Hola familia y amigos!
Welcome to our first blog post! Bear with us, we are new to this blogging thing…
We arrived safe and sound on Jan 21st and enjoyed a quiet start to the trip in Juli’s family’s country house on the outskirts of Medellin, near a town called Guarne, Antioquia. This is up in the hills, an altitude of 2,400m, and is surrounded by beautiful country-side. It benefits from a complete lack of noise from traffic or planes so was the perfect setting for us to get over our jet lag. Juli was reunited with lots of family and friends, and of course her adorable black Labrador who officially is called Tomate (ie Tomato), but to his friends is known as Negro, on account of his fur (see pic). During the week we did a couple of walks, one of which was to a very cold river, and also we took a bus to a nearby ‘GoApe’ experience with Juli’s big brother Camilo, which was great fun. The week culminated in a big family gathering in which ‘sancocho’ was served, a delicious traditional stew of potato, plantain, beef and chicken, plus lots of veggies picked from the vegetable patch, cooked over an open fire. It took the whole morning to cook and was a fitting way to mark a full 14 months since Juli had been home! From my perspective the day provided the chance to practice my Spanish, which being very limited, meant I experienced a number of somewhat awkward interactions in which warm pleasantries (I think) were met with bewildered silence – apologies to all (Lo siento!) Although lots of you know I am a bit afraid of dogs, the day’s social anxiety had the unexpected benefit of pushing me to make friends with Negro – the good thing with him is that he doesn’t speak Spanish either…
After the weekend we made our way into Medellin itself and have been staying with Juli’s childhood friend Paula, her mum Olga and her grandparents Hilmer and Alodia. Thank you to all for being so accommodating 🙂 We have met up with Juli’s father Josue for lunches and dinners as well, and he is of course very happy to see Juli again too! The city is at an altitude of 1,500m, so is much hotter and more humid than the country house. It sits in a valley in which the high rise apartment blocks are connected by a maze of very hilly roads, the traffic is pretty awful. It is known as ‘La Ciudad de la eterna primavera’, the city of eternal spring, as it has very little variation in seasons and is permanently between 25 – 32 degrees – a nice change from January in London. This means that the city is full of beautiful trees and plants – you can be driving down a main road and see mango and lime trees lining the route! A few days ago we unfortunately had to said goodbye to Camilo as he flew to Lisbon to be reunited with his wife Lenka, who is starting an internship at an institute studying genetics. Juli and her brother seem destined to never be in the same place at the same time, but it was great to spend time with him whilst he was here.
We have both been adjusting to life here and I have been taking quite intensive Spanish classes with a friend of Juli’s grandparents, Zoila, 3 or 4 times a week for two hours each. My brain feels exhausted after each class but I feel I am advancing quite quickly, which is key for me to feel more comfortable I think. Plus I am of course immersed in the Spanish language outside classes too – my conversations with Olga are slowly lengthening! Juli is catching up with her family and friends and taking a well earned break after the hustle of London.
Next blog post: our weekend trip to Santa Fe!
Coffee con Leche 