Feria de Las Flores 2009

RCN Noticias (the local 24 hour news station) is estimating that 4,000 foreign visitors will be in Medellin this year for Feria de Las Flores.  About 1,700 of those will have visited Colombiamoda the previous 3 days.  Now, to many of you, that is not a staggering number but to the promoters of the event, it is about an 85% increase over last years foreign attendance. They are also expecting in excess of 50,000 Colombians from other cities to be in town as well.

RCN also announced that there are very few if any hotel rooms available in the city during the 10 day event.  Surely a good sign for the Medellin economy. Expect a 20-30% premium over normal posted rates for this event.

 

The festival begins on July 31st and runs through August 9th.  This year, Cabalgata is on Saturday August 1st..  Cabalgata has been trumpeted as the worlds largest outdoor horse parade with over 7,000 riders and participants in last years parade.  It is an event not to miss if you are in Medellin.

 

There are plenty of places to view the prade along the 28 kilometer route.  Just a word of caution.  Avoid large crowds of people as there are many pickpockets working the event.  Protect your valuables, money, cameras, don’t wear flashy jewlery etc.  A fanny or back pack is recommended.

The Mayors official website has a schedule of events for the Feria; http://www.medellin.gov.co/alcaldia/jsp/modulos/V_medellin/index.jsp?idPagina=1015

For the locals and many Colombians that visit from other cities, this event is an opportunity to party for 10 days. For the visiting foreigners, they will see Medellin life at it’s best.

MTG

Medellin Travel Guide Updated Travel Directory

There are many Blogs and Forums on Colombia and Medellin in General. There never seems to be an end to the repeated questions that arise on many of these forums.

MTG has attempted to put a plethora of snippets on Medellin in it’s travel directory section; www.medellintravelguide.com/medellin_traveldirectory.html

It is actually 5 pages long but can answer many of your questions about traveling to or visiting Medellin.

The format is quite simple. Many short snippets about Medellin Travel topics with each one being linked to pages with more intense information.

If we have missed anything you think is important, let us know and we will be happy to add it.

Thank you,

MTG

Chicken Gizzard Soup-Medellin Colombia

We almost always have a pot of soup on the stove. Started fresh every morning and generally based from a bullion cube, what gets added is fresh vegetables, rice, pasta, left over meats from the night before (if there are any) and occasionally some special surprises.

In this fashion, there is always something fresh to eat that can be quickly heated and consumed when hungry instead of waiting for a pre determined time to eat.

Now, when I was a youngster, I was introduced to chicken gizzards at a very early age. Unlike many kids, I rarely turned up my nose that weren’t familiar to me. I always tried it and if I like it would eat it. If I didn’t like it I wouldn’t. Several things took time to acquire a taste like broccoli, caulifolwer and cooked cabbage to name a few (all of which I now readily devour when presented).

Anyway, I recall my first experience with chicken gizzards at my aunts farm in Tennessee. I had no idea what they were but as soon as I put one in my mouth I immediately liked them and even asked for seconds!

The one thing about my chicken gizzard history is that they were always fried!!!

Imagine my surprise when I found chicken gizzards in my daily bowl of soup? There was no doubt I would eat them but I was curious about the taste/texture etc of this new treat.

Since our soup is always cooked in a pressure cooker, the gizzards were were actually quite tender and tasty and brought out an added flavor to the already delicious chicken based soup of the day.

The receipe? Chicken based bullion cube; add fresh vegetables of your choice; pasta or rice and chicken gizzards. Pressure cook or boil for as many hours as you wish and get out your spoon when ready to eat!

I am told that addiding gizzards to soup is quite common in Medellin. First time I have seen it in over two years but I am delighted to have found it.

Next time I go to Exito or Carrefour, I believe I’ll stock up on more gizzards as a kind of hint. I might even show them how to fry up a few for dinner one night.

Sabados Felices

A favorite Medellin comedy/variety show was doing a live filming in Parque de Deseos last Saturday night. The crowd began forming early in the afternoon for a 7PM filming.

By curtain time, the open air plaza was jammed with about 25,000 people. It was a standing room only event.

Now my spanish is not bad but a lot of the jokes that included innuendo, metaphors, sarcasm and local modismos went way above my head. Probably like some of our jokes would appear to a non native English speaking person.

None the less, we had a great time and it was fun to be around a large group of local people. I think I was the only gringo in the crowd!!!