Bucamaranga, Colombia
Friday, September 16, 2005
Today, I traveled to the beautiful city of Bucaramanga. It was only a day trip, but definitely a place I will go back to. Apparently, I missed out on some awesome shoe shopping! Can you all believe that???? Madness! In any event, I was only there for a day because I had a meeting the following morning at 8:30 am with my acupuncturist. Bucaramanga is an hour flight from
Bogota (everything is an hour away). It's a small city with a warm, sunny climate. After working all day and on my way back to the airport, I stopped to have a Bucaramangan delicacy, HORMIGAS CULONAS (literal translation is big assed ants). Well, I figured when in Colombia, do as the Colombians. I was with two guys from my office, Matt, our executive officer and a gringo and Hernan, a Colombian that works with us. Hernan had eaten them before and said they tasted like peanuts. I was skeptical of course, but how bad could it be. So we bought $3000 CPS worth of Hormigas Culonas(about US 1.50). The ants are prepared by frying the entire big butted ant in oil
. Then you eat the butt, but not the head. I ate one and it didn't taste like peanuts. Hernan just smiled and Matt had the look of fear on his face. I told Matt that it didn't taste bad, it was just crunchy and did not taste like much. At first Matt was recalcitrant, but eventually caved in and tried it. He knew he would never eat another one again, but was thoughtful enough to bring a bunch home to his wife, Christine, who's from Armenia and their 2 kids, Milton, age 3 and Mariym (sp) age 1. He told me that Milton and Christine would definitely try them. I was impressed. I am sure my little nephew, Rio would not try them. Danny probably would if everyone else were trying them and Sara would definitely take a shot at it. Anyway, see the attached pictures.
My friend, Hirman from DC is coming to visit on Saturday and to teach a judge course. We are off to
Paipa for the weekend! Uhhhhhh, massage, horseback riding, R&R!! Not bad!
Love and miss you all
A
Comments
And the reason is why?
Why are people eating ants? I just do not see it.
Alex