favorites::

1- getting a full tour of the city of baranquilla with my cousin and her crazy driving, all while praying the car didn’t die on us in the middle of an intersection.

2- spending the day with the entire beach to ourselves, and just talking on the mattress huts and taking silly pictures

3- the amazing discovery of coco limeades.

4- seeing all the old photos of my family growing up

5- dancing rumba until 4am with the locals. i didn’t stand a chance.

6- when my cousin yelled at the bartendar across the beach that if he gave us tap water instead of bottled, she would return us to him herself where we could get diarrhea at HIS house. (thanks for that, monica :-) )

the theme of the next few days was :: family. we paused our backpacking ways for a bit to meet the family in colombia i didn’t even know existed!  it was quite the experience to see how they live, weird that my cousin monica could be my  mom’s twin sister, and unreal that there is this whole crazy colombian family of mine so far away…that could be an exact replica of the family i have and am close with in the US. the way they all interact, all yelling over each other, teasing each other, no one being able to get a word in….there are 3 girl cousins all close….just like me and my 2 other cousins who are super close…..doing the same things we do and making the same jokes as we do. i just sat there amazed that apparently my family is all crazy…whether it’s my US family or my colombian family!

we started out in baranquilla where my mom and all my aunts and uncles grew up. i met for the first time, my cousin monica, and we got to stay at her house….where she showed us how they do it in barranquilla :)

first stop….the beach…where they have mattresses to sleep in and were we discsovered coco limeades. oh i how i miss coco limeades…

the storyboard below sums up our second day. running errands all over barranquilla….to the post office, doctor, bank, grocery store, vegetarian restuarant, auto mechanic (you know…in case our car died….)

oh and there was the time i tried cow tongue and liver.

no, i don’t want to talk about it.

that house below…that is the house my mom grew up in. cool, right ? :)

if there was one thing i wish we had in the US, it was these fresh fruit  and juice stands on every corner.

i was on the hunt for colombian obleas all week. and monica made it happen for me :) seriously, the only way to describe it is 2 giant Eucharists (yes, like from church) stuffed with arequipe….which is colombian’s version of dulce de leche.

the ice cream on the right….monica took us to my papi beto’s (grandfather’s) favorite ice cream shop growing up. apparently he always ordered these malteadas….which is similar to chocolate frozen yogurt with guava syrup topping. sweet baby jesus this was good.

next stop…El Rodadero! reminded me of ocean city….colombian style! this was a girls trip with kim and i, and about 5 of my girl cousins. this is the same place where topless colombian men walk along the beach, chopping open coconuts and filling them with liquor. obviously we were only interested in the coconuts. obviously.  ;-)

we stopped at my aunt and uncles apartment while visiting….where i uncovered tons of photo albums of my entire family from when they were young. crazy, i tell you! she even pulled out this huge posterboard she is attempting to fill with a picture of every single member of the family on it- from colombia AND the US. those fuzzy album pictures you see are my mom and grandfather on my parent’s wedding day, and another one of my grandmother and grandfather when they were young. the portrait of the woman is my great- great grandmother. we went to dinner that night and took a HUGE family picture- it’s crazy to think i’m related to all of them!

it was great to meet my famiy in colombia, and we were lucky to get the unique experience to actually live like a colombian for a few days. it was hot, i was attacked by bugs, and i ate way more food then the FDA recommends….BUT…as always….i wouldn’t trade it for the world :-)