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Saturday I'd planned a day of catching up on blog and photo sorting,etc but didn't get very far! Went out for lunch with Gilma to a restaurant with a salad bar to go with the set meal, yes, a salad bar! I was so happy with my plate of salad :-) After lunch I tried an 'oblea', very typical in Colombia though I haven't noticed them before…..best described as two round wafers (about the size of a tortilla) with jam, arequipe, nuts, coconut in the middle. Sounds a bit funny but was nice! In the afternoon I met Juanita (daughter-in-law) and we made arrangements for Sunday. She also took me on a little tour of the centre of Sogamoso which was nice. We got some shopping ready for cooking a meal for everyone, made burritos, bit like the way I do fajitas, from 'Carve' which was like quorn! (Carne = Meat, get rid of the 're' and add 've'!) It was a delicious meal and a fun evening :-)
Sunday was an earlylish start, leaving at 8. Juanita and her son Samuel picked me up and the three of us drove to Mongua via Tópaga. Stopped off there to see the main plaza and church, it's another very pretty little town. On arrival in Mongua we went in search of some transport to get us up to the 'Laguna Negra' in the Páramo de Oceta and after asking around we found a man with a jeep who would take us for 80,000 pesos- Juanita got him down to 55,000 and we set off. It was a bumpy 30 minute ride up the mountain from 2,800 metres at Mongua to 3,200 metres at the laguna. It was very pretty and there was no-one else up there. The 2 lads who had also come up in the jeep led us on a walk round some of the edge of the lake to a small waterfall. The views were great and I really enjoyed visiting it. We were really lucky with the weather as it was a bright, clear, sunny, blue sky day, apparently it's often not like that and can be cold, cloudy and wet :-)
On return to the town we had the sandwiches that Juanita had brought along and I was lucky enough to see another Colombian tradition- the people of the town celebrating the Saint of the town. The procession exited the church and as they walked round the square and stopped at each corner for the priest to speak they were led by a small band and it sounded like they were playing "when the saints come marching in" although I could have been imagining it. From Mongua we drove to a Busbanzá, another small pretty village and through the town of Corrales which is apparently one of the best decorated towns at Christmas time, a shame I'm a few months too early! It was a really hot afternoon and I ended up using the scarf I had bought to keep me warm to cover my arms in the car as I felt like I was burning! It was a great day out and was really nice to have the chance to visit somewhere I otherwise would not have had the chance to visit and Juanita and Samuel also enjoyed it as they hadn't been before.
I relaxed in the afternoon then had dinner at a restaurant in the square while Gilma was at mass. I splashed out on veggie lasagne and salad, which really was my most expensive meal yet, tasty though! From the restaurant I could see Sunday evening activity going on in the square, mostly families wandering. While waiting for Gilma I played football with a boy who was on the square with his sister. He was 4 and she was 8 and they appeared to be on their own with the girl selling icecream and obleas. He seemed really happy to have someone to have a kick about with and it was good fun. Thought it was sad to see such young children there on their own though and I hoped they wouldn't be there too late….
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