you can see a bunch of cars on the street, the businesses open, employees in the streets, a food cart on the corner (look below the no-parking sign to the rear of the red car), and cars being worked on.

The neighborhood is definitely not as quiet as Vaihingen but there's more to offer within a two-or-three minute walk. What's most amazing to me is what happens around 6:30 pm each night. The whole neighborhood shuts down. The cars and people disappear, the metal shop doors are lowered, everything goes silent.

For what it's worth, Prado's much more like Poble Sec during the day and Vaihingen at night. So, what's the problem? Occasionally, during the night, I've been woken up by someone walking through the neighborhood blowing a whistle. Not whistling. Using a whistle like a sports coach would use. A handful of nights went by and I was getting frustrated. One day when I finally remembered, I asked Diana's dad if he knew what was up with the whistle person making noise all night. He looked at me with even more confusion than he normally does with my not-so-good Spanish and asked "what noise?". I tried again and this time he got it. "That's not noise. That's the neighborhood association's security guard. We have him whistle so we know he's there."

Doh! My noise is his sense of security. Learning something new every day.

Bogota's Disco Taxi

Taxis are relatively cheap in Bogota, costing somewhere between $4 and maybe $7 U.S. depending on how far (more to cross the city). Contrast that with the bus, for example, which costs like $0.75 U.S. per person and you can see that it's a bit more expensive to take a taxi.

Even though taxis are convenient, they have a couple of drawbacks. For one, the Transmillenio buses have their own lanes, which allow them to cruise past Bogota's massive parking lot (a.k.a. traffic). Also, I (sometimes) feel safer taking the bus because taxi drivers tend to drive like the car's on fire and they need to drop us off before they can put it out. The reality, though, is that most taxi rides here are at most, "exciting", and normally, uneventful.

Although Diana and I usually try to take mass transit or walk pretty much everywhere we go, one night last week we decided to take a taxi back to the house from the local shopping mall. What we didn't know was that we had entered The Twilight Zone Bogota's disco taxi:

The taxi driver had blue LED lights throughout the car that were synchronized with the (loud) music he was playing. It reminded me of that TV show Cash Cab because, getting in, what you encountered was not what you expected. Our entire trip lasted two or maybe three songs during which I took a bunch of really dark and blurry photos before trying video:

It's definitely not Cash Cab (we didn't win any money), but Bogota's disco taxi was certainly an experience. If you're in Bogota, maybe you'll be "fortunate" enough to experience it too. Just look for the flashing lights and/or listen for the bumpin' music...

The Vase That Gave Birth To Colombia

Imagine coming across a box of tea from the Boston Tea Party. I did when wondering around a museum in the center of Bogota last week. Well, actually it wasn't a box of tea but its Colombian equivalent - a flower vase. Diana checking out the Florero de Llorente:

If you're not up on your United States history, the Boston Tea Party wasn't really a party but rather a protest in 1773 Boston where the colonists protested what they saw as unfair British taxes. The colonists boarded a ship full of tea in the Boston Harbor and threw the tea overboard. This act is seen as one of the things that led to the American Revolution.

In much the same way, an event in 1810 "instigated" by the Florero de Llorente (the Llorente flower vase) symbolizes the eventual separation of Colombia from Spain. A close-up of the Colombian-independence vase:

From what I understand, a group of Creole (Colombian-born Spaniards) separatists went to borrow the vase from Llorente who was a cranky local Spanish merchant with a shop located across from Bogota's main plaza. They knew that the request to use the vase as the centerpiece at a dinner celebration of another local Creole would be rejected by a "real" Spaniard. Once the rejection was received, the Creoles would spread out in the plaza and begin to fire up the locals against the Spanish. As part of the ruse, another Creole verbally attacked Llorente, which led to a fist fight between Llorente and the Creole outside Llorente's shop.

The image of the fist fight over a flower pot, which I photographed of the souvenir post card the museum gave out, is now iconic of the Colombian independence movement:

So yes, Colombia eventually got its independence because of a relatively ugly flower vase rather than some tea thrown into a bay. As the term Tea Party has been adopted by a rightist political group in the U.S., I wonder if Colombia will ever have something like the Florero party?

