More exploring

Since my last visit to el centro, I have been creating a list of all the things I want to see and do.  Surprise, suprise...so unlike me...
Anyhow, at 7:30am Juan Carlos and I hopped on a bus with list in hand and did not stop until 4:30pm when we got on a bus to head back home.  We covered quite a bit of ground and I forgot to take photos of everything!  (Too caught up in the moment!)

First stop:  La Puerta Falsa for the best tamal in Bogotá. Maybe the world.  

Tamal with chocolate and agua de panela accompanies by almojabana, queso, and pan.  This was NOT a light breakfast.

  

Next stop:  Juan Valdez.   La Puerta Falsa does NOT serve coffee, despite being in Colombia.  Loved the restaurant, but still needed the coffee.

Stop #3: BOOKSTORE!  Part of the Centro Cultural Gabriel García Márquez, this bookstore was BIG.  And not every book was wrapped in plastic, per usual, so I could actually peruse for real.  Delightful.

Stop #4:  Popped into La Casa de Moneda...but realized I'd already been.

Stop #5:  Another stroll through La Candelaria.  I just can't get enough.

La Candelaria - I love it!

Stop #6:  Break to try Chicha...at 10am.  Gross on multiple levels.  This is a fermented beverage made of maiz (corn).  It is very strong...and pretty terrible.  You could nurse this over a great conversation on a Friday evening...but on a Saturday morning it's best to take a few sips to say you tried it and dump the rest down the drain.  Thanks to my friend Hillary for telling me about this must-try...check.

Happy to be checking this item off my list.  Never again...well, never say never I suppose.

Stop #7: El parque de la independencia.  It was pretty cloudy and about to rain, so we didn't linger tool long.  Will need to return another day...with a good book.

Stop #8:  El Museo Nacional.  Definitely need Juan Carlos with me for this.  I had a lot of questions about the history and about the vocabulary. :)

The museum is in an old prison.  Absolutely gorgeous inside and out.

Stop #9:  La Macarena for lunch.  It was raining when we left the museum but I wanted to check out La Macarena...so we booked it with my tiny pink umbrella to a street filled with what all seemed like wonderful restaurants.  We chose the Mexican one.  I've been missing Texas a bit lately.

After lunch, the sun was out and on our way to bus I spotted this:
 

Seems fitting for the weekend...but certainly bizarre for the middle of Bogotá.

Great day...but I'm exhausted.

Tejo: A Colombian Sport

View from our home for the weekend. So peaceful.

Just returned from a long weekend in Moniquirá.  A small town in the departamento (like a state) of Boyacá but bordering the departamento of Santander.   Juan Carlos' friend Freddy invited us to drive up with him and stay with his family for the weekend.  So nice to have the invite and to get away - great food, plenty of time to sleep and relax, I read an entire book (Miss Peregrine's Home For Peculiar Children per Katie Norwood's recommendation) and I learned to play Tejo!!!

What, you might ask, is Tejo?  Tejo is a truly Colombia game (only second to soccer in popularity!) that I wish everyone had the chance to play.  It's kind of like horsehoes but with explosives! ...literally, explosives.  To play, first, you buy beer.  You don't have to pay for the canchas (courts, I guess is the best translation) or the time but you have to buy beer.  Funny rules these Colombians have, but this is a rule that I can live with.  (Also, this might just have been at the location we were playing...my guess is that in the big city of Bogotá they require you to buy beer AND to pay to play).  Anyhow, you get a tejo.  This is a round, flat disk (about an inch and a half thick) that weighs about 2 pounds.  This is what you throw at the target.  The target is a wooden box on an incline and the surface is covered with clay.  In the center, you place 4 mechas little paper rectangles filled with gunpowder (I think) or some sort of explosive material around the bocin - a metal circle.  The teams take turns to throw their tejos from 18 meters away (about 60 feet).  The person with the tejo that lands on the board closest to the bocin earns a mano for their team.  You can also earn 3 points by hitting a mecha.  You know when you've hit a mecha because the friction between the tejo, mecha (filled with gunpowder) and the metal bocin causes an explosion!  It's so fun!  But very difficult...I hit a mecha once and was SO excited!b

Here's a perhaps better description of the game by Wikipedia followed by pictures of my first Tejo experience.

The Tejo court and my target.

These are the mechas that are full of gunpowder.

 Action shots...I actually improved quite a bit...

...despite the fact that I look like I'm involved in some sort of interpretive dance!

Jazz al Parque

This weekend I finally got out of my house! :)

I went to Jazz al Parque with some friends from school to see John Scofield . The weather gods were in our favor - finally - and it stopped raining long enough for us to enjoy a picnic and listen to John play for about an hour and a half. I'm not sure I was supposed to bring in food or wine but my friends assured me if I just acted like I didn't know what the security people were saying when they checked my bags, they'd let me in.  I didn't really have to act.  They security guard asked me something about comida.  In English I responded, "I'm not allowed to have this?!"...and then he let me pass.  They then explained that it is considered very Latin to try and find a way to trick the system or get what you want out of a situation, and that can be bad...but in this situation for wine, cheese, crackers and fruit with our jazz, playing the clueless American was worth it. ;-)

(In the picture from left to right: Sandra and David.  They are married. David is a history teacher at my school.  Sandra teaches at another school.  They both speak English, Spanish and Chinese (Crazy!).  After living in China for a few years, they both understand the desire to learn a new language and so they are very helpful.  Next is another David.  David de musica.  He is a music instructor at the school. Next is Anita.  We actually ran into her at the concert.  She is a primary school teacher and rides on my bus with me.  She is very sweet.)


Afterward, we went to a low-key bar nearby a friends house and spent the night talking. It was very nice. Everyone speaks Spanish and English - and they are all very encouraging about my Spanish. We spoke Spanish for a large portion of the night but I think when they noticed me zoning out (because my brain was exhausted) we switched to English.

I feel very lucky to be at my school, because it is full of such kind people. We talked about taking some weekend and/or weekend trips to explore some different parts of the country (very exciting!). So hopefully will have some photos to share...sorry I haven't been better about taking photos. Eventually I will post photos of my school and students.