El Puente

Today is the 4th of July in the US and it is also a holiday here in Colombia.  According to the calendar in my kitchen, it is Santa Isabel de Portugal Day.  I wrote El Puente (which means bridge) for a specific reason.  When a holiday, like today, falls on a Monday or a Friday, they call the long weekend a bridge.  We have had two puentes consecutively; last weekend and this.  Many people, common laborers, factory workers, field hands have a 48 hour week.  So, a puente is a real good occasion to go somewhere.  My renters went to a small town nearby to bathe in the natural hot springs.  It was so crowded that they would have had to stand up shoulder to shoulder in the pool.  So, they hopped on the bus and went to another town that has a pool and went swimming.  Most people will go somewhere and some of the shops in town were closed, and they are usually open on Sundays.  We will have a little celebration at my house; just our renters and their parents.  We will have a chicken stew, hot criole potato salad, some kind of salad, and a dessert.  Hopefully it will be a nice day like yesterday so we can eat outside in our kiosk.

Another cultural note.  Breakfast could be anything just like in the US.  However, in the Sabana de Bogotá, due to the chilly mornings (50 degrees) you need a hot breakfast.  It is very common for the people to drink hot chocolate, cheese (in the hot chocolate, of course), and an arepa (corn pancake) or an almojabana (corn/cheese bun).  This morning I had something I had not had in a long time, changua.  Changua is a consume made out of watered down milk, an egg, cilantro and chopped green onion.  That with a wheat bran bun, warms you up and fills your soul.  It really hit the spot this morning.

We went grocery shopping yesterday.  As I had mentioned some shops were closed, but not the small grocery stores and butcher shops.  Almost every house in town has some type of shop facing the street.  So, shopping means either going to the major supermarket in town which is definitely expensive but you have fixed prices, or go to several of the shops in town.  You have to go to several because some shops only carry certain items.  Unfortunately, most of these shops do not have fixed prices (the shops with fixed prices are definitely more expensive).  So, I have to wait at the corner while my wife buys what we need in the store.  We do this to avoid the "gringo tax"; the fairly common practice of raising the price if you are a foreigner.
More to come in a week.