Colombians LOVE cheese. 'So do Europeans!' I hear you say. No, no, you don't understand. Their love for cheese is different to our love for cheese. It is so big that they almost can't eat anything without it. Or drink, for that matter. Cheese is definitely one of my favourite foods but, having been brought up in a French household, I struggle to mix cheese with anything sweet, so I get quite the shock when I discover what it is eaten with!

I would love to hear from you all to see which of these you would actually consider eating, and whether there are any expats who have fully embraced this cheese madness!

Hot chocolate with cheese: that's right, a really thick and chocolatey drink, with melted cheese inside or dipped in. Also eaten in aguapanela, their sugar-cane based really sweet hot drink.

Bocadillo and cheese: Bocadillo is a guava sweet, a bit like pâte de fruit in France. Very nice and normal. Until they wrap it around cheese and eat I like that! (not my photo)

Arequipe and cheese: Similar to above but with their caramel-type spread. This is often eaten in obleas (large wafers) or in pancakes. (not my photo)

Cheese icecream: That's right, they went there. One of the most popular icecreams here is cheese icecream, sometimes with bocadillo (guava sweet) in it too. It literally has grated cheese all mixed up inside it!

Fruit salad with cheese: This is the most extreme mix, in my opinion. Not only is it fruit salad with grated cheese, it is no ordinary fruit salad. It is full of extremely sweet condensed milk, whipped cream and icecream. I found it so funny when we went for fruit salads and you had to ask for it without cheese. It is just so normal here. I applaud any expat who can eat one of these!

Every day home-cooked food in Colombia is fine. I don't love it and I don't hate it. It does it's job and tends to be centered around rice, plaintain/yuca, beans, avocado and meat. But, unfortunately, I don't like avocado and am not a massive fan of plantain or yuca. However, typical Colombian meals in general are not great. They are unvaried and often unhealthy. Good food here tends to be rare and incredibly expensive. That said, they have a different attitude towards food and either eat to live or love fried goods (fritanga) and imported american-style foods such as chicken wings and MacDonalds. 

Bandeja paisa: When I worked here as an English teacher in 2011, my students told me that the Bandeja Paisa (Paisa relating to the region of Antioquia and Bandeja being 'tray') is the best dish ever but, to be honest, the once or twice I ordered it I was not impressed (I took that photo from Google as I never have it!). It is basically the Colombian version of a fry-up but it is eaten as a proper meal and consists of avocado, rice, arepa, fried egg, beans in a beany sauce (a bit tasteless), chicharrón (really fatty fried pork rind), sausage and sometimes plantain. 

Tamales: These are a very typical Colombian meal, usually served with rice (what a surprise!). They are a corn-flour based mixture of vegetables, potato and meat, we usually get chicken, wrapped and cooked in a plantain leaf. I think these are pretty nice, although sometimes they come out with soggy gelatinous parts which I am not too keen on. 

Empanadas and ají: Empanadas are made with corn flour and are like the Colombian equivalent to pasties or samosas. They are filled with meat and potato and have a half-moon or triangular shape. They typically come served with my favourite sauce here called aji which is a mix of spring onions, tomato, chilly, fresh coriander and vinegar. It is one of the rare strong flavours of Colombian cuisine and one of the even rarer sauces. Delicious!

Aborrajado: This is a battered sweet plantain (basically banana) with cheese in the middle. No comment.

Desgranado de mazorca: This is a typical starter/snack that is basically just sweetcorn and cheese. Sometimes you get them with little thin crisps-like things called fósforos (match sticks). It's delicious! 

Bread: Ironically for a country with bakeries on every corner open until late at night, Colombian bread is really not good. It is mostly white bread that tends to be pale, undercooked, tasteless or sweet. I do not understand putting sugar in bread! Pandeyuca (cassava bread) is slightly less bland than others but it still just eaten on its own so is very dry. However, the saviour for these bakeries are the pandebono, cheesy bread balls that are delicious when freshly baked as the inside is all soft and gooey!

Envuelto de choclo: This is a sweet breakfast item that is made from corn and has a strange texture in between powdery and jelly-like. It's quite nice, although it kind of feels like there are bits of plastic bags in them but I think that must be the casing of the corn kernels!

