Sunday, May 6, 2012

Fruit of the Month: Apple Bananas

A mini, sweeter banana that's about half of the length of a regular banana.  These adorable bundles of flavor are perfect for slicing into oatmeal and are so sweet you hardly need to add honey or sugar to your breaky.  DE-LISH.

                                                                 blogs.miaminewtimes.com

Pin the tail on the donkey...or something like that

I have been absolutely horrible to my faithful blog readers (read: my parents) and have neglected this poor blog for the better part of the year, despite my new years resolution :( The truth is, while my life has been wonderful as of late in Colombia, there isn't a whole lot I care to share on the WWW. One of my best friends from college, Nicole, came to visit and am now realizing I need to dedicate another entire post to that glorious week. I feel so fortunate to have friends that are willing and able to come all the way to Colombia..ignoring all those silly travel warnings against it.

But this weekend was one of the best times I've had in Colombia since leaving Barranquilla. That's because five wonderful volunteer from Cartagena and Barranquilla came to visit us Santa Marta folk for some Cinco de Mayo fun! Most of us had a meeting in Barranquilla for our Volunteer Advisory Committee (VAC), which helps communicate concerns or suggestions between volunteers and staff. Being in Barranquilla means: hot showers, AC, Zara, Caribe 79, bargaining for taxi prices again, and Arroyos. We dubbed our ride in a bus down an arroyo -- remember those rushing rapids -- Arroyorama! (yeah I know, creativity lacks when you are scared for your life) because we felt like we were on an amusement park ride with all the crazy sites of water rushing at alarming rates down the streets, washing away cars. So after a night in Barranquilla and taking a coveted shower that I actually feel clean after, we all headed to Santa Marta to catch a party at a local hostel to celebrate Cinco de Mayo. I love being back together with the volunteers I became so close to during training.

After a night of Margaritas, Tacos and a few too many Tequilla shots, we got a pretty late start on our day trip to Taganga. As we were hiking from Taganga to Playa Grande I wondered to myself how many times I'll do this hike over the next 2 years. Taganga is just an easy to get to beach that has a pretty scenic hike up and some very typical (and overpriced) fried fish dishes. Perfect for people on short visits. So you get the picture, beach, mexican food and drinks, and good friends. Perfect end to another week in Colombia.