Photos from the Matanza

Here are some photos from the matanza I went to a few weeks ago. A matanza is basically a slaughter (best translation I can find) and the one I went to, they killed a cow on Friday and we all went to the farm on Saturday and spent the whole day hanging out and eating (and for the men - drinking). It was pretty interesting, and the food was pretty good.

Bruni stirring the pot of meat & sauce - the other pot is cooking chicken for the soup (yuca, corn, and culantro was added later)

The "kitchen": huge pots cooking over fogons (country-style fires for cooking - a fire in the middle of 3 or 4 rocks that support the pot), and meat drying on the lines to be grilled later - this is known as carne asoleada.

One of the cooks - stirring the massive pot of rice with the massive wooden spoon.

 Where we hung out all day and night

My host brother/nephew - Roderick - playing in the trough. He's the one doing the peace sign.

Another one of the cooks cutting up yuca. The entire bag is full of it!

Of course there was a piñata for the kids

We ended up staying the night, and the sunset was absolutely gorgeous. Can you see the first stars?

Then the next day we went swimming in a river about 30 mins away. This waterfall coming out of the rock was gorgeous.

River & surrounding country side

Me, Eliceo (Bruni's brother aka my host uncle), Isabelle (Brunis sister aka my host aunt), and Roderick

Then when I was talking to my parents, this bright blue bird landed on a tree about 30 feet in front of me. I couldn't get a great photo, but this is the clearest one I got. It was gorgeous!