Another Nice Day with Gustavo in Popayan

Sunday, Sept. 17, 2017--Popayan, Colombia

My apartment is attached to the home of Gustavo and his family.  There are high windows that open from my kitchen area into their patio area.  I had barely been up and had just opened my computer when I heard Gustavo addressing me asking, "Randell, I have to go to the bank and then I am going shopping for fruits and vegetables at the local mercado.  Do you want to go with me?"  His wife and children had gone home with her parents yesterday afternoon to spend the weekend at the finca--the family farm.  Of course, I took advantage of the chance to learn about all the different things I have seen in markets without knowing what they all were.

Because most people work during the week, the market is open both Saturday and Sunday for people to do their weekly shopping.  And because Colombia has such a great climate, almost everything sold at the market is actually sold by farmers who have grown it rather than people who have bought wholesale crates of things to sell.  I learned about tree tomatoes (also known as tamarillos).  I tasted a small fruit that is related to the coconut but is a coarse orange color and is peeled, sprinkled with salt, and then coated in honey.  I had a drink made from corn, pineapple juice, and other ingredients which was sweet and delicious.  I saw wonderful looking kinds of fresh beans available including a red-speckled white bean.  There were lots of varieties of potatoes and some of them still had the fresh dirt on them like Arne always preferred because it is a sign that they were only recently dug from the ground.  Gustavo bought a huge shopping bag and a medium shopping bag full of berries, fruits, potatoes, cauliflower, etc.

Back at his place, he insisted on making us breakfast.  We had white corn roasted in a skillet with chunks of homemade cheese and ate it with a sweet tamale (sweet masa--no filling), and juice he made from tree tomatoes.

In the afternoon, I went to the bus station to check out schedules for tomorrow.  It is supposed to be 6 1/2 hours to the next city (because it is all in the mountains), so I am going to have to force myself to get up early again.  I am going to try to catch the 6:30 bus, since I want to visit a major tourist site outside Pasto, the next city, tomorrow afternoon.

Then I went back to the main square for a while to enjoy the food festival.  I wasn't hungry, though, so I eventually came to the room and did some things on the computer.  Around 17:00, I went back to the bus station to buy a ticket for that bus tomorrow only to find out that I cannot buy one until tomorrow morning.  So instead of arriving at the station at 6:15 with a ticket in hand, I need to get to the station around 6:00 and get in line to buy a ticket.  Anyway, I returned to the festival and enjoyed hearing some jazz on the stage.  As I walked along looking at the foods one last time, I passed a booth with Black female dancers wearing white frilly dresses and white bandanas on their heads.  One of the women held up the end of her dress in her hand and twisted her body so that her shoulders were turned toward me.  I turned my body so that my shoulders aliened with hers and wiggled them a little.  The crowd laughed and applauded.
The festival was coming to an end, however.  Some of the booths had already closed and all of them were beginning to run out of food.  It's normal for Colombians to head home by 19:00 on nights before workdays, but I had enjoyed the festival enough anyway. 

Gustavo and his wife invited me back to their home for dinner.  She had cooked more corn and cheese and we had it with broccoli and peas and some avocados she had picked off the trees at the finca this afternoon.  I really didn't need more food and I worried about the expense involved for them, but it was fun to share the meal with the whole family.  They are really nice people.

Tonight, I will try to go to sleep at 22:00, and I will hope that I will be able to hear my alarm tomorrow morning.  As with every place I have stayed in Colombia, I will have to wear earplugs at least until midnight due to traffic noise.  Usually, some time in the early morning hours I wake up and can remove them until about 6:30 when the street noises begin again.

I only have two more nights in Colombia--one tomorrow night in Pasto and one the next night in Ipiales on the border.  After that, I will be in Ecuador for the remainder of this trip.  Fortunately (because of the high fees they charge here), I haven't had to withdraw any more money from ATMs in Colombia.  Yet I am almost out of pesos.  I think I have enough for the next two days and may have maybe the equivalent of $10-20 left to change back into dollars at the border.  It will be interesting to see how it works in Ecuador, since they use the US dollar for their currency.  With no foreign exchange involved, will VISA still charge their normal 1% fee on ATM withdrawals or will there only be the bank fee for using their ATM?  (Panama is the same, but I don't remember if I made a cash withdrawal there or if I had enough US money with me to not have to do so.  I have about $200 in US money with me, but that won't be enough for 5 weeks in Ecuador.)  The nice thing will be not having to plan it out to try to end the trip with no leftover currency, since I can just bring what is leftover home with me to spend in the US.