Money can't buy me love!

¡Hola, todos! ¡Feliz día del amor y amistad! Today in Colombia is Love and Friendship Day - equivalent to our Valentine's Day. Everyone wishes each other "¡Feliz día!" and tells friends and family how important they are! It's very nice :) Going shopping isn't a tradition of this day, but as the new mall downtown was opening today, we decided to go!

 

It's called "Unicentro" because it's the centro commercial of Quindio (Quindio is the departamento I live in). It's downtown, and you can bet that the entire city came to the opening day! Take a gander at this crowd:

The people on the top floor are waiting in line to get down the escalator. Police officers were in there directing traffic! There was barely room to walk around. There were people of all ages, but mostly teenagers. Typical.

We went with some friends, and our first stop after walking around a bit was ice cream at Popsy!  There's always room for ice cream. 

I went to the mall with Sara, my host sister (left), and our friend Camila, who is a Modern Languages student at the University! 

In case anyone cares, I got some cute earrings there. They are, in fact, for me, and not for Graham, as Florentino asked (I think and hope he was joking...)

The outside wall of the mall has flowers growing in a pattern - pretty chevere!

 
Walking home from the mall, we passed by this spectacle on the street. Its is a cabalgata. Florentino compared them to a motorcycle gang - they're a horse gang! They are a group of rich farmers from Armenia or its outlying pueblos who have formed these horse gangs. The mayor calls them up to come perform on special holidays like today, and they are usually accompanied by something called yipao = the Spanish-ized word for "Jeep" plus a very Paisa ending "ao." This word refers to the parade of Jeeps they have, filled, as you can see below, with a whole bunch of random things. It's carnival-esque, and is a specialty of Quindio.

Unfortunately, I didn't experience the Jeep carnival. Here is a photo I found online.

The roots of this two-fold parade are deeply cultural. The Horse gang represents the first people who came to Quindio from Antioquia, called "arrieros". They came to Quindio on horseback and mule-back (new term?). Eventually, Jeeps came to replace the use of mules, as they could carry a great deal and were good for driving over rough terrain and up mountains. Oh, technology!

Another flavor of Armenia is the bus system! The name is "Tinto," which is the Quindian term for black coffee. "Un tinto, por favor." Taking the bus anywhere costs 1,500 pesos - about $0.80 USD. Pretty good deal! To take the bus, you have to look for the bus that you need and stick your arm out. It's awesome to take the bus and be able to look out at the beautiful and astounding mountains of Armenia.

The term "tinto" dates back to the Spanish invasion of Colombia. The rich priests and Spanish soldiers used to drink red wine, which is called "vino tinto" (tinted). To mock them, the people of the villages would make black coffee and say that it was "tinto." I guess the name stuck!

"Lo tomamos con orgullo!" = We drink it with pride!

 That shall be all. Thank you for being here with me today, and a special shout-out to my Aunt Mare, who always shares my adventures through this blog! Have a great evening, everyone, and again, ¡Feliz día del amor y amistad! Looking forward to the banana cake that Gloria is making! ¡Chao!

¡Feliz día! = Happy day!

centro commercial = mall

departamento = department (Colombian states)

chevere = cool

cabalgata = cavalcade (which, in case you didn't know, is a procession of people riding horses)

pueblos = villages

Un tinto, por favor. A black coffee, please.