Bucaramanga - Floridablanca and Giron

Bucaramanga is Colombia's 5th largest city, and is the capital of the Santander province. It is located on high on a plateau in the Andes. My great aunt Eva lives here, as do many of her children, grandchildren, and great grandchildren. We were really looking forward to see all of our primos! We stayed with my father's cousin, Alberto, and his wife Ines, who were kind enough to put us up for a week.
Our first day in Buca, Alberto and Ines took us to Floridablanca. Back in the 40's, my grandmother's hometown was a day's travel from Bucaramanga. As Buca continued to expand over the years, Floridablanca was absorbed and now considered a suburb/barrio of the city. One of the perks of Floridablanca are the Arequipe shoppes. Areqiupe is a sweet paste made mostly of condensed milk. We stopped at one of the shops for Obleas, two circular wafers with Arequipe spread in the middle.
Later, we visited Giron. Giron was one of the first towns founded by the Spanish in the region and, like Floridablanca, became a suburb of Bucaramanga around two hundred years ago. Although it's a part of the larger city, you can tell you are in Giron right away because of the historic architecture. After walking through the gorgeous colonial buildings, our cousin Sergio introduced us to something called a fritanga. I can't really describe it, so I'll post a picture.

Our cousin Ines is a wonderful cook. Our first morning there, she made caldo, a breakfast soup popular in Santander, arepas, and hot chocolate with cheese.



The old central plaza of Floridablanca.






Alberto, Rosa, Ines, and Alex.



The best Obleas in the world come from Floridablanca!









Alex bought arequipe filled brevas for our dad, his favorite



At Giron, Catedral del Señor de Los Milagros.



Parque Principal






Inside a lovely restaurant called Mansion de Fraile. Although it was closed, the manager invited us in an showed us around.






The restaurants claim to fame is that Simon Bolivar once bathed here.












Capital de las Nieves, our cousin Erika was married here.















Fritanga. Roasted potatoes, fried sweet plantain, sausage, fried cubed pork, more pork with egg, and relleno: a sausage filled with rice.



Of course you have to wash it down with something equally as unhealthy :)



Our cousin Sergio gave Alex a ride back.



Later, we joined our cousins and had homemade tamales at our aunt Eva's House!



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