Soups: Sancocho: This is a typical soup made with chicken, plantain, yuca (cassava), coriander and a corn on the cob. 
Ajiaco: This soup we eat quite frequently and consists of chicken, potato, corn on the cob and my partner's mum adds other vegetables sometimes. You then add a dash of cream and some capers which is lovely. This is actually one of my preferred lunch dishes here.

Arepa: These are the typical Colombian carbohydrate, in addition to rice. It is a type of flatbread made out of corn. Sorry to all Colombians but I mostly don't like these. The common very white ones are flavourless. I have never tasted anything that tastes like solid air before. That said, you can buy more expensive ones that are more yellow in colour and have either butter or salt in them to give them more flavour, but even then they are very dry and often eaten on their own with no sauce or spread. These are much better with cheese or egg stuffed inside!

Fruit: Now Colombia is a country of exotic fruit, particularly fruit juices/smoothies. Their pineapples and mangoes are massive and really nice and they have loads of fruit not found elswhere such as lulo, a green fruit commonly used in juices with water and sugar to counteract the acidity, also in lulada, a chunky fruit juice that is a bit too strong for me. They also use passion fruit (maracuyá) a lot but primarily mixed in a juice and never on its own with a spoon like back home! They are very different to the European ones and are big, smooth and look more like oranges from the outside. Granadilla (one of my favourites!) is within the same family. Chontaduro is a small orange fruit that is cooked before eating it cold with salt and honey...! I can only describe it as a potato-y, dry, tasteless bizarre experience! I am not a fan. Guanabana (sour sop in English) is a huge green spiky fruit with white flesh inside that is mostly used in juices with milk and I love this one. It also has anti-cancer properties which is an added bonus!

Drinks: Champús: A typical drink here made of various fruit, full pieces of corn, cloves and cinamon. I am not a fan of the latter three and the fact that it is a thick and lumpy drink means it kind of looks and feels like vomit. They seem to love it here and you can buy it from sellers on bikes, a bit like those old-school ice-cream sellers. Salpicón is a fruit cocktail in a fruity drink which is quite nice. Lulada (as mentioned above) is an extremely sour drink made of lulo. Cholado is specifically from Cali and is more of a desert than a drink but it comes with a straw so is categorised as one. It is a big fruit cocktail with condensed milk (another obsession here) and ice. Colombians also love their avena (powdered oats) and often make thick milkshake-type drinks with them. A favourite of mine here is the avena cubana (cuban oat drink) you can buy in shopping centres like Cosmocentro here that is like drinking a sweet porridge-flavoured milkshake, sounds odd but is delicious!

Desserts: Cakes here are often beautifully elaborate and decorated to within an inch of their lives, but it is usually all a facade and the actual inside and taste are very disappointing and for some reason cakes are often soggy (like the Genovesa/tres leches). Colombian desserts are generally nothing special (sorry!) but a post about food without mentioning arequipe would be just wrong.  Colombians are a very sweet-toothed nation, primarily due to this thick caramel-type spread that they often just eat with a spoon. I think it's OK but prefer it on or in something, rather than on its own. Obleas are these very thin crispy wafer-type things that are often eaten with arequipe and cream cheese (see below). Without cheese they are nice though!

