Colombia – Travel Diary #3 : Cheese Empanadas, National Day, & Finca

 

 

Hey !

I’m sorry I haven’t posted in a while, but it’s actually pretty hard to find some good internet connexion here ! And I haven’t had much time for blogging either, I’ve been very busy with all we’ve done lately ! But here I am now ?

▶ You can read the first parts of my Colombia Travel Diary series here :

• Travel Diary #1
• Travel Diary #2 : Breakfast, Witchcraft & Shopping !

 

The next day after Cali was a bit of a lazy day. We didn’t have a real rest day since we arrived here, so we had some rest that day.

 

 A Lazy Day :

Other than napping that day, we also ran some errands and went shopping for some food that we were missing, so we walked through the center of Popayán. I’m going to show you some pictures of the city.

Here’s my grandparents house, in the neighborhood you mostly enter the house through the garage, which is the main door :

 

 

This here is what some roads look like in Popayán, just dirt and stones (awful for heels obviously) :

 

 

You can often see some horses around, they’re not always someone’s property.

 

 

 

There were some new paintings on the walls, they weren’t there last year :

 

 

 

 

Here’s a church that was not finished because no one had enough money to do it. (Colombia in a nutshell) :

 

 

 

And here are some homemade Cheese Empanadas that my grandmother made for us that day ! :

 

 

➡ If you wish to find the recipe for some meat ones, click right here ⬅

 

Colombian National Independence Day !

The following day it was the 20^th of July, which is Colombia’s National day celebrating the independence of the country ! On that day, everyone puts the Colombian flag to their window, and most stores are Colombian flag themed. Here are some pictures to illustrate that :

 

 

 Family lunch :

For lunch we went to some other uncles and aunts’ home (in Colombia I have a huuuge ton of family members, we never manage to actually visit them all in a month). My grand cousin (I think ?) cooked for us, it was nice ! She made a delicious dessert made of lime jelly topped with milk strawberry jelly.

 

 

 Spending the afternoon at La Finca :

In Colombia many people have a Finca, which is a kind of house located outside of the city, mostly in the countryside. It can be a farm, with sometimes farm animals or cultivable plants. In my grandpa’s finca there are some sugar canes, banana, lemon, orange, mandarin, guava, and avocado trees, lemongrass, coffee plants, aloe vera plants and so much more things that grow there.

 

 

There is also a river down the hill where the houses of the finca are built, it’s a very big domain ! We use to swim there when it’s warm enough.

 

 

This place is a very important part of my childhood, I almost grew exploring all of its nature.

(My brother, appreciating the view) :

 

 

 

 

Here is the house my mother got from my grandfather, it was the original house and the only one of the finca at the beginning :

 

 

 

And here is the house of one of my uncles :

 

 

Also, this is a bit of a rant (sorry) but I’m a bit annoyed by another of my uncles who somehow decided a huge part of the finca was his only, and he went and put barriers everywhere around “his” part. It’s double the size every other of his brothers and sisters have. There were many other issues because of this, since he married his new wife. I’m not sure it’s exactly anyone’s fault, I just hope my uncle can reconsider and make peace with everyone again.

 

 

What would a family be without family drama right ?

 

Anyways ! Everyone can plant anything on the Colombian dark soil called “Terra Preta”, which is that fertile for several reasons :

• It is made out of carbon and rotten wood that Indians added to make the soil extremely fertile
• It is also said to be highly concentrated in Carbon 14, an element you can find into human bodies. It might be because the local Indians suffered massive voluntary and involuntary murders that this element is so concentrated there.

 

Here is a picture so you can see how dark is this particular soil ! :

 

 

 Night out ! :

The night we went out with one of my cousins, my brother and sister. We had the BEST burger ever at Home Burger, a restaurant that takes place in someone’s garage and house. It was sooo flavorful !

 

For the occasion I decided to wear some red lips and my snake top.

 

 

After dinner we went to have some beers with friends of my sister and cousin, they both have many friends here in Colombia since they lived here all their life (my sister came to France only when she was around 30 years old if I remember well). And then we went home not too late, we had a dentist appointment the next morning !

 

I hope this wasn’t a too long post, I realize we did many things on the 20th !

How did you like the pictures ? Are you on holiday too ?

 

 

Read The Next One Here :

COLOMBIA – TRAVEL DIARY #4 : DENTIST, FINCA LUNCH & GAMBLING GAMES