Oooh that smell

The oven I so desperately wanted, and loved and cherished when we got it 2 months ago has been feeling a little neglected lately. Honestly I've gotten so used to cooking without an oven that I hardly use it. Add that to the fact that every time we turn the oven on it smells like gas. Did I mention it's an electric oven? I made banana bread the other night and not only did it turn out mushy after 90 minutes in there (I'm still figuring out celsius vs fahrenheit!) but I swear it had a hint of gas smell in the taste.

We're calling this so called "Haceb" manufacturer tomorrow. After I tried to fill out the form online and all the information got erased, I couldn't be asked to re-do it. Also I probably would not get a response because it's a Colombian company, and nothing is done over the internet, or even the phone. No, you need to go there. Or they need to come to you. Within 36 hours.

A lovely day for a bike ride

Respira Profundo - it means, "breathe deeply." It's all part of Medellin's initiative to promote a healthy environment, where people can enjoy being outdoors and breathing the fresh air. Once a month they hold an event on the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellin grounds where they have live music, booths where people sell fresh food items and local products from their farms outside Medellin, and areas where people enjoy their own picnics outdoors. It's really a great way to promote an active and healthy lifestyle, something that is not non-existant, but does take some searching to find in Medellin.

The scene at a Respira Profundo event in July 2010

With 20 year-old buses shooting out plumes of black smoke every time they pass you by, fried empanada shops on every corner, and sidewalks so crowded that pedestrians take to the street to pass, the city is not exactly a model for healthy living. But with active groups like Respira Profundo popping up, along with cycling groups and more health-awareness clubs, people are starting to take notice. The local TV station here Telemedellin is helping to promote Respira Profundo events, and has its own show about mountain biking trips in and outside Medellin, called Trochas.

Giovanni and I have been part of the cycling world for about a year now (well, he likes to remind me that it's something he's been trying to promote for 2-plus years), making it an effort to go out every weekend on our bikes, especially on Sundays when the city closes down the main avenues and opens up the lanes for biking, roller-skating, and running. We get up early and depending on our mood and the day, go for a 2-hour long up-hill trek, or head down the main streets, which are flat and full of people exercising. This is my favorite part of the week. Seeing so many people out on their bikes - you would never know so many bikes existed in this city! During the week you hardly ever see bicycles on the streets, weaving in and out of traffic, because it is so dangerous, tiring, and dirty (my personal thoughts). Bike-lanes only cover certain parts of the city, and even where you can find them in somewhat decent conditions, they are raised and next to the sidewalks, so you consistantly have to dodge people or yell at them to get out of the way (I have yet to acquire my bell, and I am bad at yelling, so I do more of a grumbling/coughing "EH!" People usually get the point).

So I guess you could say Giovanni's made something of a name for himself in the cycling world. He goes to weekly meetups, helps motivate people to get out on their bikes, and is part of a few groups. So Telemedellin invited him to their studio a few days ago to just talk about, from what I gather, this whole cycling initiative. After almost 2 hours he calls me to tell me how it went and to say, oh by the way, I've gotten you involved so be ready to appear in a few episodes of this cycling show. Whaaaat? I guess the whole American/Colombian couple thing that Gio and I have going really perked up the Telemedellin producers and they want to film us when we're out on our bikes the next couple of times. Oh, I need to talk about how much I love cycling and Medellin, and all of that. Ok, no problem. Honestly this is exciting, and it is a different angle, which I guess TV producers and news reporters are always looking for, but I just hope that it doesn't take away from the fact that we still need better cycling routes in the city and more incentives to buy a bicycle as a means of transportation (instead of a motorcycle, for example, which are a dime a dozen here). And when that happens, better laws requiring people to use the proper gear and awareness programs for drivers who think they are always in the right. We are no San Francisco or Amsterdam, but Medellin is doing its best to catch up to the environmental standards of its peers.

