June 5- Free Day with Families

Hi everyone! If you have been following along, you know it has been a long and exciting week for this group! So today was a much-needed rest day with our host families. Each person had a different schedule for the day, some waking up early with lots of activities and others sleeping in and sitting by the pool. Since there were no true group experiences today, I want to share a lot of the new foods many of us have gotten to try as well as the food tour I was on today with my family.





To start the tour, my family and I (and I know some others went too!) visited La Alameda, a local market in the city. It was huge, with sections for everything: fruits and vegetables, meats, poultry, fish, flowers, woodwork, small restaurants, souvenirs, and more! It was just amazing to walk around and see all the fresh foods and get to taste new fruits and try local dishes. The seafood is phenomenal, and my family assured me that since Cali is close to the coast “it has the best fish” and it definitely met my high expectations– ​​¡delicioso!



Another really popular item here is Cholado, it is a drink/slushie cup with crushed ice on the bottom, every fresh fruit you can imagine: mango, pineapple, passionfruit, and every berry all stacked on the ice and to top it off they add fresh fruit juice and sweetened condensed milk… amazing! So far this is my favorite thing I've tried; the fruit here is unbeatable! 


Of course, arepas, empanadas, and plantains are widely popular here too and I think most of us have had too many arepas/plantains to count and have tried or made an empanada. Both are delicious and are served in numerous different ways. It is fun to see how wild some of the combinations can get, and test our taste buds as we bite into something new each day. So far my favorite is an Apellido, a plantain stuffed with cheese and then deep fried. 


I had such a great day with my family and they have gone above and beyond to make this experience great for everyone. We are all eager to start next week and see what new foods and experiences it will entail. 


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