Take me down to Junior's farm!

Today I went to the finca with my host family! "Finca" is like a country vacation house that also serves to produce some crops. It is a family property - that is to say that adult siblings own the finca together, and gather there on weekends to spend time together, do gardening, harvest some crops, and relax. Many families here in Armenia have a finca in one of the surrounding countrysides.

My host mom's family owns this finca, and her brother and sister live there. There is to the left a cement building made up of about 4 bedrooms connected to 2 small buildings that hold the old machinery that used to be used when the finca had a coffee crop. There is also a kitchen with a cafeteria set up, with many tables and chairs for large family gatherings. There is a really nice in-ground pool, that neighbors came to pay to use. In the front was another building with bedrooms that the brother rents out. Everything is open air, and it is wonderful! There is no air conditioning here except in the banks and possibly the hospitals! It seemed similar to camping, but there was electricity, running water, tvs, a computer, and a speaker system throughout the whole place. There were about 7 dogs and 5 cats, as well as geese and ducks walking around. There were also these flowers in yellow, orange, and pink, called San Joaquin. They were like hibiscus, but bigger than a human hand!

My host dad gave me a quick tour, and we picked and ate guayaba (guava), pulled up some yuca (casava) and picked carambolo (starfruit), shown in order below.

Being around the finca was great. The atmosphere was of relaxation with a little work mixed in, as well as playing with the kids, petting the animals, and looking at all the humongous spiders that made webs on the san joaquin flowers. After lunch, I went with my host mom to harvest bananas, which involved hacking down the huge banana plant with a machete. It was so cool!

Although there haven't been any attacks in this area for years, here are soldiers stationed around the towns and cities to protect the people in case a terrorist group attacks. Some of them had a camp right next to where we chopped down the banana tree, and they offered to help us carry the bananas back to the farm, which was a short walk away. So two of them helped us, and my host mom gave them a huge bag of bananas, plantains, and yuca for them to eat. They stayed and talked to us for forty-five minutes, because that's how the culture is. You meet new people and are not in a hurry to get back to what you are doing. A cousin brought us all out snack and drinks, and I must admit it was a little surreal standing in the Colombian countryside next to an avocado tree talking to two soldiers with guns as if it was the most normal and expected occurrence in the world. And it is, for their culture! My host family really appreciated the presence of the soldiers.

All of the small towns we passed through had cell phone stores. It is safe to say that almost everyone, no matter how isolated in the country, is connected via movil!

A note of precaution: do not go abroad and leave Twizzlers in your desk drawer, because ants will invade. Luckily they go away soon after you remove the candy.

Thanks for being here with me! :)

hormigas = ants

soldados = soldiers

arañas = spiders

bananos = bananas

columpio = a swing
movil = cell phone

Matilde = my host family's cat that was on the farm but is now living with us! She kept me company last night.