Foodspotting: the app for me

For any of you who know me, I love taking pictures of food. Maybe it's because I've lived out of the US for a few years now, or maybe it's because I'm a woman and all of us ladies know around your period there's nothing you want to do morethan eat anything you can get your hands on. But really, I've come to appreciate even the most basic food, just because of my lack of ethnically diverse dishes here in Colombia. When I went back to the US a year ago, I took a picture of my first American meal in 8 months; an Au Bon Pain sandwich in the airport.

So when I found this foodspotting app, I knew it was exactly what I needed! Voted one of the most popular apps at this year's SXSW conference in Austin, it basically combines Yelp and Foursquare, allowing people to easily rate not just restaurants, but particular dishes in a flash. If you're out and about and not sure where to eat, just open the app and you can see rated dishes closest to your location. Now unfortunately for me, about half of the photos I take are of dishes I or friends and family make personally, so this app isn't useful then. But I'm sure there is a recipe-type app out there that can serve these purposes.

For now, I'll just leave you with the latest food-porn photo I've taken, my dinner this evening. I came home from work to a lovely soup (that was more pasta and veggies with little broth, but scrum none the less!) and fresh passionfruit juice. Having a man with dinner ready when I get home is nice!

sorry, quality ain't that great, but of course, you can see more pictures of my food diaries here (no FB photo album is complete with food photos!)

The Jardin at the end of the world

This weekend was a long weekend in Colombia ("puente" as they call them here), with Monday being a holiday because of San Jose - what this San Jose did, I can't be sure of, since there are so many Catholic saints with their own holidays it's hard to keep track, even after 2 years living here. Colombians themselves won't be able to tell you what the holiday is for. But seeing as I still hadn't taken advantage of any of the 15-something puentes that we get in Colombia every year, I decided I better start with the pueblos, or little towns, outside of Medellin, still within the state of Antioquia. So Giovanni and I headed off Saturday morning to Jardin, a small pueblo of 14,000 people to the south-west of Medellin. What should have been a 3-hour journey took us 5 hours by bus, with a more than hour-long traffic jam just getting out of Medellin and past the next town. Then after it got dark (we left at 4 p.m.) we met another line of cars on the highway wrapped around the mountains. But it was nice to get away, even if it was just for 2 nights.

Jardin was nice, similar to mostly all pueblos you find around Colombia, or any other Latin American country for that matter (not trying to steroetype here, promise!). But really, the impossibly tall mountains reminded me of the country's most touristy coffee town Salento, the windy roads lined with plantain and coffee crops could have been mistaken for Costa Rican highways, and the town center and church, with its typical all-reigning presence, basically combined my thoughts of Santa Fe de Antioquia, Cartagena, and Guatape, Colombia. And like all typical Colombian towns, there wasn't a hell of a lot to do. We could tell most people were from Medellin, with their 50-person families, and finca (country-home/farm) attire, and kids kept coming up to us asking if we were from there ("yes, and her most of all," Giovanni would respond).

At the top of the mountain during our hike

We enjoyed a relaxed, if not lazy two days in the southern-most town in Antioquia. Both mornings consisted of walking around the plaza center, looking for a good "tinto" (black coffee), breakfast, and checking out who was still drunk from the night before. Because we were out in nature and I really was getting high off of the natural air, on Sunday Giovanni and I wandered out of the center and hiked up cow-prodded land, to reach a peak filled with coffee and plantain plants. The view was spectacular, with the center of Jardin laying below us and making us wonder how and WHY the heck did anyone ever think to build such a random if not insignificant town smack dab in the middle of these mountains. After that we took in some more exhilarating fresh air with some frisbee playing, filmed some boys doing tricks in the makeshift bike park, and went back to town to do what we do best on vacation, eat and people-watch.

My trout dinner, with a baked rainbow trout with veggies, plantain, arepa, french fries, and pickled salad.

Gio wasn't full after his trout dinner, he asked for another portion of "patacon" (plantain)

Luckily the bus ride back was smooth sailing, and we got back home around lunch time. We came back with some local strawberry jam, wine made from coffee beans, 20 bug bites (just me) and a pair of beaded earrings (just me again). It was all good fun, now back to worky work, since it's not a holiday for anyone else