Cheap perfume: In all shopping centres here you have little stalls that sell knock-off copies of expensive perfumes. They have these little leaflets listing all the brands and names (CK, Chanel, Hugs boss etc) that they've got but it says there are merely 'inspired' by the scents of these designer ones. Not sure that would be an acceptable legal loophole in Europe but I like the fact that I can spend £4 instead of £40 for perfume that basically smells the same.
Postobon manzana or uva: Colombian fizzy drinks in a variety of fruit flavours with my favourite being apple or grape. We need this in Europe!
Pandebono: Bread balls made with powdered cheese, delicious warm!
Bonbon Bum: Now, this may look weird in English but is actually these lollipops that have bubblegum in the middle. I am discovering the childhood I never had with these!
Mayonnaise crisps: Risadas do amazing mayonnaise flavoured crisps!
Crepes and Waffles: Banana and nutella waffle and the Pita Griega (a pizza-type thing with olive, artichoke, mozarella and tomato). Who doesn’t love this place?!
Arepa con queso: Colombian corn flatbread type thing stuffed with cheese!
Colombian cheese: Costeño is like a less rubbery less salty haloumi, Campesino is like a less salty less crumbly feta and what they call mozzarella but it’s just a hard yellow cheese - yummy.
Mostaneza: Hands down the best sauce ever. Mayonnaise, mustard and garlic – drool! They also do a smoky Ranch flavor!
Vegetation: The hotter cities here are very green naturally due to the climate and rainy seasons. You can always see some kind of colourful flower, tall palm tree or fruit tree no matter where you are and it's beautiful!
Mountains: Being in a valley means you can almost always see the mountains which makes city feel less suffocating and gives some stunning views. 
Birds: There are so many beautiful colourful tiny birds here, including humming birds!
Lizards: I love lizards and they are very common here. Just yesterday I turned around in the shower and one of those little guys was staring right back at me.
San Antonio: This is an area to the northwest of Cali which is the old colonial area on a hill with a church on top. It is a little run down but the houses are really pretty and all painted different colours, I will write a post about it as it deserves to have it's own spot on my blog!
El Peñón: Just down the hill from San Antonio is a nice area with bars and restaurants near big hotels. It is rather pricey though but it has a nice atmosphere.
Public holidays: Being a very religious country, apparently Colombia has an average of 18 public holidays a year, the most in the world! Now, this may mean less official holiday days off work, but I guess it all adds up!
Gloves to eat with: In Colombia, if you are eating chicken in a fast food chain or a more casual restaurant, they will always give you plastic gloves to eat with so that you don't get grease all over your hands. I think it's genius!

Christmas in Colombia is a BIG deal. There are weeks of events and celebrations running up to the big day. Shopping centres and the apartment complex where I live got started with decorations soon after halloween and they have gone all out! 

For the whole month of December there is a fair opposite Cosmocentro shopping centre on Quinta and we went right before Christmas. It is located right next to Siloé, one of the poorest neighbourhoods in Cali, which you can see in the background on the mountain and this year all of the houses hung blue lights so it was really pretty. I was quite scared that the rides were a bit dodgy and feared for my life a little, but it ended up being fine and really fun!

I've got to say that my least favourite thing is the noise level, there is almost always extremely loud music playing even in residential areas in the day (in my complex at least!) or late at night and it seems the country goes mad for it in December. On the 12th December for example, every year loads of people where I live sit around in the stair-wells drinking and singing at the top of their voice all evening until midnight and then stay up and at 5am walk around the complex singing once more. Again on the 23rd and 24th unbelievable noise levels at 12-2am involving loud bangs of gunpowder explosions (pólvora) making you feel like you're in the middle of a war. Not sure I understand the attraction of not sleeping and keeping everyone else awake if I'm honest! I just have to keep repeating my mantra 'cultural differences, cultural differences!'

On the 7th December it was the día de las Velitas (little candles) which is where families go to an open space with candles and sit around them for the evening. We went to a park next to our complex to check it out and it was really nice apart from that one of the apartments overlooking it caught fire due to the excess of decorations and candles that people leave on 24/7 even if they are out - scary! I've got to be honest, I wasn't really feeling Christmassy but I was appreciating the beautiful decorations!

Alumbrados: This is a light festival and I imagine it comes from the Latin for to light or something since in French allumer is to light/turn on a light. Cali has a new boulevard built along the Rio Cali and I think it is the prettiest area of Cali. It has a beautiful gothic church that is really well maintained and in the run up to Christmas they put on lights and light shows and the whole city flocks there every evening. We went on Friday 12th and it was really beautiful, especially the light show projection on the church. However, it was incredibly busy and there were a few incidences requiring police attention. Here are some photos and I will also embed a couple of videos I took of the light show (click to enlarge them).

An authentic Colombian Christmas experience: Every night for the nine nights (novenas) leading up to Christmas, families and friends meet up to read scriptures, sing religious songs and then eat and drink. We were invited by a friend to the novenas. My boyfriend’s family are not religious (shh, don't tell anyone) and not very traditionally Colombian so I was grateful to see the tradition in all its glory. 

