Culinary Delights?

I was feeling adventurous today. I decided to put on hold the action and adventure of paragliding, for a day trip from San Gil to yet another picturesque colonial village and a minibus ride with gorgeous mountain views. A hint to my readers: Gorgeous mountain views is a euphemism for: harrowing-journeys-on-sketchy-mountain-roads-in-need-of-repair-becuase-mudslides-have-taken-out-part-of-the-road-with-drivers-going-really-fast-passing-blindly-on-corners-with-no-guardrails. I think I needed my old "motion sickness acupressure bands" lately.

Barichara was a place not to miss and it was a quaint village with a beautiful chruch and a nice square. One of the main reasons I went there, though was to hike on the El Camino Real. It is an old pathway between Barichara and Guane. It is listed as a two hour hik in each direction and I thought it would make a great day trip. I was right. Barichara is great. The walk was amazing (down hill, actually down a steep mountain path) to Guane. I loved the day. I was of course committed to not letting it take me two hours in either direction (proving all the guides and books wrong) but I still took my time and enjoyed the views, the scenery, the goats, the chickens, the cows, and the farms along the way.

Feeling inspired to try new things and not be chicken, I was seduced into a very local restaurant in Guane. I was the only tourist in this sleepy little place. In fact I didn´t even see a car there. The locals dragged me in and asked what I wanted to eat. In my very broken spanish I decided to try something new and I asked for "pepitoria". The owner and his wife asked a question I didn´t understand. "Si" I said. Then he asked another question with a weird look and had me look at what the other four patrons were eating. I guessed it was pepitoria and it looked like ribs or something. "Si", I said again. The old guys were also drinking beers with it so I ordered one of those too. Going local, I was. It wasn´t ribs. At all.

It came on a plate. It looked like a short thigh bone that had been broken, with a pile of rice, what I think was some yucca, a little salad and what looked like a wierd version of a meat stuffing. Being the polite boy that I am, I tried it all. And of course the local lunch eaters were watching with great interest. The meat on this bone was good, fatty but good. The lead local guy told me to eat it with my hands, I tucked right in. I think it might have been pig. The yucca, salad and rice, fine. The meat stuffing was well intresting. I thought it was a liver based thing, tasted a little gross but I kept at it. Well, I did a little google search. Turns out it was a blood pudding. While I can´t read through all the recipes (in Spanish), I know they are all based with "sangre" which is clearly blood. In this case congealed blood. Mixed with a little liver for good measure. In fact, in most cases I could find, it is goat´s blood. Which makes me assume I ate a goat leg, but who really knows.

After the long hike back to Barichara, I decided to try it´s local delicacy, Ants. Yes, ants. Dead, dried, seasoned, crunchy ants. They actually weren´t half bad. You can pop them in like popcorn. Maybe they will be the cure for my potato chip problem? Maybe not, but they were tasty in a small amount!

Overall, a day of experimentation. I think I might stick with empanadas tonight.