"La Finca"

Last weekend my advisor (Karen) and I were taken to a finca in Rio Negro with Roberto and his family. Fincas, in Colombian terms, are “recreational” houses. They are usually about an hour outside of major cities, they are for relaxing, and only people with plata (money) have them. Many people spend their weekends there to get out of the hustle and bustle of Medellín. This finca is owned by Norma’s (Roberto’s wife) uncle. I had never been to one, but kept hearing about these notorious fincas, so I was excited to be invited. We left Medellín late on Saturday evening to spend the night in Rio Negro and then in the morning would go to la Piedra…although this would be the second time for me, I wanted to see the finca and get in some Colombian family time J

We arrived to the finca at about 9 pm after having spent the evening in a neighborhood called San Antonio. The inside of the house was very cute. There was art on all the walls, tables with beautiful tiles in them, and a fireplace in the living room for us to relax. There was even a special room that was full of old pictures of famous Colombian movie stars and singers, bottles of aguardiente, and various musical instruments. There’s a family that maintains the property for Norma’s uncle, and they live in a smaller house right next door. Although this made me feel a bit like I was living in the deep south with maid’s quarters, I tried not to think about it too much…after all, it was a beautiful piece of land from what I could tell and I assume that the family was well taken care of.

Everyone was pretty exhausted so we went to our respective bedrooms to pass out. Little did I know, I would be sleeping in the same room with Karen…a little awkward at first considering all our encounters have been in her office at Emory…but I guess it’s just one more strange experience while traveling. But it was fun because we ended up talking for over an hour like little girls having a sleep over. We talked about ‘life,’ learning other languages, her son, BOYS. It was pretty funny. The funnies thing that came out of our sleepover was when we were talking about writing the Fulbright proposal, I said that maybe I could use my Fulbright money to get a butt job to fit in with the locals….we could call it a Fulbutt Fellowship. Hahaha!!!

There was also a parrot and 4 or 5 cockatiels! Norma’s uncle took us for a small tour of the land before we headed to the piedra; it’s not nearly as big as a farm, but there’s plenty of space to walk around, maybe an acre or two and it is simply gorgeous. I see that being able to live in a place like that, even if only on the weekends, could make you want to stay in Colombia. Of course, the majority of people do not have that privilege, but if I did, I might have to relocate here. I didn’t actually want to leave the finca, I would have much preferred to just kick it there and hang out with Norma’s family…unfortunately that was not the plan, although I hope to go back.

Next, we all packed like sardines in to the car and headed to la Piedra (el Peñol). Side note, seatbelt laws are not nearly as strict here in Colombia. If I don’t make it back from Colombia, it will not be from Pablo Escobar, it will be from a traffic accident. Many of the cars actually tuck the seatbelts into the car seats because they’re simply not used. I am not okay with this, however, do not have very much of a choice in the matter. Anyway, there’s nothing really new to report on el Peñol. It was the same as last time. But the finca was awesome.