Los Modismos y Chocolate Santafereno

Our day began with croissants and jam, coffee, and baby bananas...delicious! Whitney and I then began to walk around the city, so that I could get a feel for my home of the next two weeks. The city is well-planned, so once you know an address it makes it relatively easy to know where you are in relation to other things. We headed down to the Plaza de Simon Bolivar and sat to enjoy the view and sunshine for a bit.

Whitney ran into a shoeshine man who had shined her boots before, and engaged his services. Free with the shoeshine was an entire discourse on everything ranging from the pronation of most people's feet to the importance of slang (los modismos) in communication to the groundbreaking wedding of Prince William and Kate Middleton. Though long-winded, he had great insights and has clearly spent much of his time observing people and decoding their interactions.

We next ducked in a church, then headed for the Cafe Florida for the requisite chocolate santafereno. It involves a personal pot of hot chocolate, which you pour into a mug at your leisure. You are given two triangular slices of cheese, somewhat akin to mozzarella but more delicious, which you tear into pieces and deposit in the cup of hot chocolate. Leave that sit for a bit and eat your croissant and jam. Then you can return to the cheese and chocolate. By this point, the cheese is slightly melted and chewy. You can eat it solo or spoon it onto bits of almojabana, which is like a cornbread biscuit. Amazing!!!

I need to cut this short now because, while Whitney's teaching an English class, I'm going to check out a local shopping center. Pics on this and the last post coming soon!