Even before entering the flat we were blinded by lights and glitter. But once inside, it was bigger and better than anything I could have imagined. Never have I seen so many Christmas decorations outside of a decorations shop. It was as if the flat was no longer meant to be lived in but was some sort of Christmas museum. I kid you not, every square inch of the relatively large flat was filled with religious figurines, talking reindeer or miniature Father Christmases. There was even a full sized inflatable snowman, two 'rivers' with real water flowing through the enormous (4m x 4m) nativity scene and a talking doll of the divisive ex-president Uribe, which was … awkward, to say the least. It seems there is some competition within Colombian households for the most extravagant decorations, especially the nativity scenes which take on a life of their own. 

After being made to step into the nativity scene and hold hands for photos (amazing), we went to a neighbour’s flat for the official novenas. It was an extremely hot night so I awkwardly stood there trying not to sweat on anyone and hoping no-one would notice I was not singing along or doing the 'sign of the cross' movements with my hands. I didn't want my atheism to stand out too much! I had already learnt my lesson with that three years ago when teaching English in a university here, when the students found out I did not believe in God they were mortified. Oops.

When that was finished, we were given a tour of the shiny modern flat and the hostess told me that I definitely looked imported, what a line! We then ate natilla (see below) and buñuelos (fried dough balls) and avena (oat drink) with whiskey and made a swift escape. 

I definitely appreciate the effort they go through and the community feel of it all, it's an experience I will never forget. Honestly, I don’t think words can describe what I saw last night but I hope that these photos speak for themselves!

Christmas food: Colombians are notoriously sweet-toothed and at Christmas, this love is multiplied throughout December! They have a lot of Christmas biscuits here called Navideňas that come in a variety of flavours and often in very English-looking tins depicting snowy scenes or red English front doors with wreaths on them. In spite of being half a world away both physically and in terms of weather, Christmas in the South tends to still be associated with imagery from the North. Another biggie in this region is Natilla which is a flan/custard type dessert with, you guessed it, arequipe (thick caramel-type spread) flavour or sometimes coconut. I am not a huge fan as they also put a load of cinnamon in it, unfortunately for me! Another favourite is Panettone which originates from Italy and is a large fruity bread. 

In this region, in addition to the love of arequipe, they have similar sorts of sweet spreads that are sometimes just more cooked arequipe (manjarblanco), or mixed with a tiny bit of rice and are called pegado (stuck) or cortado (cut), depending on which point of cooking it is taken out and always just eaten on its own with a spoon. They come in these little bowls which are actually the shell of the mate fruit.

As you can see, most of the typical Christmassy food is sugar-based and the main meal ended up being so too (see below).

The big day: In most of Latin America, unlike the Western world, Christmas is actually celebrated on the 24th of December and the normal day goes as such: people often still work on the 24th but may have the afternoon off, then at around 7 family starts arriving and then you try to stay up as late as possible with the aim of eating at around 11pm and opening the presents at midnight. Then there are a couple of hours of madness in the street with explosions and music and then off to bed. It's quite a compact celebration given the immense run up to the occasion and, since we hardly got any sleep the night before due to the noise levels, staying up that late was very difficult and we were exhausted. 

We had a normal day (when I actually was sorting out going to Panama to get my work visa) and in the evening my boyfriend and I made some little mushroom and cheese bites for the apéritif and we cracked open some Brut that I bought his parents. We listened to Colombian Christmas music all evening which, to me, just sounds like regular salsa unfortunately! Then we waited as long as we could before eating at around 10 and we had the following typical Colombian Christmas dinner: cold ham in a sweet sauce, tinned peaches and glacé cherries, cold mashed potato, pea and carrot salad and salad with raisins and apple. It made me chuckle that, where possible, all the savoury dishes had sweet things in them. Colombians really do love this mix and anything goes at Christmas! 

Then we opened presents and waited for as long as possible for midnight before deciding we were all too tired and went to bed at around 11.30! It felt weird waiting up for midnight when nothing was going to happen, unlike New Years, but I guess it's a tradition here! But we had a nice time and it was a lot more relaxed than most Colombian Christmases and actually Christmas I'm used to at home, but at least I had my first Christmas in flip-flops and no warm jumper!

