Last weekend, I visited Quibdó, a small city in the Chocó region of Colombia, for the Festival of San Pacho. I traveled with two friends: Emily, a fellow Fulbright teacher in Medellin, and Itamar, a Mexican university exchange student. The bus ride from Medellín to Quibdó is at least eight hours long, so we opted to ride overnight to save time. Some of the ride was bumpy since parts of the road are not paved, but I still slept a little bit during the journey.
In Quibdó, we stayed in a bed and breakfast owned by a woman originally from Quibdó who now lives and works in Bogotá, Colombia's largest city. She was very welcoming and gave us recommendations about what to do during the festival, as well as some foods that we should try. When she found out that we really liked the patacones (smashed fried plantains) typical in Quibdó, she even fried us up some fresh patacones with cheese as a nighttime snack! She also recommended we try the regional sancocho soup with ham, as well as arroz con longaniza (a special rice with chorizo sausage). My favorite food that I tried, however, was the baccalao (cod fish) cooked with a smoky seasoning. I felt really full after that meal!
