The first thing I needed to do when I arrived in Colombia was to practice Spanish, the national language, and try to improve my language skills. I found a teacher named Emerson who works in a local elementary school. He is very patient and we have conversation classes in Spanish at least once or twice a week.
Colombian pesos! Fun fact: they use the dollar sign $ to indicate Colombian pesos as well. $COP have different values compared to $USD. $1US Dollar = $4060 Colombian pesos.
Around 1,000 Colombia pesos. This is around 25 cents in U.S. dollars.
I ate a delicious local delicacy prepared by a friend named Margarita. We ate hoja santa (a spicy leaf of a plant that grows in my garden), queso (cheese), and toasted hormigas (ants)! She taught me how to prepare the ants by putting them in the freezer so they were asleep. Then you removed the head, wings, and legs. You salted the fresh thorax and abdomens and toasted them on a ceramic pan over the fire. They have a delicious flavor that reminds me of mushrooms and almonds.
