Trekking to Talacos

Back in the little village of Apuela this afternoon to book flights to our next destination Colombia. Got a few minutes for a quick update.

A couple of weeks back Claire, Sylvie and I (Stacey) all trekked in for four hours to Talacos, a remote little farming valley where we camped on the farm of a lovely family. Talacos is beautiful, and families seemed to be literally farming the sides of the cliffs.

The couple we stayed with were called Yolanda and Efren and they had four sons, two of which were living at home still, ages 10 and 12. We played volleyball with them for about two hours on our first day, they were so energetic. They love volleyball here. The father Efren was a Italian man (unusual here) who had grown up on the farm. He was tall and slim with a ruddy red face that you get from working in the fields all of your life. He talked very slowly to us in his booming voice and asked lots of questions about New Zealand. We told him about the sheep and he couldn't believe there are 20 sheep per person here (or whatever the figure is). They made us play endless games of Cuarenta at night after dinner, a game that everyone is obsessed with here. It has really confusing rules that seem pointless. Like the fact that the order of playing is anticlockwise.

Yolanda made us donuts and very milky sweet coffee for breakfast. She served us up a glass of fresh milk straight from the cow, which I wasn't very fond of, but it's good to try these things. Real milk has a very strong taste! Lunch each day was a huge plate of rice and beans with a fried egg and fried plantain. dinner on the first night was a big square of roasted pumpkin which was delicious (although i think they were a little stuck with what to cook with 2 vegetarians visiting). While here we were trying to find signs of bears so during the days we were out traipsing the fields and valleys with our radios and binoculars. Alas, no sightings this time round.

Stacey