Florida

Florida

First of all, I got to say it: No, it's not Florida, USA; it's Florida, Colombia. With that being said, I can start.

Florida is a small town located at 50 minutes by land of Cali, Valle del Cauca. It's really near to the colombian Central Mountain Range, with even a part of the town build on the mountain's side.

It's not a really big place, so you won't find places such as malls and big cinemas, however there are some interesting and fun activities to do while you stay in there. My grandparents live there, so it's some kind of tradition in my family to visit them during vacations or in some spare time; as Florida it's not that far of Cali, it's something easy to do.

A picture of my sister of some years ago, posing in my
grandma's garden.

One could think that Florida it's a really boring and quiet place, but that's judging the book by its cover. The first time I went there, I felt like if I was going to die in such a small place, neither having any of my friends nearby nor any interesting thing to do while in there. Glad to say I was worng, because with some time and experience I learned where can you find some fun in Florida.

First, there's the Central Town Park. It's well known that collonial cities and towns were build using the same scheme: A central plaza surrounded by the main buildings of the place, such as the church, the government house, the police headquarter and the local bank. Florida is another example of the scheme, being the central plaza the well known Central Town Park, a place where young and old people meet to spend some spare time. Covered with huge trees and constantly habitated by pigeons, squirrels and dogs, the Central Park is a place where you can just sit by there to talk with people of all the place and having some time to think in a relaxing place. If this is not your idea of fun, there are also stands with people ready to sell both cholados, luladas and fritanga, well known desserts in the Valle del Cauca. And there's also some fun for the young ones, as there are also people rentig inflatable castles and spring boards for kids.

In my last trip, grandma and me went there to talk about university and how was it going. It was realy inspiring to listen to her advices while feeling my face being caressed by the breeze of March. However, after some hours we got thirsty and I bought a fruit cholado for me, a dessert made with scraped ice and fruit cut in pieces, and she had a Lulada, a beverage made with lulo and lemon, it was really acid but cold as hell, perfect for the strong heat wave that was attacking that day.

People doing the preparations for the parade

Later we went to the church's front garden, as we saw some people decorating some statues for the parade of that day. It was Easter and a tradition between florideans is to represent the passion of Jesus in a ficitional and representative parade that goes all over the town. We learned the names of the people in the statues by asking the lider of the decoration team of the church, mainly constituited by faithful people of the congregation. Then we went to the second church of the town, and then a question that I had for a long long time was finally answered.

The second church, built after the crash

As I explained before, collonial cities and town had a scheme of construction, and Florida wasn't the exception; but it had a really curious thing, it had two churches just meters away of each other!. In my childhood I used to think that the first one was too small for the growing town, so the government decided to build the second one, but I was completely wrong. The real reason has to be with a tragic inicident that happened a long time ago, where a plane lost control while passing by the town and
crashed with the church's bell tower searching for a place to do an emergency landing. Then the building caught fire and was completely destroyed, leaving the citizens with no option but to build a second church just meters away of where the first one was. Several years later, a mayor of Florida decided that the burnt church was some kind of heritage in the town, and that it deserved to be rebuilded and fixed, and people in Florida agreed with him, building again the first church. Nowadays, the burnt church is a museum and a regular church by times, with both religious and curious people arrive to take pictures to the pictures exposed inside the church.
When I heard this history for the first time, I was really amazed, and it blew up my concept of Florida as a boring place with absolutely no background or interesting history behind it.

After some time in the park, grandma and I decided to go home, where I decided to sleep for the rest of the day, as I was leaving Florida the next day in the morning. As usual, I woke up early that day and went to shower, then I remembered that Florida's aqueduct system is alimentated almost directly by the water that comes from the mountain, so Florida's water is naturally cold. It was an energizing shower and woke me up almost instantly.

After my shower, I had breakfast with my grandparents, interchanging casual conversation. My breakfast for that day was pandebonos, arepa, fried eggs and coffee, nothing that rare in Florida, but a deliciousness outside the Valle del Cauca. Must say I was full after that huge breakfast, cause I couldn't take anymore, even if I tried. Later that day I just packed up my clothes and some gifts my grandma gave me for my mother, and then it came the time to say good bye. Grandma accompanied me to the place where you take the bus, and we waited there for the first one to appear, and I was lucky, because it had some free chairs left. She kissed my cheek and gave me some blessings for my travel, something that she as a religious person is acostumed to. Finally I sat in the bus, and napped for the rest of the way until I was finally in Cali again, with my energies and my chakras realigned after a really good time in the town!.