June 11 - Weekend Excursion to Silvia, Cauca
On our 12th day here in Colombia, we were blessed with a beautiful day in the Andes Mountains. We visited a town called Silvia, where people from 6 different indigenous communities reside. The Misak people are the most represented here, with approximately 20,000 living in or near Silvia. Upon arriving, we met with our guide, Jesús, and he explained some of the history of the area and the people who call it home. I immediately fell in love with the atmosphere - the powerful murals painted on the sides of buildings, the vibrant colors of the traditional clothing worn by the women selling their crafts in the main plaza, and the feeling that we had stepped back in time, just a little.
As luck would have it, there was a cultural exhibition going on in Silvia the very same day that we visited. It was called "Silvia: Más que 5 sentidos" (Silvia: More than 5 senses) and consisted of a tour of 6 different rooms, each with its own focus on one of the 6 senses (the 6th sense being the heart). We began the tour with sound: we were asked to close our eyes and listen to the sounds of a typical day there. It began with the near silence of the morning, with the exception of a rooster crowing, and took us through the hustle and bustle of a day of work, travel, cooking, socializing, and enjoying everyday life. Then we moved to the room where the 6th sense was explained: the heart. It is believed that humans should live in harmony with nature, that plants and animals have spirits, and that we can communicate with them. It was a beautiful representation of the respect the indigenous people have for nature. From there, we visited the room that represented the sense of smell, where we were given various plants and fruits to smell. The next room was the most exciting for me, as we were blindfolded and carefully guided to our seats, then had something placed in our hands. We had to feel the object and try to guess what it was before removing our blindfolds. I think I got a pretty easy one - pan de bono - which is a Colombian bread in the shape of a bagel, made of cassava starch, eggs, and cheese, and is very popular here. Then we were invited to take in the sights of the town - the flora and fauna, the typical dress, the buildings, the painted buses used for public transportation, and the traditional celebrations there, such as the Holy Week parade. We ended our tour with taste, and we were not disappointed! They had a variety of traditional pastries and savory salsas for us to sample. Yum!
Around lunchtime, we headed to a truchería (a trout farm and restaurant) in the mountains. It was absolutely gorgeous there, with the lush green of the mountains in the background, the sound of the river rushing right by us, the cool mountain air, and the scent of our lunch being prepared in the restaurant as we waited outside. We were welcomed by an energetic dog who took a liking to us and enjoyed our company so much that he jumped into the bus with us when we were preparing to leave! We were pleasantly surprised to find that our trout was prepared whole, with the tail and head included. It had the best flavor and was accompanied by rice, a small salad, some French fries, and what appeared to be a fried plantain pancake, by the shape. We were also served aguapanela, a typical drink in certain areas of South America, made of water and panela, derived from hardened sugar cane juice.
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