Sunday July 31st

Today we had a fun filled cultural day. We started out by visiting a market where I tried a food I had never heard of before. It is called Mangostina. The skin is a purple colour and will turn everything red if you don’t be careful. The flesh is white and looks something like cheese curds and garlic, but it definately doesn’t taste like either of them. It was sour but definately delicious. They also have a pink potato that we are going to eat later on this week and things that looke like a wrinkly carrot. I think they are like parsnips. It was quite an adventure and it definatly got me excited about the rest of our trip. I love going to food markets.

Mangostino- SO DELICIOUS!

We then took our tour to Zipaquita where we toured a salt cathedral. Miners wanted a church in the mine because they would work for long periods of time underground. They first created another church but when it became unstable they had to close it and build another one. They hired an architect who used natural elements and did not use human figures in his design. There are all the traditional symbols and elements that any catholic church would have, the twelve stations of the cross (in this case 14 stations), and the three naves representing the birth, life and death of Jesus. On our way into the mine- we visited the stations of the cross which were originally mine shafts that had been emptied of the rock. It was absolutely beautiful. My favorite part of the tour was tasting the walls- who knew a wall could be so salty!

THe ceiling of the left nave of the cathedral

Me getting ready to lick the salt off the wall

 For Lunch we ate at an old salt factory where they processed the salt water into crystalized salt. The food was amazing. We ate a traditional soup called Ajiaco with three types of potatoes, corn, chicken and aji (a spicy sauce) with cream and capers. The second course was beef, salted potatoes, rice and a salad. For dessert was a cheese dish with a carmalized sugar sauce. All three courses were delicious but my absolute favourite was the soup.

Ajiaco- a traditional colombian soup

 The last place we visited was a dairy farm with all it’s own locally produced products. I had a traditional dessert called Casamiento (the Marriage). It consisted of a berry sauce, Arequipa (a carmelized sugar and condensed milk sauce- similar to Manjar) on top of a white cheese. It sounds disgusting but it was so delicious!