Imagine traveling to a foreign country and being welcomed so warmly, so wholeheartedly and so lovingly by people you have never met before. That's what we experienced by the Mercado family during our recent trip to Cali, Colombia for Jason and Angela's wedding.
Upon arrival at the Cali airport on Tuesday, 27th September, we were greeted by Jason and Angela, who had also just arrived, and Angela's mom, Maila, while our luggage was whisked away by a friend of the family's to a van that would later take us to our hotel. Angela quickly spotted a woman selling mango cut into pieces and squirted with lime juice and sprinkled with salt and bought two for us all to taste - she says it's a "must-have" when she's home. We waited a couple hours for Mom and Norm's arrival, then loaded into the van to be driven down to the hotel.
Maila invited us over to her apartment, only a short 10-minute walk from the hotel, for breakfast Wednesday morning. Little did we know that we would be enjoying our breakfast on the balcony overlooking the mountains (yes, part of the Andes) and the country club we were staying at.
At breakfast we were introduced to Arepas - round disks of ground cornmeal, similar to a flour tortilla, but thicker. These can be eaten any time of the day. We had ours with butter, chuncks of chorizo and mild cubed cheese. Also new to us was Pan de Yuca (in the center of the table) - bread made of cassava starch and cheese - and Grenadia (the orange fruit on the plate in front), a externally beautiful orange fruit with a semi-hard peel and a gelatinous, grey pulp and black, crunchy seeds. The taste is similar to passion fruit.
Can you see why the Grenadia is also know as the "snot fruit"?
Maila gave us Macetas - decorated arrangement of candy, which is a longstanding tradition of Cali. On June 29, Cali celebrates Godchildren's Day, when godparents throughout the city customarily give their godchildren a Maceta. Elaborate sugar cane candies in the shape of birds, flowers and human figures, along with pinwheels, are affixed to a base of soft maguey wood. Being that June is already past, the Maila had these Macetas specially made for us.
After breakfast Maila, Angela, Mom and I drove to a flower store and then to a market in Cali to buy flowers for Angela's bouquet and the boutineers.
Wednesday afternoon Angela's brother and family arrived at Maila's apartment. Karen's Pizza was ordered and we ate in the shade down at pool behind the apartment building. The most unusual to us pizza was a plantain and bacon pizza... very good, but quite greasy.
As I've already mentioned, the hotel we stayed at is part of a country club. There were only 20 or so rooms, but they were very comfortable with huge beds and much-needed air conditioning.
Part of the 18-whole golf course and paddle boats on the lake
You never knew what animals... and bugs!... you'd see and hear around the hotel and the grounds. In addition, there were various beautiful birds flying around.
A large rat-like animal, but without the rat-like tail
Large iguana
Cute lizard trying to hide from us.
Nine of our group arrived Thursday evening on the same flight. The hungry and tired bunch were welcomed to the hotel with pizzas from Karen's Pizza.
Every morning we had breakfast at an outdoor cafe at the hotel. We helped ourselves to platefuls of possibly the best, most colorful and delicious fruit we've ever had: pineapple, mango, papaya, grenadila and watermelon. Freshly squeezed orange juice and various sweet and savory rolls were also available.
Friday morning couples trickled down from their rooms for breakfast. I'll introduce them:
Emily and Scott Armstrong - Scott is a friend of Jason's from high school, and we were in marching band together. Jeff and I really enjoyed getting to know Scott and Emily during the trip and look forward to their possible visit to the UK next Spring or Summer.
Gretchen Clarke and Matt Gerace - Matt has been a friend of Jason's since middle school and was his best man at the wedding.
Danny and Lainy Cano - Danny is my cousin
A nice picture of me and my dad sometime after breakfast
While Jason and Angela were taking care of some wedding business Dad, Barry, Angela's uncle and I decided to take a walk around the grounds.
Gorgeous fan palm trees
Banana trees
Coffee plants
The wedding site
We loaded into two large vans and drove to a somewhat Italian-style restaurant in Cali for lunch...
.... and sat at a very long table.
Us with delicious fresh mandarine-pineapple-banana-strawberry drinks... everyone else had sangria.
Mom, Norm and Jason
Matt and Gretchen
Danny and Lainy
Angela and her cousin, Monica
Fried Calamari
Our fish dishes
Friday evening, the whole group was invited to Maila's cousin's house for paella.
The outdoor kitchen where we had the paella.
Even after everyone had their fill, there was still at least half the pan left... that's how big the pan was!
Angela's second cousin with the giant pan of paella.
Jason served up sangria
Jason and Angela
The scent of cutout cookies is filling my kitchen at the moment as I bake trays of cookies and take them out of the oven to cool. This seriously puts a smile on my face. Cutout cookies bring me back to my childhood - the delicate process of not over baking them and getting them out of the oven at just the right moment and gently icing them so they don't fall apart in your hand. The past two springs I went over to our friends, the Lillies, to bake cookies with their daughter, Eve, who is now 4 years old. I even contemplated inviting myself over to our new pastor's house to make these cookies with their 3 kids or next door with their 2 girls. But then I decided that I just wanted to make them in peace and quiet and perhaps another time I'll bake with their kids...but I'm really looking forward to making cutouts with BeeBee and her eventual sibling(s).
