Elena's Birthday and a Piqueteodero

Elena turned 17 last week which is crazy loco!!!  We celebrated a little early by going to some of Leo's favorite places from when he was a child in Fontibon (the neighborhood in Bogotá where his mom is from).  One was the Toledo Bakery which had a cool coat of arms thing, and the other was Piqueteodero Punto Rojo.  The bakery was delicious, and the piqueteodero may have been better in Leo's memories than in actuality. It definitely was an experience though.  Like all Colombian food it included a bunch of meat (chicken, blood sausage, chorizo, liver, and intestines--yeah) and starches (potatoes, another type of potatoes, plantains and yucca), but unique to a piqueteodero, you just get a big platter and pick out with your fingers what you want to eat.  We also had Pony Malta (a Colombian soda that's disgusting) because it seemed fitting.  Efraim tried everything, and some of the other kids tried the liver, and a few of my kids really like blood sausage, but mostly we are wimpy gringos and stuck to the chicken.  Sebas said he's never craved vegetables so much in his life.  

Poor Elena, she chose a cake at the Toledo Bakery, because it was pretty but it rums and raisins--I didn't understand at the time--and no one liked it. She got earbuds and Hot Cheetos (her request) and had friends over another night too for a small party.

Elena and Isabel are so beautiful!

Trying pastries at the bakery.

We were waiting for our food at this point.

Isabel's worried about the food that's coming.

Leo looks so young.  😍😍

He's fiercely guarding the rest of his pastry.

So that's mostly the potatoes, plantains, yucca and chicken.

And this plate had the morcilla (blood sausage), intestine, etc. Ugh.

I don't think Elena liked whatever she was trying.

Chicken was good though.

And then after we walked around the plaza where there were stands out and things and I thought the candy stall was pretty. And the little boys got to ride in little motorized cars for a couple minutes.