Bucaramanga

28/08/2011

The night bus was comfortable but FREEZING! The A/C was on and even with our jumper and rain jacket, we were cold. Apart from that the ride was nice and we were able to sleep from time to time. I was surprised by the movies they showed: all about the sexual exploitation and they were pretty violent even if we had a lot of kids in the bus.

We arrived at 6:18am at Bucaramanga and took another bus to go to the station “papi quiero pina” (grandpa, I want pineapple). There we met Carlos’ mother who brought us to her home where we are going to stay meanwhile visiting the region.  For those who don’t know, I introduce Carlos: he is a Columbian living with my parents since December I think. He was the Spanish assistant at my mum school and as he had a bad accommodation (and especially a bad roommate who didn’t know what “shower” or even “soap” mean) he moved to my parents’ house. He helped us a lot to organize our trip to Columbia and sent us contact of friends or family where we could stay. I thank him again for all he did!

Once home Gladys made us breakfast: scrambled eggs with typical bread and a delicious milkshake of strawberries with fresh fruits. She also made us try Sapote and typical fruits. It was very good.

After a quick shower –because we know what a shower is- we left the house to start discovering Bucaramanga. We went to the city center and walked around, we went to el Parque de la gobernación, el Parque del Agua and to the Mega mall.

 Carrefour "Chevere" = cool

 

 

 Parque del agua

 

 

 

 Where is the water coming from??

Then we headed to a little town called Gijon, a typical colonial style streets and houses.

 

We stopped there to have lunch and ate toooo much but it was so good that we felt bad leaving things on our plates :) Gladys made us try Truche and Rute. 

 

 

 

 

Back home around 3pm to have a nap. Yes we slept in the bus but it’s still no as resting as a good night in a bed. It was also the time for me to write my blog because if I delayed to much to do it I won’t have time after to write everything. I still don’t have internet (and I’m surviving^^) so I don’t know when I will post all the articles but I will.

Well at 6pm Gladys came and brought us a big plate of rice and milk. It was delicious but it was a LOT. She offered to take us to do a tour in the town, it was a good way to help digestion…except that we went to eat so didn’t help that much jajaja. We went and had the Obleas, typical food. Usually eaten as a desert with two pieces filled with arequipe, dulce de leche (milk caramel) and/or sweetened condensed milk in the middle. In some places they might contain cheese, fruits, chantilly cream, among others.

We wanted to share one with my dad as we were both very full but Gladys bought us one each. We tried the Strawberry-Arequipa and cheese, it was very good but, I must admit, a bit strange to have cheese and strawberry jam mixed together.

We then walked around Florida Blanca (the little town we are staying in, just next to Bucaramanga) and stopped at the main place where there were a lot of sellers and games for kids.

 

We stayed nearly an hour looking at a show of a clown. It was quite good even if twice he wouldn’t continue without getting an amount of pesos (money in Colombia) but we had a good time.

Gladys is very comical and asked us what we wanted to have for dinner… We went home, chatted a bit about what to see around and all went to bed.

Tomorrow: San Gil and Barichara