Mi COLOMBIA

Ok friends, finally a post on my recent trip.

This used to be my world, and I get to relive it when I go back “home:”

Fresh warm bread from the neighborhood bakery every morning 

 

 

The trip to the beach and the necessary rest stop to munch on sweets and Arepa e' huevo! 

 

The beach and the place where I find myself

 

The best food in the world

 

 

And the only place in the world where I will eat pizza without regrets

 

Empanadas and Uva Postobón (grape soda drink)

 

The family

 

and the friends I’ve known as long as I’ve been alive

and everything else that brings me back to my childhood:

the mango tree in my front yard

 

the church and it’s open hallways that I walked from class to class every Sunday  

My school

 

The shaved ice guy, the one who would ride his cart around the neighborhood and honk his horn every afternoon at 4pm 

The local theater where I learned to love the arts

 

The neighborhood park, where I spent countless hours playing after school and during vacations. Also the first place I met my first love.

 

And even the crazy traffic and non-existent parking regulations (see below what’s supposed to be bus parking ONLY)

 

And the beach a few minutes from my house

 

meeting long lost friends, enjoying real coconut and seafood with an ocean view

 

The architecture and the homes; their smell is still in my brain thousands of miles away.

I think and dream about this place at nights as I lay in bed. At times, after busy and difficult days, it’s my happy place. I think about how I had the best childhood anyone could possibly have, and how much I treasure that. I hope I can provide the same memories to my children, so that when it’s their turn to find their happy place within their hearts, they remember their past and a life well lived.

And that is the reason why “RECORDAR ES VIVIR”

To remember is to LIVE AGAIN

 

Con amor,

Vivian