Will you be at the Festival?

Overlooking the main plaza in Barichara is the Cathedral, built in the 1800's.

This week, September 20-24, there is the first Festival de Cine Verde, in Barichara, Colombia. It is planned for it to be a chance to bring up, discuss and possibly provide solutions for issues like preservation of habitat, water use and conservation, land use and development along with offering vendors who have organic and environmentally friendly products.

This is a critical time in this nationally recognized historic site which is on the verge of being internationally acclaimed as a ‘special place,’ which almost always results in huge changes and damages which make it less-than-special for those who can afford to move on to another ‘special place.’

This pueblo has had the support of the ex-president Bellisario, who believes in the value of artistic expression and established with his second wife a school to teach the residents how to construct things in wood, stone, clay, cloth and how to play the guitar. But few of the locals take advantage of all the free instruction and no one seems to know how to do a survey to determine why this is the case. My Spanish is horrible, but I’d be willing to create one in English and find some local folks to go out and ask the questions beginning with “Why don’t you come to the school?”

An early morning view of the northern Andes from Barichara, Santander, Colombia. The mountains off in the distance are about 12,000 ft. in elevation.

Perhaps with the festival this week, that idea will occur to a few key people and someone else will take that action. If not, perhaps my mission is still ahead of me. But I will be at the festival looking for you.

A Passion for Maracuya

About the size of an avocado, the yellowish fruit is determined to be fully ripe when the skin becomes wrinkled.

If you haven’t tried the juice of the Passion Fruit, also known as Maracuya by the Amazonian indigenous peoples, then you have missed out on better health as well as having a refreshing beverage.

There are over 200 varieties of this  flowering fruit, but the one I have come to know best is a yellowish skinned variety with an orange colored juice. Some people say it does’t have much taste, others say it is bitter. I have discovered that if the process of extricating the juice from the seeds is done too harshly, then the seeds will break open and make the juice bitter.

The seeds and the juice have to be separated in order to enjoy the juice.

Using a blender can create broken seeds if blended too long, but a quick (less than 15 seconds) rotation of the blades will separate the seeds and juice and then you can put all of it into a colander and push the juice through.

According to many sources, there are tremendous benefits to drinking the juice (or making a jam or jelly of the fruit) including: heart tonic, reduction in anxiety or depression, an anti-inflammatory, and because of the high amounts of potassium, it is great to drink after having a stomach distress or diarrhea to bring your electrolytes back into balance. The indigenous peoples use the leaves for the heart tonic and drink the juice to enjoy increased libido or have a more tranquil day or night.

After the seeds are removed, you can see how Mother Nature has designed the packaging to protect the juice!

I have heard that other parts of the fruit are used as well, but I haven’t discovered the recipes for how to utilize the fleshy part or the skin. Perhaps there is a reader who knows about this?

The orange colored juice needs a bit of sweetening for my taste buds, so I use Stevia liquid or powder which mixes well with the juice. This is not a liquid which keeps well – you want to make it and drink it right away to get all the benefits, or another way to preserve some of those qualities is to turn the juice into frozen cubes, which can be added to another beverage or can be melted down for a fresh juice later on.

While I cannot attest to any of the beneficial properties directly, I can say that I enjoy this Colombian fruit and if there is any proof to be had, maybe it’s that I haven’t been ill with a cold since I came here seven months ago. It’s the ‘other’ orange juice.

A Decade of Changes

Does anyone remember what it was like to travel a decade ago? How we just carried our baggage on with us and the planes arrived and departed without much fuss? How it didn’t matter what was in our pockets or backpacks? And no one looked at you funny if you were dark-skinned and wore something that looked like a towel on your head? And you could make jokes without risking being arrested?

Lots of changes in ten years in all areas of our lives, not all of them good in my opinion. The huge loss of privacy can never be regained and the even greater level of governmental controls on all aspects of life make this frog feel rather hot. Wonder what another decade will bring?