Results.

Elections were last night, and...as expected, but not as the media would have led you to believe, Juan Manuel Santos of Partido de la U won with over 46% of the votes. Compared to 21% for Antanas Mockus of Partido Verde.

What you probably don't know is that if in the first round election the front runner does not win over 51% of the votes, they have a second round election one month after the first - with only the top two candidates on the ballot.

So nothing is final confirming Santos as the next president, but with only 21% of the vote, I think Antanus Mockus should concede and save us from having another ley seca.

It's Election Time...

...and you know what that means??

LEY SECA!

Ley Seca means Dry Law...and here in Colombia, when there is a national election, ley seca is implemented for the entire weekend. So starting today at 6pm until Monday morning, no establishment in Colombia is allowed to sell any alcohol of any kind.

The law is intended to promote security during volatile election times.

but p.s. it's not always during elections. Aerosmith played a concert here a week ago and Ley Seca was implemented in the surrounding 20 blocks of the park where they played - also to promote security. When Metallica was here back in March, all hell broke loose, rioters, looters, etc. They didn't want that to happen again. And it didn't from what I hear, all went pretty smoothly.

New York Times profiles Bogotá

T Magazines latest travel issue has a profile of Bogotá. Check out the story and cool photos here

'Sacar la Mano'

This expression is used when something has broken. Our Xbox broke last week so I would say:

El Xbox sacó la mano la semana pasada.

Literally translated, google says this means "hand out", but in reality, for me, this means no more movie watching on a whim...

:(

Something tastes fishy

These chips come in a variety pack that we buy. So I enjoyed them several times without really thining about what they actually tasted like. The taste was familiar, but weird in a good kind of way.

Finally, after several weeks, it dawned on me - tocineta is bacon. Ha, yeah, I guess that was the familiar taste.

'Chicken in a Biscuit' anyone?

Cyclovia

The Cyclovia happens every Sunday and Holiday. Some of the cities major streets are closed to cars and made available for pedestrians, bikers, skaters, etc - until 2pm. Bogota is already a biker-friendly city, but the Cyclovia is an even easier way to enjoy some outside activity.

This stretch of the Cyclovia is about a 5 minute walk from out house. We took Coco out for a stroll on Monday (was a holiday here).

The Cyclovia has been so successful that other cities are starting to adopt it - New York's Summer Streets.

?

So something has been confusing me lately...If 'mama' means mother and 'hija' means daughter, then why do husbands call their wives 'mija' and parents call their daughters 'mamita'??

I hear it all the time...

Jugo de Piña

Fresh juice is hugely popular in Colombia. They drink it at every meal - the most popular kinds are mora (raspberry), mango, naranja (orange), and Colombia specific fruits like lulo and guabana. Mango was my favorite until I tasted piña the other day. I was so good I had to learnhow to make it at home, entonces...

My recipe for delicious fresh pineapple juice...requires only pineapple and water.


First cut the top and the sides off of the pineapple. Then cut into cubes.


If you use half of the pineapple. you should add 1 liter of water - this will yield 3/4 liter of juice. If you use the entire pineapple, add 2 liters of water - and this will yield 1.5 liters of juice,

Add the cubed pineapple and the water to the blender. And blend on the first setting for about a minute.


Then, holding the strainer over the pitcher, pour the juice from the blender. You will probably need to stop halfway through and press the juice through the strainer.

I reserved the pulp, but haven't decided what I will do with it yet...

Once you've poured all of the juice into the pitcher, wash the strainer out and strain again.

...and that's it. Delicious fresh pineapple juice.

"A la orden."

I hear this expression everywhere. It's the opening and closing phrase of everyone who has something to sell - either on the street or in a tiendas. It literally means "to the order", but is meant to mean "at your service."

Coco!

Making his first appearance on this blog - my cute cachorro Coco!!

Modern Office Buildings

Some recent pictures of pretty office buildings in a modern style.

Feliz Cumpleaños

Friday night was Oscar's mother's birthday. She had a party at her house that night complete with two live bands, dancing, paella and many bottles of whiskey - the party was so good people were still there when we left around 3 am!

Above is a video of the vallenato group. Vallenato is a popular type of music here - I just read in one of my Spanish lessons that a vallenato band isn't complete without an accordion...

Almuerzo Corriente

This is a picture of a typical Colombian lunch. They call it Almuerzo Corriente, which means fast lunch. however it's really not that fast...it's used to denote a restaurant that makes a different "plate of the day" every day - really cheap.

When you sit down at your table, the waiter will give you a choice of chicken or steak. Sometimes you get a choice of sides, but usually you just get whatever the cook has prepared that day: beans, peas, pasta, potato, beet salad, sweet potatoes, platano, tomato salad, etc. etc. -

All of this plus soup and fresh juice for 5,000 pesos or about $2.50!

The meal above came from the restaurant about 2 blocks from our house - we eat there a couple of times a week. It's always really good.

Miercoles!

First of all, I'd like you to not take the word "idiom" to literally. I may also post expressions, proverbs, etc.

Thta said, Monday came late this week, but it's actually perfect that I'm posting IdiomMonday on Wednesday, because the expression of the week is "Miercoles!"

People use "Miercoles!" to express shock or awe...it's a derivative of "mierda!". If you don't know what that means, you'll have to look it up...

Happy Hump Day!

Presidential Election 2010

You may recall hearing some fuss over the Colombian presidential term limits a few months ago. Alvaro Uribe, the long serving president of Colombia wanted to change the law, allowing him to run for president again, past the 8 year term limit - much like Bloomberg did in New York last year, except that Uribe was not as successful (even though he has been a very popular presiden with a 74% aproval rating)

Thus, Colombia is in the home stretch of a very significant Presidential Election, which will be held May 30th.

At the moment there are 2 front runners, but more than 10 people running. What I love about the news here is that Every Single Night they devote about 10 minutes to a recap of the days political happenings. There seems to be no media bias - if the canditate was out in the media that day and gave an interview, the news will show a snippet of that interiview - even for candidates that have less than 5% of the vote. I find that pretty remarkable.

Well now it seems to be a showdown between these two:


Juan Manuel Santos: is the successor of Uribe, having served as his Defense Minister for the last several years. He is very popular among Uribe fans, especially in the rural areas of Colombia, and was the front-runner in this election until last week, when he was overtaken in the polls by this man:


Antanas Mockus: is running on the newly formed Green Party. He has served as Mayor of Bogota twice, and is running of the premise of "change". He is very popular in the urban areas, especially among young people and is gaining a lot of traction on Facebook. Last week the polls showed him with a 5 point lead over Santos, but it is good to remember that these polls don't always take into account the rural areas, which make up a significant portion of the overall vote.

Whatever the turnout, I think that either president will do a good job to keep Colombia on the path to prosperity. Watch on May 30th to see what happens!

And you can read more about the election in these two articles:

The Economist article

The Guardian article