A love and friendship affair with chocolate

Love and Friendship Day is a Colombian equivalent to commercialized St. Valentine’s Day in North America. We are unsure on the specific date of La Dia de Amor y Amistad, we have heard anything from the 17th to the 20th of September, but it really doesn’t matter because it is celebrated all week long. Also, we are not sure if this is a Colombian holiday or a Paisa (the nickname of the people and region around Medellin) holiday. One thing we know for sure is this is the big week for “friends and lovers”. Billboards, commercials on tv, and store window displays are all focused on spending more money to show you really care. And the National Chocolate Company has aisle long displays in most grocery stores.

This being our first exposure to La Dia de Amor y Amistad we may have many misconceptions but this is the way we understand it. The first day of love and friendship was around 20 years ago and is the US equivalent to the Hallmark Valentines day. However, as we have explained before any little thing deserves a celebration so, love and friendship should be entitled to a full week of partying. When February comes around there is still a St. Valentine’s Day. But being a Catholic country, the day is more devoted to the teachings, actions, and miracles of Saint Valentine.

The most important thing we have learned during this week of love and friendship has not been a reflection on the importance of our relationship and how lucky we are to have found each other. Instead we have discovered Colombian chocolate. Nothing we have ever tried in the States has compared to the quality and taste of Colombian Chocolate. Heather has been lucky enough to be showered with chocolates from her students all week long and has quickly become addicted to the rich, dark, unsweetend melt in your mouth flavor. Colombian chocolate is rumored to rival the Swiss and French markets with its unique nutty, bitter taste. This is not the best cooking chocolate we have been told. However, is best as a drink or in small bites. (Sean, not being a fan of dark chocolate is sticking to the hot chocolate variety.)

So, as we sit with a warm cup of hot Colombian chocolate in our hands we would like to wish all of our friends and family out there: Feliz Dia De Amor y Amistad.

Cable cars and Escobars

Sean here. Heather is taking classes at school this weekend (to go towards her Master’s degree) and so I was left on my own. Alex, fellow teacher, and his visiting son, Sandro, and I took in an adventure, visiting both the far northern and southern parts of the city. Medellin is the only city in Colombia to have a metro system, and so we went to check it out. I bought a ticket good for 10 trips for 10,000 pesos – roughly US$5. This gives you access to any length trip on the relatively new metro system, which has one main line, north to south, through the city. The stations, cars, and ride rival any train system I’ve been on, including Japan and London. Super clean, very safe, and quite smooth and comfortable.

We first went north, through downtown, and transferred onto the cable car system. This takes you up into a poorer area of town, maybe 2 miles up the side of the mountain. There were three cable car stations, and we exited at the last of these. Surrounding the station, and the entire hillside, were residential shacks, intermixed with corner stores and tiny restaurants. The streets immediately surrounding the station appeared to be very new, nicely paved with small parks for children. We found a restaurant that was crowded, usually a good sign. However, it turned out that this was the local hangout for middle-aged gentlemen card games. No food, so we ordered drinks. Still hungry, we asked the owner where a good place to eat would be. She sent us with a customer, who took us to a hole-in-the-wall roasted chicken place. For 4,000 pesos (about US$2) I had the ¼ chicken plate – chicken leg and breast, small cooked and salted potatoes, and flatbread – and a Coke. Best chicken I’ve had in a while.

We were very impressed with the existence of the cable car system. We were there on a Saturday, and were the only people around that appeared to be tourists – Colombian or foreign. There wasn’t any real pull for a tourist to go, except to experience the cable car itself. Therefore, I have to conclude that the cable car was constructed for the benefit of the people who live there, as transportation. Very commendable. In the States, this would have only existed in the richer neighborhoods.

After lunch, we returned to the metro line, and headed south to the last stop – Itagui. We had heard that Pablo Escobar’s tomb lay near. The taxi driver said it was about 5 minutes away, and as we sped off he went on about how great Pablo was, that he used to work where Pablo lived and had talked to him, etc. Escobar pumped a lot of money into this city, and many people loved him for it. However, very few people in the upper social classes escaped his wave of kidnappings, murder, and terror. For example, our HR director’s uncle was kidnapped during Pablo’s prime, lucky to be returned for a heavy ransom.

Pablo’s grave is not a grand as I expected, just a slightly larger-than-normal plot with a bit more decoration and flowers than most. His brother and other family members lay nearby. His gravestone lists only name and dates. After resting in the cool breeze, sitting on Pablo’s viewing bench, we hailed a cab and returned home.

This post is really selfish

We are curious. Who is reading this blog? So, if you please, if you are reading this post, could you please drop us an e-mail (over there in the right hand column) and let us know who you are and where you're from? Friends, family, total stranger? Who are you?