Columbian Style

I realize that I am a little behind the times by blogging about our trip to Columbia over a month after returning. But in my defense, April was a very crazy month in the Smart household. But I won’t get into that here.

I’m sure the pictures from our phones don’t quite do the trip justice, but we did have a great time. Christine took some much better pictures and posted them on our Colombia: Bogota & Medellin SmugMug page. Aside from visiting with some very good friends, my favorite parts of the trip were the amazing food, bike tour of Bogotá, and playing in the pool in Medellin with Helena.  We literally stayed in the pool for over 3 hours and even past bedtime because we were having so much fun. Having never experienced her having an interest in the pool for more than half an hour, this was a huge shock to me. This has a really looking forward to the summer and keeping my fingers crossed she won’t mind the salt water at the ocean.

If you have never tried an Arepa, add it to your bucket list right now! Just thinking of it right now makes my mouth water. Allison and Dave made sure we ate like kings and queens of old. Frankly I have no idea how I did not gain 10 pounds. Perhaps dodging potholes and taxis burned more calories than I would’ve expected.

One of our favorite things to say on the trip whenever we ran into something strange or unexpected was “Colombian Style”. It’s hard to explain, but perhaps a few examples…

Colombian Style means…while driving in Bogotá, blinkers are optional and generally discouraged.

Colombian Style is…Speeding up when there are pedestrians in the street. We are pretty sure that you really do get points for hitting them.

Colombian Style means…It’s perfectly fine to go to a 10 PM concert that doesn’t actually start until closer to 11:45. p.m.

Colombian Style means…Traffic lanes can be completely ignored. In fact weaving around cars and dodging potholes, while also not using the blinker, could be a national sport.

Colombian Style is… Almost every taxi driver that hears you speak English will try to get a few extra pesos out of you. Just go with it though, it only costs an extra $.25 or so.

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