A Relaxing Weekend.

Friday. (March 2nd)

As the school that we are visiting in Tunja has “Jean’s day” every Friday, we decided to go to the street market and take the advantage to do some work at home. The Jean’s day is a  special day when the students can wear whatever they want, leaving their uniforms at home, and when the oldest students take the responsibility of preparing activities for the whole school. Although this initiative seems, and in my view is, a fantastic idea to promote leadership among the students, I believe this is also possible due to the small size of this school. Looking back to my days in my high school, where there were three different classes with 40 students each one, it seems a ‘little bit’ complicate to carry out this type of initiative. But who knows… perhaps it is just a question of finding a different approach.

The trip to the market was absolutely enjoyable. The fresh fruits and vegetables, the colours, the merchants… created a fabulous picture (for us).

Probably, for those that have to start working at 2 am to have ready their vegetable stand by early morning, and earn enough money for the week it is not that fabulous.

After our shopping in the market, we went back home and I prepared “salmorejo” for all of us, a typical Andalusian dish, which, fortunately,  was a success! Although, the day had been so far very calm, this completely changed after our visit to the printing centre. This, definitely, was one of the toughest task of the travel. In fact, we spend around an hour and a half there just to print a double size copy of each of the questionnaires…

In the evening, we decided to go out for dinner and some drinks, what was totally unsuccessful.  Unluckily, we didn’t realise that the Colombian timetable is different to the British one.. However, I will share with you the best part of the night: the music. Hope you enjoy!

 

Saturday. (March 3rd)

Got up and took the bus to Villa de Leyva. This is a really pretty colonial town, close to Tunja. When we arrived, we went to the artisan market to meet some friends of my dad that will host us this weekend. To our surprise, they had a Lebanese cuisine stand in the market and gave us a delicious lunch.

Then we went to their house, left our stuff and went to a close village to have a coffee and do some sightseeing. Something I learnt today was that in the squares that Spanish built, usually, they placed in one side of the square the church and in the diagonal the city council, meaning religious and civic power were built just next each other. This made me think that, in fact, my home town follows the same design.

Moreover, it was a fantastic coincidence that Claralía and Diego, the couple that hosted us, had many years of experience working for both the UN and Colombian ministry. Indeed, Claralía had worked as manager of different projects in the field of education, and Diego had been a professor in international relations for one of the Universities in Bogotá. Personally, this made even more special this trip, and every chat more enriching.

Then we went back home and chill for the rest of the evening. We needed to enjoy the opportunity of being in the countryside in an amazing house with a fabulous company and with these two pretties…along with a breath-taking moon!

 

Sunday. (March 4th)

Today we are going back to Tunja, where an intense week is waiting for us. But first, we decided to go to “La casa Terracota” and Ráquira, a small town well known for its pottery. So far, this weekend has been full of interesting places and nice moments. However, at the end of the day Claralía told me a piece of our history that truly impacted me. When the Spanish colonised America, and in particular Colombia, there were many tribes that opposed and fought against Spanish to keep their lands and culture. However, as we already know, this ended up in a massacre… And in fact, one of those Colombian tribes is historically known for committing a mass suicide. Adults and children jumped from the high of the hills to escape from nightmare that they were living… Definitely, a piece of history that, as Spanish, make you think why do we still ‘celebrating’ the discovering of America…

 

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