Hola friends! I’m in Ecuador right now, but I wanted to make note of all my travels up to now. Including my brief stop-over in Miami on my way to Colombia. Also I can’t sleep, so what better way to pass the time than by giving you guys a quick update? Yea? Here goes.
As it turns out there are no direct flights from Toronto to Medellín, which meant I got to spend a day last week with my grandmother and some relatives I hadn’t seen in a long time. The weather is also pretty nice in Miami, even though I was told it would be “chilly” and should bring layers for the 18C temps. Uhh, totally fine with that! I stayed with my grandma and aunt and spent the day listening to all kinds of hilarious family gossip as I’ve discovered is the nature of older female relatives to tell, regardless of whether I know who they’re talking about or not.
That evening we had dinner at a Cuban place called Havana Harry’s. I’ve traveled to Cuba before but I can’t say I’ve had Cuban food per say… And since being exposed to tons and tons of different food for the past few years I’ve been living in Toronto I’m also not big on chain restaurants (which I learned this was)*, but it was actually quite good! The portions were huuuge though. I don’t know if this was just a product of me being in ‘MURICA or what. I’m thankful I got a salad because I don’t think I would have survived what some of my relatives were eating, or attempted to eat.
Exhibit A: salad that I got maybe halfway through. I thought that while large, it was still a respectable size (and I didn’t finish it because I’d had a sandwich earlier).
Exhibit B: um, what is that? It can’t be”beef” like the menu states. Mammoth shank is more like it, methinks. It was thin though, so I suppose that counts for something.
After dinner it was drinks, more stories, discussing the news (elderly relatives also love talking about what they watched on CNN as much as they like gossiping) and then sweet, sweet sleep. I think there’s something about being able to get ready for bed and not having to worry if you’ve turned off the space heater and/or your electric blanket for fear of electrocuting yourself or burning the house down in your sleep. Maybe you can’t tell, but I’m NOT missing the Toronto weather. 🙂
Speaking of sleep, the next part of my story will have to come a little later. I think it’s safe to say you know the next part is me getting on a plane, but I think I need to force myself to sleep now so I can get up for a tour that’s supposed to start at 8am tomorrow.. er, today.
-C
* I’m not a food snob, I swear. I still get salads and such from the Freshii around the corner from the office. All the time!!
