Jaime's Farm

My cousin Jaime, mentioned in last post, is an incredibly colorful character, as well as a very warm and friendly person.  He is the oldes of a family of 6 siblings, and inherited and has significantly enhanced his family farm.  Speaking of "enhanced", one of the tools of his trade is his jeep, shown above.  Custom transmission, who knows how many horsepower, 200watt speakers, fire engine siren - it's a sight to behold and the ride of a lifetime.

Jaime took us on a tour of his farm, which has 8000 plaintain trees and 180,000 coffee plants.  It was an amazing experience.

Complete album here:  http://picasaweb.google.com/oscardario/JaimesFarm

Bolivar

Bolivar is a beautiful old town in a coffee farming region of Colombia. My mom and dad were raised there, before getting married and moving to Medellin. My gradmother's house was a beautiful classic colonial home in the center of town, across the street from the church and the plaza.

It's an incredibly verdant landscape, with every shade of green imaginable on the hillsides, including the dark rich green of coffee plants.

Most of our family and friends that still live there are involved in the coffee industry in one way or another, including my cousin Jaime who owns a huge coffee farm (next post).

It used to be the case that the only place to get good coffee in Colombia was to go to the airport and buy the "export quality" stuff that they generally sold to the United States, but I noticed that the quality of the coffee in general had improved quite a bit. Here are the boys drinking basically frapuccinos at a little coffee shop (much more charming than a starbucks) in Bolivar.

As in many farming areas, in Bolivar you have the extremes of wealth and poverty, so you see both beautiful colonial architecture and third-world shantys. The boys didn't seem fazed by any of it, but it was definitely a good experience to expose them to it all.

You can view the complete photo album here: http://picasaweb.google.com/oscardario/Bolivar

Bolivar

Bolivar is a beautiful old town in a coffee farming region of Colombia.  My mom and dad were raised there, before getting married and moving to Medellin.  My gradmother's house was a beautiful classic colonial home in the center of town, across the street from the church and the plaza.

It's an incredibly verdant landscape, with every shade of green imaginable on the hillsides, including the dark rich green of coffee plants.

Most of our family and friends that still live there are involved in the coffee industry in one way or another, including my cousin Jaime who owns a huge coffee farm (next post).

It used to be the case that the only place to get good coffee in Colombia was to go to the airport and buy the "export quality" stuff that they generally sold to the United States, but I noticed that the quality of the coffee in general had improved quite a bit.  Here are the boys drinking basically frapuccinos at a little coffee shop (much more charming than a starbucks) in Bolivar.

As in many farming areas, in Bolivar you have the extremes of wealth and poverty, so you see both beautiful colonial architecture and third-world shantys.  The boys didn't seem fazed by any of it, but it was definitely a good experience to expose them to it all.

You can view the complete photo album here:

http://picasaweb.google.com/oscardario/Bolivar

Jaime's Farm

My cousin Jaime, mentioned in last post, is an incredibly colorful character, as well as a very warm and friendly person.  He is the oldest of a family of 6 siblings, and inherited and has significantly expanded and enhanced his family farm.  Speaking of "enhanced", one of the tools of his trade is his jeep, shown below.  Nimble as a mountain goat, but with 200 watt speakers and a fire engine siren, this thing can climb out of anything.

Jaime took us on a tour of his farm, which has 8000 plantain trees and 180,000 coffee plants.  It was an amazing experience.

more pictures at http://picasaweb.google.com/oscardario/JaimesFarm

Tierragrata (The Grateful Earth)

Tierragrata is the name of the farm thatt we stayed at for 3 days. Nobody is quite sure when it was built, but our friends purchased it about 40 years ago.


It has 6 bedrooms, and can probably sleep about 25 people if you include the hammocks. Currently it has horses, mules, chickens, ducks, and dogs (including a gentle German Shephard called 'Kaiser'), but I remember seeing monkeys and and peacocks there as a child.

It's a smallish coffee farm on the outskirts from the town of Bolivar where my parents were born and raised. More on that in the next post.

The boys loved Tierragrata -- all of them. Adrian loved running around, swinging on the hammocks, riding horses with his cousin (2nd cousin, actually, but you don't really make that distinction in Colombia, and as a result you end up with a lot of "cousins"). Nicolas loved the hammocks, horse-riding with his dad, and practicing his "Kung Fu Panda" staff techniques with the various riding crops hanging on the walls. Joaquin loved unfettered crawling around the many halls and outdoor patios, and trying to find Kaiser. Oscar and Betsy did a bit of horse riding as well, but after 2 days we were pretty sore.


One of Betsy's favorite parts of the house was the kitchen. It's about the size of our first apartment, with the greatest combination of farm-rustic original materials (wood burning stove, old tile and wood floor), and gourmet accoutrements (2 refrigerators, nice wine, Williams Sonoma-esque kitchen gadgets, etc.)

complete album at http://picasaweb.google.com/oscardario/Tierragrata

Alcides

Earlier, I promised a post about Alcides, the neighborhood grocer.

Colombia in general, and Medellin in particular, is very entrepreneurial. Everyone has an angle, everyone has a small business. Alcides, who lives 4 doors down from my parents, sells groceries and sundries from his garage. Nicolas and Adrian have gone there every day to get candy. My parents get their milk and eggs there instead of driving to the supermarket. Incredibly eco-friendly.

