I have yet to visit a country where I did not enjoy its food. Although I’ll be honest and say that Germany, Hungary, and Austria were relatively bland, but their food was still enjoyable for the time we were there, though it would not even be in my first 50 cuisines if I had to list them out. Before researching this trip, I didn’t know much about Colombian food at all, other than knowing that a) the variety of fruit would be incredible, b) their cuisine has a lot of overlap with other Latin American countries (arepas, fried plantains, rice and beans, lechon pork, chicharron), and c) I had to make sure that before the end of the trip that we had tried hot chocolate with local cheese dipped in it, as that’s a “thing” here.

Today, we had several delicious dishes beginning with our breakfast buffet at the hotel. Although many delicious dishes were served, the one that stood out to me in terms of how tasty yet simple it was was the caldo de costilla, or the Colombian beef ribs and potato soup. I felt the same way about this soup as I did the chicken soup I had at a random market in Puebla, Mexico, about nine years ago: it looks simple and plain, but it is really anything but. The beef ribs were juicy and extremely tender; you barely needed to chew to have them totally disintegrate in your mouth. The broth was extremely clear and clean tasting, clearly made with beef bones, cilantro, garlic, potato, maybe some carrots, and who knows what spices. And then, before eating it, you add in a cilantro-parsley “sauce” to it as a condiment, and it’s like a party in your mouth. Even after leaving breakfast, I was thinking about how much I liked the simplicity of that soup.

Next at lunch, we ate ajiaco, which is Colombian chicken and potato soup. This is far richer than the caldo de costilla, with what appears to be potatoes blended into the soup to give it richness, and it was also extremely impressive yet simple. To make it even richer and thicker, you eat it with slices of avocado and even dollops of cream added in! And then, you enjoy it with slightly salted white rice! We also had our very first Colombian tamale, which was wrapped not in a corn husk but in a large banana leaf, and inside was steamed masa with tender chunks of chicken. The texture was far different than the Mexican varieties I’ve enjoyed; during the first few bites, I really thought I was eating yellow rice given the texture of the masa, but in the end, I concluded it was definitely corn based.

And then as if we hadn’t had enough food, for dinner we had the tasting menu at Leo, the famous restaurant owned by Leonor Espinoza, who is known as a celebrity chef in South America. Leo is ranked as number 99 on the top restaurants of the world list as of last year. While other Colombian chefs have risen to prominence for using ingredients across Chile, Argentina, and other South American countries, Espinoza has stayed within the lines of her own country, sourcing as many local and little-known ingredients as possible, even for Colombians. We enjoyed fermented fruit wines of local exotic fruits ranging from coca to borojo, ate poncho, the largest rodent in the world (our server said that this rodent is about 1-meter long!), had limonero ants grated into dishes, and enjoyed herbs and vegetables sourced from the Andes. Other than at Attica in Melbourne, Australia, which obviously has a lot of ingredients that would be completely foreign to me, this meal had the most number of ingredients in it that I’d not only never heard of but wouldn’t even fathom eating. While not everything was something I’d necessarily crave eating again (the salty rum cocktail that tasted like the sea… was a novelty, but not something I loved), I loved the concept and plating of every dish, and am totally won over by how innovative this chef is. And, I’ll be honest: I was even more excited about this restaurant knowing it’s owned and run by a woman.

After a long layover in Miami to get through the work day, we landed in Bogota this evening and arrived at our hotel, where we were upgraded to a junior suite. Because of Chris’s status, they not only upgraded our room, but they even welcomed us with a massive platter of local fruit to wish us well for our stay.

Fruit is one of the number one reasons I was excited to come to Colombia, as Colombia is known for its expansive selection of local fruit varieties that would be completely foreign and unknown in the U.S., or really any other part of the world. While all of South America is known for its exotic fruit, many are native and grown only in Colombia, so even within this continent, I’ve read about people from neighboring countries doing “fruit tourism” and going to Colombia just to eat its fruit!

