The south end of the beach at Hua Hin, Thailand.
Where are Kevin and Ruth now? Hua Hin, Thailand.

Where are Kevin and Ruth going next? Maldives on March 23rd.

Tuesday, November 3, 2015

Grocery shopping in Medellin, Colombia

Yesterday was a day of rest...up until we had to climb the hill back up to the house where we've been staying!

The city of Medellin is in a valley, but the suburbs have grown up into the very steep hills of the surrounding mountains. So it's not bad walking down to the grocery store, but walking back up is definitely exercise.

Ruth and I made breakfast for us all yesterday morning. And we had all slept in, so it was pretty close to 11:00am by the time we actually ate!

Good thing we're used to working in a small kitchen.

Omelette.

Breakfast is ready. They don't have tortillas the same as in Mexico...they are thicker similar to the ones in Guatemala.

They have two cats here...Lita and Lion. This is Lita...she seems to have taken a liking to me!

Around 12:30pm Ruth and I walked down to the big Exito grocery store. We wanted to make dinner for our hosts and we hadn't been in a grocery store here yet so of course we were curious about prices and selection.

It was about 2 kms (1.3 miles) downhill every step of the way, some of it quite steep.

Yes, this is a two way street!

See the umbrella with the sign under it? That's a lady who operates an informal system to regulate the traffic. 

A view of the suburbs near where we are staying.

Yep, you can buy real cheddar cheese...for a price. $15,800 dollars? No, not that much. Those are Colombian pesos. For the exchange, we multiply everything by .0004. So that little block of cheese would be about $6.30 CAD.

Lots of different types of fruit.

Chicken is quite cheap, as is ground beef. Eggs are about 5,000 pesos per dozen, so about $2.00 CAD. The fruit in this particular store seemed reasonable, but our host Andrea says that it is cheaper in the big market downtown.

Ruth, looking at the hot chocolate aisle.

You'd think that coffee would be a big thing, but it's not as big as hot chocolate here in Colombia. Hot chocolate is the breakfast drink, along with many different varieties of fruit juices.

We bought a 6 pack of beer for 11,300 pesos ($4.52 CAD) and a cheap bottle of wine for 18,300 ($7.32 CAD).

Beer is cheap, but wine and spirits are more expensive than we would have thought. Colombia does not produce much of it's own wine, and Colombians are not in general big wine drinkers. However they do have a very popular spirit called aguardiente this is about 29% alcohol and tastes like anisette.

Then it was the steep climb back uphill for two kms (1.3 miles) carrying our purchases. Any normal person would have paid the 5,000 pesos ($2.00 CAD) and taken a taxi, but you know that we're not normal. Plus, we needed the exercise. Got to get in shape for the five day hike to the Lost City next month!

Had a good last evening with Andrea and Herber and showed them some photos of where we spend the summers in Saskatchewan, Canada.

Today is a travel day, so this morning we will say goodbye (gracias por todo Andrea y Herber!) for now, and we will hop in a taxi to take us to the southern bus terminal where we will have a four and a half hour bus ride to the city of Manizales.

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Today only...Amazon's best selling digital bathroom scale. This is very cheap...check out the price!




18 comments:

  1. Lots of interesting sights to see, enjoy.

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  2. Very interesting to see where and how people live....love it that you stay at couch surfer homes. I agree that you learn more about a country, people, culture, etc. that way. That omelette looks delish!!

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    1. We totally agree and that the major reason that we use couchsurfing.

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  3. Now that is a very narrow street. Enjoy the trip today.

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  4. How in the world is this a two-way street. I thought the streets in Ireland were narrow.

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    1. We don' t know how but it is, guess the elderly lady it happy to be the traffic controller though!

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  5. That price tag is hilarious! I take it you cannot buy much for a single Colombian peso :) I cannot believe the great markdown on that bathroom scale---I bought a virtually identical one for twice the price and considered it a bargain.

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    1. The lowest denomination that they have is a 100 peso coin and believe it or not you can actually buy something with it!

      Nice to hear that the scale was such a bargin price, guess you should have waited a bit before buying yours.;-)

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  6. How are you managing with gluten free?

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    1. No problem, it is much like Mexico and they many products using maiz, we do have to ask first or if shopping look at the ingredients though.

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  7. I don't know if I'd be brave enough to couch surf. Definitely know I'd never convince DH - not yet, anyway :)

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    1. I don't think it is a matter of being brave but being able to feel comfortable in a stranger's house. The first few times we used couchsurfing it definitely felt weird but not any more. We have never had a bad experience and most of the time we have had just the opposite. We have made many lasting friendships because of couchsurfing.

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  8. Imagine Sherman on that narrow street! We were forced to go down one almost that narrow in Mexico when we got caught somewhere we shouldn't be.

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    1. Nope can't for the life of us, ever imagine Sherman driving on that street. One reason that if we ever decide to drive down to anywhere in South America it will be in a very small unit. It is a fear of ours to be caught in a situation like that.

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  9. The traffic patrol lady with the umbrella is a good one! she gets tips???

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    1. Love the way they make their own jobs up. Yes she makes tips! :-)

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