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Fish and Exploring the Town

Diego really likes fish. While walking to the Supermercado we were hooked into a little restaurant for lunch. A strong torrent of words describing different foods – mostly dishes I couldn’t even hope to translate – poured out of the waitress’s mouth and, in the end, I received baked chicken with lentils and rice, Ren got the same only fried, and Diego happily set himself to a big (whole) fried fish.

He especially liked playing with and then eating the eyes!

Yesterday we walked to Rio Magdalena, the most important river in all of Colombia. Last time we were here it really wasn’t that impressive as it was running pretty low. Not this time. We’ve had rain nearly every night and the rio was big, brown, and fast. The street we took to get there spit us out at the fish market. Wooden canoes filled with catfish looking, zebra striped 3 foot fish. Next to the fish market was a big log, barely on fire, with half a pig cooking on a metal spear. Very cool. On the way back we passed a Pentacostal church (lots of shouting) where all the men wore identical pink shirts. Two of them were dragging a rolled up mattress to the edge of a canal (where I suspect it will eventually end up in the Rio Magdalena). The scene struck me as odd, sort of like it was the start to an Elmore Leonard novel.  Oh, and a big iguana crawled out of the canal as well.

We tried to watch part of the Super Bowl, but Diego seemed to think football didn’t make much sense so we put on some Tom and Jerry cartoons. We didn’t get the commercials down here, so no big loss. Tom and Jerry is about as violent as American football anyway.

Today we decided to try and find the big San Pedro / Exito Plaza. This was the plaza were we ate hot dogs and rode rides with Chris and Mary and all the kids. It’s changed some. For one thing, all the rides are inside a tent now on the second floor of the mall. The walk was probably a good mile or more. We could see the Plaza from the top of our apartment, so we sorta winged the direction to head towards it and asked questions along the way.

We had to go to Exito because we over estimated on Diego’s clothing size. Many of the ropas that we brought are too large (although Nicholas’s stash of clothing fits the best…thanks Chris and Mary!). Clothing is expensive in Colombia (or at least it is in the dozen or so places we’ve looked) – so thank goodness there’s a washing machine in the apartment.

Anyway, the entire trip took up probably close to 3 hours – which made the day go by fast. He was tired by 8:00 and, after singing lullabies, fell right to sleep. Tomorrow’s the big day. The Bienestar crew comes at 8:00 am to check and see if we’re a functional family. I’d say the answer is a definitive yes.

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2 replies on “Fish and Exploring the Town”

What fun getting to know Diego, but also the cross cultural adventure you’re having. Your experiences give meaning to a world view of life. And d for you Zach it all started with Rotary. Keep them coming.

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