Of the exotic fruits on the platter that we are not normally accustomed to eating, we found granadilla, which is like the yellow-colored, sweeter cousin of the passion fruit/maracuya. It is round with thick, slippery smooth skins, and when you cut it open, it has grey flesh that oozes with crunchy seeds, and is extremely sweet without even a hint of the tartness you expect from a regular passion fruit. Then, we had pitahaya, or a yellow variety of dragonfruit. This was extremely sweet, not bland and tasteless like the pink varieties we see in Southeast Asia. Chris was very pleasantly surprised by this one. Lastly, we had zapote, which is an oblong-shaped fruit with brown skin that has the texture of sandpaper, while the inside is orange-hued and creamy.

This has already started out as a delicious and flavor-discovering trip.

It’s the Tuesday before Memorial Day weekend here, and since today is my last day in the office before we leave, colleagues have been asking what my plans will be this long weekend, and I’ve been asking them. A number of them will be traveling for beach locations along the east coast or for weddings, but most will be here, spending time with friends and family at barbecues and the usual gatherings that happen during the first weekend that marks the beginning of summer in the northern hemisphere.

I can’t remember ever going to a Memorial Day barbecue in my life. Maybe we did them growing up in our own backyard, but I don’t remember ever attending one. We often went to family friends’ homes for Independence Day barbecues, but I don’t really think I realized Memorial Day barbecues were a thing until I became an adult. And as horrible as it sounds, I don’t miss the idea of going to one during Memorial Day weekend, especially if I know I could be traveling to see something new during that time. They just sound so… mundane to me. I get bored hearing of these things. Maybe that makes me seem like a loner. Or maybe, that could make me seem like I don’t like people, or that I think I’m too good for a family and friends gathering on that day of the year. But… I kind of don’t care. I like that we use this time to travel and explore other parts of the country and world we haven’t been to. Maybe it makes us less relatable, but again, I don’t care. I’m happy to do our own thing. We have each other and the world. That seems like enough.

When I have personal travel upcoming, unless it’s specifically relevant to topics at hand (e.g. “I can’t do that meeting because I’ll be on PTO”; “I won’t be in town that weekend when you come because I’ll be in X city for vacation”), I rarely share it openly unless directly asked. I’m not the kind of person who likes to flaunt or brag, and I’m cognizant that even if that isn’t my intention, people can *hear* it that way because… well, people are people, and people are flawed. Chris’s mom has said she’s felt that way about sharing her travels at work, too. I’ve generally not shared openly unless asked.

So, today I told my colleague that I’d be in Colombia for about five days, and she exclaimed, “What?!!! You didn’t tell me you were going to Colombia!” It’s not like I purposely held it back; I just didn’t really know how relevant it was or if she even cared. And the other thing was: even if she now knew, does it really matter whether I told her two months ago or today? What difference does it really make unless she’d been there before (she hadn’t) or was the kind of person who discussed travel? While some of my friends share little to nothing about where they go and what they do, I have other friends who tell me their exact dates and cities when they travel. Everyone has their level of sharing and reasons for doing so, I suppose. But in my case, I just want to talk about what is relevant in the moment.

This Wednesday, we’re headed to Colombia for an early start to our extended Memorial Day weekend. I’ve gotten quite a lot of responses to this destination, everything from excitement to envy to downright, “Are you crazy? why are you going there?” A customer said he didn’t think it was safe for us to go there and said he’d never in his life want to go there and was happy just where he was; a partner suggested I watch my back and my purse at all costs. A colleague suggested I be careful and not drink any of the water there.

I’ve gotten all kinds of cautionary messages when traveling everywhere from China to India to Brazil. A friend who was worried about traveling to India kept recounting all the rapes of women and tourists there from media reports, and that even when accompanied by a man, it doesn’t make it safe for a woman to be walking around in the streets of India (in other words, just because I’m with Chris doesn’t mean I will no longer be a “target”). In general, I’d like to think I’m not a “dumb tourist” in that I always keep my purse in front of me, and I never flash a lot of cash in public or wear obviously expensive jewelry when traveling. But most of the time, I try not to think about that kind of stuff. It’s not that I’m being ignorant to the warnings, but rather I know that if I think about it too much, I will start getting nervous, and it would probably ruin my trip. I can’t foresee the future, and I can’t predict what bad things will happen because bad things happen around me every single day no matter where I am. Even though I consider New York City an extremely safe city to live in and walk around at all hours of the day and night, I still hear about friends of friends or acquaintances who have had their iPhones or other expensive electronics stolen from them, a few right out of their hands on the subway or on the subway platform. What are we going to do about that?