If I had more time I would write an entire post titled "What the U.S. could learn from the Developing World about efficiency and being green" Examples:
- milk, mayonnaise, ketchup, laundry detergent, etc. -- all liquid consumables come in plastic bags (for milk, you have little reusable plastic pitchers you put the plastic bags in.) Drastic reduction in packaging waste.
- roundabouts instead of traffic lights or stop signs at intersections -- this is my favorite. Incredibly efficient. No needless sitting and idling and burning gas waiting for the light to turn green.
- smaller cars. 'Nuff said.

More pix of my parent's neighborhood (including Alcide's store) at http://picasaweb.google.com/oscardario/Medellin

The Road to Medellin, Continued

Back to 3 posts ago...the ride was made even more exciting by the fact that recent heavy rains had produced some road-covering mudslides. One was so large that for now, instead of clearing it, the best they could do was bulldoze a single lane over it -- resulting in a nice little traffic jam as they allow cars to only pass in one direction at a time, as well as a very exciting crossing, with about a 1500 foot drop down one side...

Back on the Grid

Had a wonderful time in Bolivar. Lots of pictures and posts to catch up on, but no internet access for last 3 days. Everybody is great, had a wonderful time, kids rode horses for 3 days. Details and photos to follow.

iPhone meets 100 year old farm

Adrian playing sega monkey ball on his iPhone in the kitchen of an old
farm I'm coffee country.

On the road to Bolivar

Four hour drive. Hung over, diarrea, sitting in the rear-facing seat,
sucking raw diesel fumes from the cement truck in front of us on the
curvy mountain road.

Family Reunion

Little family get-together at my aunt Beatriz's farm.  

- 4 aunts + families, which then included

- Oscar + 8 of his first cousins, and their families, which included

- 10 2nd cousins, 2 of which had kids which made

- 2 third cousins

add in husbands, boyfriends, mini-bus drivers (pictured at left, with Oscar) etc., and the total attendance was 43.

Truly stunning countryside -- at about 5,500 feet elevation, so imagine if you can a combination of lush tropical green with rich farmland and some pine trees thrown in for good measure.  Weeds that grow on the sides of dirt roads that wind past shacks bloom with gorgeous flowers.  

Tomorrow, thankfully, is a day of rest -- no day trips.  Phew.

full album here:  http://picasaweb.google.com/oscardario/Guarne

Santa Fe De Antioquia

Today we went to our friend´s "cabin" in Santa Fe De Antioquia, about 90 minutes from Medellin, where "cabin" is a beautiful colonial style (white stucco walls, open air patios, terra cotta tile roof) vacation home.

This is a very warm area that has recently become a very popular weekend getaway and vacation spot. "Recently" because a couple of years ago they completed a 5 kilometer tunnel straight through the mountains to the east of Medellin, which shaved a few hours off the drive.

After spending the day in the pool at our friend´s cabin, we went to the actual town of Santa Fe De Antioquia. The town was founded in 1541, and as you can tell was very cute and quaint and tourist friendly. We bought some knick knacks, and sat down for a drink at one of the tables out in the open plaza. We asked the waiter for something refreshing, and he brought us a pitcher of "refrescante" which could best be described as a beer sangria-- beer, sparkling soda (ginger ale?), and fruit. Sounds weird, but it was heaven.

Must note: we´ve logged a LOT of miles, both air and mini-bus, and the kids have been absolute delights. No whining, very little fighting, and Joaquin has been the most sturdy, unflappable 1 year old trooper in the history of family travel. Everybody, including their parents, has been amazed at how good the kids have been. We're very proud.

Full photo album here:  http://picasaweb.google.com/oscardario/SantaFeDeAntioquia

Los Balcones

Fantastic day at the farm of our friend Lucia (one of her farms, we are going to her other farm next week).

It is about 30 minutes north of Medellin, about 3000 feet elevation in the lush Andean mountains.

Nicolas and Adrian rode horses by themselves for the first time and had a blast (the pictures above show them with their cousins, but they also went solo). Betsy was the only one who was able to get the horse to a gallop.

The day was glorious, except for the third world traffic jam that we sat in on the way home. Nothing like sucking diesel fumes while motorcycles zipped around you with utter disregard for lanes or safety. The slums are ugly, the people are beautiful. Medellin is an incredibly vibrant city -- it has been very intereseting exposing the kids to such a different way of life. They are really enjoying the experience.

Full photo album here: http://picasaweb.google.com/oscardario/LosBalcones

(Ancestral) Home At Last

Finally arrived. Will spare you the details but let's just say that United Airlines didn´t make any friends.

It´s a beautiful day in Medellin. Here´s a map:

Hola, me gustaría compartir este vínculo de Google Maps contigo.
Vínculo: <http://maps.google.com/maps?q=6.244949,-75.592529&ie=UTF8&t=h&layer=x&ll=6.247339,-75.606521&spn=0.002362,0.003262&z=18&lci=lmc:panoramio>


In this part of Colombia, anyway, they don't have 4 traditional seasons like the Northern latitudes, they just have wet spells and dry spells, that they call winter and summer. As in, when it´s raining a while, they say "man, what a long winter" -- although in "winter" the temperature rarely drops below 70 degrees. Anyway, this most recent "winter" ended a few days ago -- I know because Alcides, the neighborhood grocer, announced to me this morning: "Winter is over". I´ll get around to the neighborhood grocer in a subsequent post.

We are consciously taking a day of rest, as we have several day trips planned for the next few days. Above are a few pictures of us and my dad at their house. Homes here are designed with natural air conditioning of open roofed atriums. The hammock in the atrium off the kitchen has already produced one nap, and I feel another one coming, although it may be the rum with lemonade we had with lunch that´s to blame.