I must say, one highlight of this trip was discovering several new and interesting foods. This morning, in addition to the rolls I had bought the previous evening, breakfast included a glass of juice from a fruit called lulo, also known as naranjilla, or "little orange." (w) The Wikipedia article describes the flavor as a combination of rhubarb and lime, and I'm a witness that it's true. It helps to close your eyes while drinking it, though - the juice is an unpleasant shade of green.
After breakfast, Graciela, Terry and I prepared to catch our flight to Medellín. Apparently, in Bogotá, you're only allowed to drive your car every other day, to reduce traffic congestion. This wasn't Piqui's day to drive, so we caught a cab to the airport. At the security checkpoint, they didn't make us take off our shoes, but of course, I still had to empty my pockets. So I put my hand in my pocket and found... my Swiss Army Knife.
Damn!
Believe it or not, that was the second time I've lost a Swiss Army Knife by forgetting to put it in my checked luggage. I was not happy.
The weather in Medellín was warm and humid, in contrast to Bogotá, which had been rather cool. Bettye met us at the airport, with her niece Natalia (Nati), who drove us into the city. The Medellín airport is about 40 kilometers (25 miles) out of town, so it was a long drive. Along the way, I took a picture of the countryside:
Bettye lives in Medellín with her two sisters, Nancy and Graciela (who I referred to as Graciela Dos), and two of Nancy's three children, Natalia and Andres. Nancy's third child is Juan David, who stayed with us last year. We also met their cat, Galileo, and their two dogs - Bolt, a large Chocolate Labrador, and Gordo, a small misnamed dog - "gordo" means "fat," which he wasn't. He was, however, quite vocal.
Nati speaks some English, and Andres speaks English fluently, with very little accent. Like Terry, he majored in Foreign Languages in school, and has a job teaching English to airline pilots. When I met him, I said "Finally, someone I can talk to!"
Again, I went out for a walk around the neighborhood and took some pictures:
The neighborhood
Their house
I saw some workmen lifting a lamppost into place:
Back inside, I took some more pictures:
The living room
The dining room
I actually didn't take these next few pictures until a few days later, but this is a good time to throw them in:
Bettye and Nati
Bettye, Nati and Graciela
Las Tres Hermanas - Bettye, Nancy and Graciela (Dos)
Las Tres Hermanas y Teresa
Not much else happened the rest of the day. We mostly just socialized - that is, Terry and Graciela and Bettye and her sisters socialized. Nati and Andres had gone out, which left me pretty much out of the loop. Terry did her best to include me, but I didn't expect her to interpret everything everyone said the whole time. I did a lot of crossword puzzles while we were there.
At one point, Nati brought out her guitar, and I borrowed it and played Cantares and Psalm 121 again. They all knew Cantares, and sang along on the chorus:
Caminante, no hay camino
Se hace camino al andar
Golpe a golpe, verso a verso
(Wanderer, there is no road
You create your own road as you wander
Blow by blow, verse by verse)
Here's a map of Medellín, showing the location of Bettye's house. You can see the airport in the lower right corner, which gives you an idea of how far out of town it was. I noticed that there's another airport, right in the center of town. So how come we couldn't use that airport? I never did figure that out.
