Modern Art

Here you have it, my favorite piece of modern art, the elephant man meets giant reptile/crocodile. Since we last wrote, the Shapiroadventures.com team has continued our epic adventure in South America. Sarah came down with a slight cough in Panama and on the boat ride here, and given her history with Panamanian fungal flesh eating lung diseases, we went to the pharmacy and bought some cough medicine. Later that night we said our goodbyes to the bulk of our amigos from Australia, Great Britain, Switzerland, Outer Mongolia, and Zimbabwe. After that fiesta, we realized Sarah might have been having a minor allergic reaction to something. After a quick internet search, we discovered that her cough medicine was basically a stronger, European variant of poison ivy, needless to say we threw it away. We also went to the Museo de Arte Moderno, where the above photo came from. This musuem is a collection of largely Latin-American works, including a section devoted to Enrique Grau. Definitely worth the $2000 peso entrance fee. We also met a local and talked about some of the recent goings-ons in Colombia while watching some street dancers. We also found some excellent street vendors and have been eating delicious arepas, chorizo, and fruit in a bag. An arepa is a kind of very thick corn pancake served fresh of the grill with butter and cheese inside, greasy deliciousness. This is in addition to the standard tipico fare including liver, tongue, steak, and a healthy serving of beans and rice. Yesterday we went to the gold musuem and saw some very interesting ancient gold pieces. We also watched a video about how the Zenu indians used to irrigate their land thousands of years ago. We also went to a very large fort yesterday afternoon but determined that it was too hot for us to climb to the top of it, so we just had a bottle of water at a local tienda and took pictures of the fort like good tourists. We have also managed to walk around the old city on the old city walls, as well as purchase a new camera since the old one died on the boat ride here. This afternoon we head to a mud volcano to take a mud bath, and supposedly Obama is coming into town today. The city is much emptier than normal today and the police presence is notable. While writing this, at least 2 fighter jets have flown over head - perhaps the president is arriving! Here in Colombia even the riot police are models!