Mid-day I was summoned to a traditional barbecue with Amalia & her aunt & cousins. I ate a huge piece of steak, ribs, yucca, platano, potato, guacamole, and tried a really disgusting meat product called chunchulla (stuffed small intestine), and still my plate was half full when I could eat no more. The chunchulla was impossible to break down using my teeth, and I had the rather large piece I tested in my mouth for what felt like an eternity. Finally I drank some soda & swallowed it whole. The meal was accompanied by refrajo - Colombiano soda (much like Inca Cola, but instead of golden, it is bronze-colored) with Club Colombia cerveza (beer) - yes, mixed together. Not quite as tastey as Cusqueña Negra with Coca Cola, but still better than beer solo. (I regret to inform you that I didn't have my camera with me, otherwise I picture of chunchulla would surely follow.)
After this gigantic feast of vegetable-free comida, I headed out with a friend of a friend who I had met here and her family to the grandmother-in-laws vast estate - famous in Ibagué as the most wealthy area in the city. It was incredibly beautiful, of course, and full of history as well. Apparently most of today's Ibagué was formerly a part of the vast plantation, and at the center, the grand hacienda, known as the big house here. Nano (friend of friend Diana's husband & grandson of current owner of the "big house") told me of his parents and uncles & aunts, and of his grandparents, great-grandparents, and so on. In his grandfather's study (long since locked up, as his grandfather passed away over 40 years ago) is the 3rd copy of the Declaration of Independence of Colombia, signed (original signatures) by Colombia's founding fathers.
After the great house we went for ice cream in a shopping center & pan de bono (cheesey bread made of cornmeal) - anticlimactic, I know.
But, on a special note:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY MOM! Wish I could be there with you today! XOXOXOXOXOXOX
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