Out of Cuenca- into Colombia

The last couple of days in Cuenca included going fishing at a trout farm up in Cajas. They have this rather large pond completely stocked to the brim with fish. The rule is such that you can't throw anything back so that meant that we caught a lot of very small trout.

[Fran with his massive catch] It goes like this:

you put your stick with a fishing line, hook, and some sort of dough into the water.

you watch as fish swarm around the hook.

after about 15 seconds from lowering the hook into the water, you tug a bit and you have a fish.

then you have to take the hook out of the fish's mouth and put fishy in the blue basket (at first, I didn't like this part).

Repeat 13 times

Pay 7 dollars for your fish

Clean said fish (in our case, Fran cleaned all the fish)

We also went to an amazing little BBQ place. They only serve one thing. In fact, we didn't even order. We waited for a bit for a free table and once we were seated they just brought out some BBQ chicken skewers sitting on top of french fries. Yummm.

[heating up the coals with a blow dryer] Restaurants that only make one thing often do it very well. It seems to me that if I were to open a restaurant, I would only want to serve one thing per night. Why not?

[check out the graphics on this sign for fruit shakes] So we arrived in Colombia this afternoon after taking a plane to Quito and then a 5.5 hour long bus ride up to the border. We are in the small town of Ipiales staying in a nice little hotel. It feels good to be back in the land of good coffee and friendly people. However, I don't think there is a vegetable to found anywhere in Colombia.

Tomorrow we take a 7 hour bus ride up to Popayan but if the bus is anything like the bus we took last time in Colombia, it will be a nice bus. The plan is to call Henry and then we will stay at his place. If weather permits this weekend, we will probably climb Purace, a 15 000 foot active volcano just outside of Popayan. I am excited to get out and see how I do at elevation. I have been running quite a bit  at 8000 feet so hopefully my oxygen carrying capacity is somewhat up there.

They are having big presidential elections this Sunday which should be interesting. There is potential for a left/ center candidate from the green party to win out over the conservative pro-military guy. It feels like being in the states right before the Obama election. You can sense the excitement. This NY times article explains it. Personally, I can see the merits of both candidates. Colombia has made major progress towards security in the last 8 years thanks in major part to the current conservative guy. However, there has been a major ass whooping which, for sure, has violated many human rights of villagers. The Green party guy has also done a lot for security in Bogota as the mayor but in a much kindler, gentler way. I can't begin to understand the complicated politics in this country nor am I allowed to have an opinion but I suppose if I had to vote, I would choose the Green party guy. One can't vote based on fear. You have to look at what the candidate stands for and make a decision on who best represents your values. 

But don't worry, we will steer very clear of any political demonstrations or events and just go fishing instead.