Liestal

        During the last couple of weeks it has been carnaval in many parts of the world including Switzerland.  We have gone to three diferent parades, I am going to tell you about the Chienbase of Liestal in which giant torches and bonfires are carried down the street.  The parade was amazing, they carried giant torches down the street and carts with bonfires with flames taller than buildings. The fires left trails of coals behind them, and the ground had over two inches of confettion it, but somehow nothing cought fire.  Here is a link for a video I made: http://youtu.be/4zsVBdTF97s 

Caribbean coast

         We went to the Caribbean coast for 13 nights, while we were there we did a lot of different things.  When we got there we stayed the night in Cartagena, the next day we got on a boat out to some islands.  The boat ride was two hours on bumpy waves but when we got there it was worth it.  The sea was warm and the water was blue, it was very nice. And it came with a cook so we did not have to do anything.  We stayed there for two nights and then went back to Cartagena.  We stayed in Cartagena for 3 nights, and then went to Tayrona for 1 night. The next day we went hiking 4 kilometers to a beach to swim and then came back. The next 2 nights night we stayed outside of Tayrona at a nice house.  After that we went up int the Sierra Nevada of Santa Marta for 2 nights.  Then we went back to Cartagena for one night, and the next day flew home to Cali.  This is a picture of us in Tayrona.

Tejo

         Up in the coffee country there is a sport that is very popular it's called Tejo.  The way you play tejo is you throw a very hevy piece of stone at a torget up to forty feet away made out of clay with packets of gunpowder in itaround a metal ring.  You play the game in teams if you hit it the gunpowder it explodes becouse of the wait and your team gets two points.  If you get in the middle of the metal ring you get 5 points.  And if no one hits anything the closest one gets 1 point.  There is a picture of me playing Tejo. 

Trucha al Ajillo

       The coffee country is full of small towns, in one of them (the most touristy one) there was a very typical dish. It was called trucha al ajillo or garlic trout.  The day we got it we had been hiking for a while in cold weather and I had hurt my knee.  I was very grumpy when we got there.  We all decided to order the trucha al ajillo besides Simon.  When the food got to the table they served it in boiling garlic sauce that had the fish inside.  When we were finishing my dad asked the waiter how they made it.  She said that she did not know and would ask the cook, a couple minutes later the cook came out and told us how to make it.  She was very nice.  When we left the restaurant we were very happy.

Hummingbird Reserve

          On the same trip as my last post we went on a  very epic and long hike to a hummingbird reserve.  The hike was a 13 kilometers long and at the end was the hummingbird reserve.  In the hummingbird reserve there was a house that had hot beverages and hummingbird feeders.  In Colombia there are something like 200 species of hummingbirds and at this house you could see 10-15 of them.  The one in the picture is the one that I found most fascinating.  We went to the same place again but could not get a good picture.

Coin Toss in Filandia

      On one of our first trips to the coffee country we by chance ended up in a small town that was having its fair.  When we got there the fare was happening there were lots of gambling games the first one we found was called "La Sirena" the way you played was you  would put your coin or bill down on a number and then spin the a arrow in the shape of a mermaid (sirena) and if it landed on your spot you would win triple.  Another one was a coin toss where you could throw 100 peso coins (5 cents) on to a board made out of tiles with numbers on them surrounded by tape.  If it landed not touching the tape you would get however many pesos the tile said.  If it landed on the tape the person running the game would take the money.  While I was in Colombia I had a great time playing lots of games.

Hair cut in Colombia

           Over Christmas we went to Cartagena while we were there we noticed that our hair was long.  The day before we had been walking around and thought that we had seen a old barber shop.  So we decided to go back, when we got there there was a line so we asked them the price to see how much for a hair cut it was 10,000 pesos ($5.00) since it was so cheap we decided to wait. Eventually we sat down to get our cut we all said we wanted our cut like James Rodrigues (Colombian soccer star) the barbers were all male and were very nice.  when we finished they put gel in our hair.  My dad is the only one that has not gotten his hair recut.

Los Toros

       While I was in Colombia I went to my first bullfight, it was amazing despite all the blood and gore.  The bullfight we went to was a especially good one apparently for two reasons, number one was because we got to see 7 bulls and number two because seven ears were given to the bullfighters as trophies for doing a good job.  The reason we got to see seven bulls was because there was a local bullfighter who did bad on his first two bulls so they gave him one more bull to fight.  I was surprised on how interesting it was and what a cultural experience it was.