La Comida

As many of you may or may not know, the major meal of the day in most Latin American countries is lunch. Families gather in their kitchens and dining areas and eat humongous meals together, sometimes taking naps afterwards and then head back to work to finish their days.

When supper comes along, you eat a small meal: a sandwich, some bread or some of the leftover food from lunchtime. You don't go to sleep full here. And that's a good thing.

This is probably the reason why there aren't many overweight people here. People eat their big meal of the day (their supper-sized lunch) and then continue on with their day, burning their fat and calories while they work. Or, they go to the gym in the evening or go jogging or play sports early in the evening. They don't just fall asleep and let the food they ate turn into fat.

It's also not a "fast food" culture here. From what i can gather, even if you work in an office, you have plenty of time to eat your main meal of the day. You can go home and eat or go out and have a relaxing lunch. I went to lunch with my mother and godfather when I was in Bogota and, before we sat down at our table, I spied a couple tables of obvious business men and women. They were eating appetizers and drinking beers (thumbs up) before we even sat down. We got our table, ordered and began to eat. I looked around to notice that the same groups of people were still sitting at their tables enjoying cups of coffee, looking about as relaxed as I was even though they knew they had to return to work. They weren't checking their watches. They didn't look like they were in a hurry. They were sipping their drinks and talking. I'm sure they were probably concerned about their work, but they didn't make it look like they were. When we got up to leave, they were also getting ready to leave. They had probably been there about a half an hour longer then my party.

What a country.

I absolutely love eating a steak for lunch here and then eating a couple of rolls (or nothing at all) for dinner. But you have to remember the metric system when you travel outside of the United States. A 500 gram steak is much bigger then you probably think it will be. I did.

And to think I almost ordered the 800 gram steak.

There was enough leftover meat to make myself two sandwiches for lunch the next day.

One more thing: Coke in a glass bottle is the best drink ever.