The view from Llorente's shop's balcony, which you can see in the above painting, overlooking Bogota's Plaza Bolivar:

Casa de Nariño (The Colombian White House)

A couple of days after our visit to the Colombian National Congress building, we visited the Casa de Nariño, which is where the president of Colombia lives and works. It's a similar to what the White House is for the United States. This is the view of the front of the house looking from the National Congress building next door:

You need an appointment to visit, which you can get by sending an email somewhere apparently. Anyway, it looked like the first available appointment would be the week after New Years but they contacted us a couple of days later to tell us that they had an opening last Sunday. It wasn't until the day of our visit that I found out that the Bogota soccer team (The Millionaires) was playing against the Medellin soccer team in the national final later that afternoon so there were probably a bunch of cancellations.

We arrived at the recommended 15 minutes early and signed in. The guard checked our IDs against the list and we waited along with about ten other people for our tour. I was very surprised when our guide, a super-fast-talking soldier, led us in the door without us having to go through a metal detector or even a pat-down. Could you imagine entering pretty much any major public building in the U.S., much less something like the White House, without going through a metal detector? I honestly expected a full rectal exam but we hardly even got a second look. It's not to say there was no security though - we were accompanied by another, larger soldier that didn't seem like he'd put up with any bad behavior. :-)

Unfortunately, you can't take a camera, cell phone, or even a purse (for the women or Euro guys) so I don't have any other photos. Trust me, though, when I say that it's by far the cleanest place in the entire country of Colombia. Even the dirt in the planters outside the building was clean - I checked!

The tour takes you through one wing of the house, which is named for Don Antonio Nariño who originally translated France's Declaration of Human Rights for use during the Colombian independence movement. The building and its furnishings are basic European castle styling with its share of old fittings and artwork. One of the highlights for me was seeing an awesome Fernando Botero original painting in one of the rooms.

Unlike our visit to the Congress building, I didn't have a meetup with anyone famous. I was hoping to see the president but he was probably at some swanky party getting ready to watch the big game. By the way, Bogota ended up winning, which was a big deal since they hadn't won the national championship in something like 25+ years (Philadelphia fans can sympathize...).

Touring The Colombian Capital Building

After the first few days of me being in Colombia again visiting with her family and eating too much of her mother's food, Diana planned for us to do tours of a couple of Bogota and national-government buildings.

Bogota is the capital of Colombia and all of the major government buildings are either on, or within a few blocks of, the Plaza Bolivar, which is the historical center of the city. The first tour we took was of the Lievano building, which is the French-style building to the right of the Christmas tree and the second was at the National Capital building, which is to the left of the Christmas tree:

Colombia's been trying to be more open and available to its citizens and one of the things that it's done is to open many of the government buildings to the public by offering tours. The Lievano building tour didn't end up being too interesting. It houses the offices of the Bogota-city government and the tour only covered the central courtyard and didn't go inside the building at all. It'd probably have been much more interesting if the women's prison, which was there prior to this building, was still open and had tours...

Our second tour was of the Capitolio Nacional (National Capital), which is the Colombian equivalent of the U.S. Capital in Washington, D.C. Perhaps following the influence of Antoni Gaudi and his Sagrada Familia, construction started in 1848 and finished in 1926.

The stone capital building, like its United States counterpart, serves as the offices and meeting places for both houses of congress. The Colombian senate has 102 representatives, 100 of which come from a single national ballot (I so wanted to write ballet instead!), and the remaining two representing the indigenous peoples.

The Colombian House of Representatives currently has 166 members, which are elected based on a formula that includes a minimum per department (state) plus a factor for population. As the population of Colombia increases, the number of representatives increases. The representatives meet in the room below, which has a mural by Santiago Martinez Delgado showing the founding of Colombia. The mural, which was politically charged at the time of its creation, is one of the highlights of the tour.

It was kinda' fun to watch the congressional proceedings. There were a couple of people paying close attention to the speeches that were being given but, for the most part, people were (loudly) having conversations, drinking coffee, looking at their smartphones, or just walking around. It wasn't as chaotic as when they show something from England but it wasn't nearly as orderly I expected...

Diana doing her best to look like an elected official working on official government business:

The tour was great and led by an excellent guide who seemed to allow us a lot of freedom. At one point, we had the chance to use the congressional bathrooms!

The final part of the tour took us through the tunnel that connects the Capital building to the congressional offices across the street. While our guide was summarizing, one of the more popular and approachable senators (or so I was told) who was also formerly the president of the senate (sort of like Joe Biden is currently in the U.S.), Aurelio Iragorri Hormaza, stopped to talk to our group. Our guide told him a little about the group (mostly Colombians, a couple of Dominicans, and me) and he immediately singled me out and started asking me about California. We spoke for about a minute and I was able to get my photo with him. Super cool!

I actually learned quite a bit about the Colombian government on the tour and would recommend taking it. Bonus if you get your photo with a senator!