This past weekend I was fortunate enough to spend time at my friends farm. It is a 150 km car trip from Bogotá that takes approximately 3 hours or more. This is because of the high quality roads and buses that seem to be driving sideways due to their excellent alignment. I love the novelty of traveling by car here. There are buses that lean to one side like the leaning tower of Pisa, buses that pass small cars on uphill corners, potholes large enough to drown small animals and scenery fresh from the motorcycle diaries. However, my favorite thing has to be the Arepa tiendas along the road (Arepas are a puck sized food item crafted from corn that are sometimes sweetened and stuffed with cheese). These tiendas serve divinely delicious Arepas fresh from an in house wood-burning oven. This is further evidence that it is easy for someone with dollars to live like a king here. Each one costs around $0.35! They are usually eaten for breakfast and it only takes a few to have a meal.

Anyways, the weekend at the farm was excellent! The farm is only a few kilometers away from a small town named Toca. Toca has the highest rate of beer consumption per capita in the country. Apparently this is because of their "cold" climate. With that said I decided I would be very happy to meet the town firework expert. We arrived at a small open-air bar and asked the bartender if he could fetch the firework manufacturer for us. After a few minutes a grey haired man slightly younger than my grandfather walked out towards us. We told him that we were in the market for fireworks. He told us that he sells packages of a dozen fireworks for 20,000 and 25,000 pesos. He then added that he had some for 50,000 pesos but we shouldn't even ask about those. So naturally we asked about them and convinced him to sell us a dozen. That night at the farm the firework decibel level was such that 1/3 of Colombia probably heard it. Here is a picture of my beloved fireworks.

Standing next to me is my partner in crime, Andres. The fireworks are more like WW2 rockets than whatever it is that you (my readership) are accustomed to seeing. That grey haired man really knows his stuff! Unfortunately we scared the horses at the farm so bad that they decided they would rather jump over a 5-foot fence than stick around. Thankfully they were re-discovered this afternoon and my conscience is again in the clear. This past weekend was definitely explosively awesome.

I would like to conclude with a riddle. We were playing "I Spy" in the car today and one of my fellow travelers named Miranda hit me with a riddle that pummeled my brain for a good percentage of the afternoon. Here it goes. "I spy with my little eye something that begins with the letter 'S' (they play eye spy with letters here…)." Here are your hints to save you some grief. The Spanish and English word for this both start with the letter 'S', it is something that can be seen in almost every part of the world and everything from termites to the CN tower has one. Please write your guess in the comments.

Hasta Luego!