Souvenir Photo Studio, by Al Bourassa: Monday June 24, 2019 Finca

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Monday June 24, 2019

It is another holiday here, don't ask me what for... Every day is a holiday for retired people.

We had been invited to see Ana's boyfriend German's finca (acreage) for some time now but today it became a reality.

We picked up Adiela for the trip. Mom, Ana Julia, was to come along but chickened out when told about the winding mountain roads. She gets very afraid.

German said that we would enjoy the views and he wasn't kidding... He has an incredible valley view that includes many towns including Rio Frio, Andalucia, Tulua, BugaLaGrande, San Pedro, Buga and much more. At night he says the lights are spectacular and he can even see the glow from Pereira. So the Canon got a small workout today after I took 3 panoramas with the Lumix...

I just checked a map and figure we were at, or near, an area aptly called BellaVista. We got there via Rio Frio, went a couple of miles then hung a left and switchbacked up this mountain for about 20 minutes until we got to the service road which was very steep. German took me down on the motorcycle first to see if I thought that I could navigate it. It had a couple of hairy spots and a couple of boulders that we removed and down I went, no problem. At that point I figured that coming back up after a rain would be almost impossible...

German has a family sharing his finca, 61-year-old Alvaro and his 37-year-old wife Lina with 2 beautiful children, 3 dogs, and at least one cat.

We had met German and Ana in Rio Frio at the grocery store as we all loaded up on ingredients to make a chicken stew. I brought the beer. It didn't take long for the ladies to get cooking and we had the big stewpot simmering on a wood fire. Add some rice and we had a great meal.

The views of the sugar cane fields, the plantain fields, the towns, the mountains opposite were magnificent. It wasn't the greatest day, heavily overcast, but we made the best of it. A nice cool breeze on a mountaintop was just what this Canadian ordered.

Several birds buzz the valley and I managed to catch buzzards, even from above, and a flight of parrots. There were some noisy woodpeckers too but too far away for any decent shot.

My only bugaboo was that the tiny red ants seemed to find me wherever I sat, and those little buggars do bite.

It was almost time to leave anyway and it started to sprinkle, threatening to get heavier, so German indeed told me that I needed to get my car up the hill post-haste. Because of my fuzzy understanding of rapid-fire Spanish I asked him to drive the car up the hill and I would co-pilot. I would have gone up very slowly but, not German, he only knows one speed, very fast... Anyway Lizzie performed well and we only had one undercarriage bang.

Then he was going to bring up Adiela and Cristina by motorcycle but the rain abated enough that they just walked up, but quite winded when they got there. While waiting I had taken more photos from that vantage point.

The drive back was quicker once I knew the road. We got home just at dusk to a group of very happy dogs.

Princesa was vomiting a lot for a bit but hopefully she is fine now.

I hope you enjoy the pictures. That was the day’s excitement.

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