Salpicón

Salpicón is one of our favourite "snacks" after sports, after a walk in the park, or basically anytime. It's easy to find - there are several "salpicón stands" around the park - and the big cup costs about 2000 pesos, which is about 80 cents.

In Colombian cuisine, salpicón is a fruit cocktail beverage made with a base of water (soda water) or orange juice. It consists of mixed chopped up fruit such as banana, papaya, watermelon and mango, among others.

And it's fresh and sweet and tasty - therefore, also the perfect dessert, especially on a hot summer day!

Sunday in El Pórtico

On Sundays, Usaquen, a neighbourhood in the north of Bogota, fills up of street merchants, musicians, and stands of selling different handicrafts. It's a nice yet busy way of spending the morning!

After Daniela and Lisandro found the gifts they were searching for, it was lunch time.

Lisandro knew a steak restaurant called El Pórtico outside of Bogota, which is also a popular place for organising weddings and other parties. Therefore, a great place for taking pictures!

The food served in El Pórtico is mainly barbecue food - meat, meat and meat on a parrilla. Good, but  expensive. After getting our bellies full of food, we checked out the surroundings.

Swim Practice

Oh, my archives seem not to be getting any smaller with the pictures I still have to show you. Anyhow... Earlier this spring, Lukas was practising swimming. I videographed the practice so that he can also see how his technique is and whether there's still some room for improvement. Here are some photos of that day.

Leo Matiz Exhibition in Museo Nacional

The cultural, sophisticated people that we are, the last Sunday in April we dedicated to photography, art and Colombian culture. The National Museum of Colombia in downtown Bogota had an exhibition of a famous Colombian photographer, Leo Matiz, that us, eager photography students, wanted to see.

Leo Matiz was well-known not just in Colombia, but internationally, as well. He had Frida Kahlo, Diego Rivera and Walt Disney posing but also did documentary photography and more abstract shots.

After admiring Leo Matiz's art work, we explored around Colombia's oldest museum and checked out the other exhibitions it presented.

The brick building, built in 1823, is also very interesting in itself: it served as a prison until 1946.

After the tour and all the posing, we got hungry, so on the way back to north we stopped at a less known neighbourhood of La Macarena. La Macarena is a slightly more bohemian barrio that is full of restaurants mixing between cafés and gourmet restaurants.

The problem that we have faced in La Macarena both times that we've been there is for one part its unfamiliarity to us, but for other, the difficulty of choosing which restaurant! It has a wide international pallette to offer, and you can find anything from Mexican, Italian, French to Asian cuisines, and more.

That Sunday we chose a tiny but cute El Patio. As we got there late, we were lucky to still get food as the place was closing their kitchen.

As friendly as the people were and as cute as the place was, the main course left a bad aftertaste. Daniela and I ordered a pesto pasta which was too al dente, raw even - perhaps because of our late arrival, the kitchen was in a hurry to clean up and close. But still. How long does a pasta take to be cooked? 10 minutes max. Strangely, boys' pasta was better cooked.

After such an enriching day and learning all new things related to my favourite hobby, photography, again, it was time to head home and digest...