Colombia -- Settling in

Thursday
Thursday we finally started getting more time with the folks that we needed. The day started early as I had a conference call with Europe, so I was one of the first folks in the office.

We had lunch at a restaurant in the mall. We thought at first that I had a steak done cowboy style -- but it turned out that the correct translation was that I had a horse steak. (It was good. Sorry Jayme.) For dessert I had Maracuya pie which was a wonderful tart citrus ice box pie. Not knowing what it was, we asked the waitress if we could see the fruit. She cut one open for us and let us try to original fruit. Still wonderful...

So I go to Babblefish to find out the translation fo Maracuya. If you translate "maracuya" from Spanish to English it translates very nicely to "maracuya". Helpful. So I go to the Wikipedia (English version). Maracuya only appears as a non-US flavor for Gatorade. Hmmm... So I google it -- and it translates in English to "Passion Fruit". So I had a passion fruit pie.

That has since gotten on my passion fruit kick... I bought some marmalade to bring home, I have had maracuya sorbet, etc.... I love it.

Also, I should say that all of the fruit here is wonderful. At 8600 feet, in Montana you are above the tree line. In Colombia, everything is green and beautiful. They are so close to the equator that everything grows here. Passion Fruit is one of the cheapest fruits. For breakfast in the morning (when I go), I have fresh squeezed orange juice and similarly papaya juice. I love this place.

Thursday was a long day for work -- we didn't leave until about 10. I didn't have as much to do, but my contractor needed to stay and I have a strong philosophy to never leave a man behind.

So, dinner was room service pizza which was an excellent reminder that for my next trip I was going to bring an ingredients dictionary.