February 2012 Archives

Sierra made this incredibly delicious soup by roasting tomatoes, onions, and garlic for a couple hours and then putting it through the blender. HOLY CRAP it was awesome.

People keep asking me, "Wasn't it REALLY hard to be vegan in Colombia?"

Nope.

That's not to say it isn't carne, carne, y más carne everywhere you go, but there are many good vegetarian eateries too. I found at least one in virtually every town I visited:
     


Girasoles in Cartagena. This is the place I went to every day while I was writing. We also went to Govinda's, which was fairly good, but Girasoles is better, and a way better value too (7,000 pesos for juice, soup, and a big plate of yum).



Albahaca in Bucaramanga. I love that all the ingredients are laid out in little plastic tubs on a table by the door, and you just choose what you want and they sauté it up for you with fresh herbs.



Restaurante Vegetariano Saludable Delicia in San Gil. Best seitan steak ever!



Mandala Arte y Sabor in Barichara. Same deal here for lunch--only 7,000 pesos. I believe they called this "vegetable paella." Nom!



A very friendly veggie café in Villa de Leyva (I can't seem to find the name by googling, but it's just north of the Plaza Mayor on Calle 12). That lentil burger with chutney was taaaaasty. Again, only 7,000 pesos, and that included soup, juice, tea, and dessert!

(You may have noticed that there is no entry from Bogotá. We wanted to try Quinua y Amaranto, but every time we went it was closed. Boo!)

We spotted a hitchhiker on the bus to Nevsehir (en route to "wonderful Kizkalesi").

Elliot [a tiny bit freaked out]: It's going to mate with me and then eat me!!!

I have another guest post up on Nova's blog today! I hope you enjoy it. (You can enter to win a copy of Mary Modern, too!)

A very long time ago, when this thing was a mattress, many babies were made upon it.

A vendor at the Uçhisar Castle entrance pulled open a dried apricot, tucked three kinds of nuts inside, and handed it to Elliot. Elliot, being gentlemanly, passed it along to Kate. "Natural Viagra!" the man said as she was about to bite into it. She hurriedly handed it back.

Further adventures in Cappadocia...



"Hop on, Mama! I take you all the way to America!"

Later that same day we hitched a ride back into Göreme on a tractor bed:



(Man, that was fun!)



This farmer dropped us off at the edge of town, and gave us this thoroughly disgusted look when we tried to pay him.

(Reading D.K. Broster in the hotel hammock. Couching at the Door is an excellent collection of creepy stories!)

I'm home! Pretty much every trip I take seems like the best ever, and Colombia is no exception. I've got plenty of photos and stories to post, but for now I just want to show you how I spent my last three days in Cartagena, after Kate went back to D.C. and Sierra home to Bucaramanga.



I wrote. A LOT. Don't look too closely at the scribbling--it's still a rough draft--but you get the idea. I went down to the hotel café for coffee, headed out to a vegetarian restaurant for lunch each day, and one afternoon I took some time out to visit the Palace of the Inquisition, but for the most part I just wrote. Leaving my laptop at home was a very good idea. (You can pick up WiFi at most hotels and cafés in Colombia.)



After Cartagena I took the bus to Bucaramanga to hang out with Sierra for a week and a half or so. (I went with her to school and watched her teach! She cooked fabulous vegan meals and threw a dinner party in my honor!) I got a lot done in Buca too, but there's definitely something to be said for self-imposed social isolation when you're looking to--figuratively speaking-- kick your own took. Nova sometimes books a hotel room for a weekend so she can write non-stop, and I'd really been wanting to try it myself. I managed to find that essential combination: an inexpensive but comfortable hotel (i.e., where I can sit for hours and no one will bother me), no company, and no WiFi. That was all I needed.



Once I'd written enough to feel that glow of satisfaction in the afternoon, I treated myself to a shake. Mango + spearmint = BLISS!

I'll tell you more about what I'm working on once I've actually finished the draft. Until then--more about Colombia! (And Turkey too, I still haven't finished blogging about Turkey!)