Tropical English Christmas: The day after (on the 25th) we were invited to a friend's "English Christmas" at his place in San Antonio which was a hidden treasure with a big garden but it must have been about 38 degrees! There were a lot of expats there from around the world so it was interesting to hear their stories. Most of them were teaching English here and some were just travelling indefinitely. We played pingpong tournaments and the host cooked a proper English Christmas dinner with turkey, roast potatoes, cabbage, carrots and stuffing. He also had muffins and REAL custard for dessert - amazing! We then did secret santa and I was lucky and picked the best one with three mugs, a head massager and some dollars! My boyfriend got his first stocking and then surprised me by filling it for me when we got home which was amazing! After that, we went to see the feria...

La Feria de Cali: This is a continuation of the party madness throughout the city including the Boulevard of alumbrados that stay lit for weeks. This feria is like a carnival involving drinking, live music and dancing with open-air salsa shows and streets full of people often throwing flour or setting off explosions with gun powder. At least the flyer for this shows an afro-colombian woman rather than the usual white and blonde people! We went to a friend of my boyfriend's whose flat was right above where the salsa show started on the first night (25th) so we watched it from above. It reminded me of the Rio carnival but obviously a lot smaller and without the floats. It was about 40 degrees in his flat and then his mum whipped out a boiling hot soup for everyone which was our cue to leave! Colombians love eating hot soup when it's hot! My photos aren't great but you can get an idea of what it is like and it goes on for a week with events all around the city.

This feels like the longest blog post ever and has been weeks in the making but I hope it reflects the enormity of Christmas in Cali and Colombia! 

I hope you enjoyed your holidays wherever you are! 

This post is more about what I have been up to apart from job hunting and being a lazy unemployed person! 

For the first month or so, my boyfriend was less busy with his university work so we would go and read by the pool and have a swim, eat my body weight in nutella waffles from Crepes & Waffles, people watch in the shopping centres and go to the incredibly cheap (£1 on Wednesdays!), extra cold air-conditioned cinema where Colombians have the american style traditions with huge boxes of popcorn, soft drinks and hotdogs which all seem to buy. I am a big fan of the Postobon apple or grape fizzy drinks here. We also went to Cuuc, a juice bar, quite a lot and I became obsessed with the Pandebono that they sell there which are small balls of warm bread made with powdered cheese - delicious! Although Colombians eat them with Arequipe (thick caramel-type spread), their love for sweet-savoury combinations is another story for another time!

Now people watching really is my favourite hobby here. Ultra modern outdoor/indoor shopping centres that dot across Cali are the place to hang out here. Since public spaces are generally quite run down and/or dangerous, private shopping centres have come to replace these and you have high-end ones which are more exclusive and have internationally renowned designer shops. Other shopping centres are more run down and often experience violent crime such as shootings. So, I am clearly not interested in the designer shops in these shopping centres, however, they are full of plastic surgery, with Colombia being the capital of plastic surgery in Latin America. I feel a mixture of fascination and pity when I see hordes of women lugging around their enormous bum and breast implants in 5 inch heels and skinny jeans. It obviously catches my attention coming from a country where it is almost non-existent but also how it is a symptom of the patriarchy and lack of opportunities for women in this country. I will probably write another post on gender issues in Colombia expanding on this. 

I also experienced my very first Colombian Halloween and, although we did not dress up or go to a party, apparently this is not required to be in the thick of it. In Colombia, since much outside space is dangerous, especially at night, most children dress up and go trick or treating (or triqui-triqui) in shopping centres. Adults and shop keepers bring bags of sweets of hand out to children and this results in the most crowded experience in my life but with incredibly cute kids dressed in an array of Disney-inspired costumes! 

For the last month it has been the rainy season which, actually, has been somewhat of a relief for me. It has been no more than 30 in the day and around 20 at night, which is much more pleasant than the usual 38 in the day and 25 at night! The rainy reason is well and truly ending though and I am going to have to get used to sweaty days again! Christmas preparations are well under way here and apparently the celebrations last weeks with daily traditions of singing, parties and drinking called the Novenas (Nines?), in addition to the Velitas (little candles). It is going to be strange having a hot Christmas but I am looking forward to seeing what goes on! It's already starting to look like Christmas where we live too which is nice!

I have posted some photos below of what I have been up to and some shots of Cali and where I live.