On Friday, Dec. 23, Luella and I headed for Ciudad Bolivar. That's the town where my grandparents lived and my parents grew up. So while my grandmothers are no longer there to greet us, both of my "grandmothers' houses" are there. However, this is not the the Hallmark card version of the song, rather the Colombian version - the river is the Rio Cauca (and San Juan, Bolivar, & Farallon) and the woods are bamboo forests.
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| Woods |
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| River |
On Friday night and Christmas Eve, we stayed at my cousin Rodrigo's "finca" in Los Farallones. His farm is a beautiful weekend farm that consists of 1.2 acres. However, that's enough room to fit seven pastures for ten cows, two feed growing lots, one banana orchard, one food garden, and a beautiful farm house. While they have DirecTV, it is more fun watching the real version of the Animal Planet. In this case, it consists of a gnarly tree stump where they put semi-peeled bananas. That attracts dozens of birds of all shapes and sizes. It is mesmerizing to sit on the porch and watch the beautiful birds flutter around.
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| Rodrigo's finca house |
I've often told many of you that Christmas in Colombia is not "Silent Night" nor "All is calm . . ." It's a night for music, fun, jokes, and laughter. Our Christmas Eve festivities started with the final night of the "Novena al Niño Jesus" (complete with plastic Santa Claus maracas keeping the beat during the refrain/response). We then did the Secret Santa gift exchange. In our case, we had to give clues of our gift recipient until everyone guessed who it was. (My aunts and cousins did a costume contest at their house in Medellin, where everyone had to dress up like their gift recipient.) We then grilled some meat and chased it down with Aguardiente (complete with shot glass charms so nobody would lose their shot glasses).
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| Animal Planet |
On Christmas Day, everyone relaxed, took naps, and after lunch my parents, Luella, and I headed to Tierra Grata, our friend Jorge Gonzalez's farm in Ciudad Bolivar. We spent Christmas evening by going to 6:00 p.m. Mass, walking around the plaza, admiring the beautiful lights, and of course sitting at the "mesitas" (little tables in the plaza) having Rum & Quattro drinks.
Our Colombian family and friends could not have been more welcoming and kind. While we missed our family and friends back home, we had a wonderful time and were blessed to celebrate the birth of the baby Jesus in such a wonderful place.
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| Secret Santa Colombian-style |
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| Tierra Grata |
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| Plaza in Ciudad Bolivar |
1 comment:
Luis and Luby are gorgeous people. Medellin, Ciudad Bolivar, Colombia, our Home, are always your house. Come again as soon as you can, so, you have Visa, passport and Colombian "cedula" , you don't have an excuse.
I loved to read every things in your blog.
See you
Yova
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