Category: Travel

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Colombia, Part II: Exotic Fruits and The Food in General

There is an abundance of delicious and unique fruits in Colombia, from the tropical fruits to the fruits that grow only at high altitudes. Despite this bounty of fruits and the many markets filled with produce, people’s diets consist almost entirely of meat, corn, yuca, potatoes, plantain, and white rice. With its being full of meat and starches that offer essentially no nutrients, the traditional diet is sadly unhealthy, and it has been made even more so by the contagious spread of packaged junk food (e.g. candy bars, chips, sugary cereals). While they do eat a fair amount of avocado,… more

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Colombia, Part I: Natural Remedies for Healing

Colombia is the country with the greatest biodiversity of flowered plants and trees. Given such an abundance of plants, the indigenous people discovered the healing properties of many different leaves and flowers and fruits, many of which they continue to use today. I am currently traveling in Colombia for the second time this month, and, having had the fortunate opportunity to learn about various entirely natural remedies used on a regular basis not only by the indigenous ethnic groups, but also by people living in major cities like Bogotá, I wanted to share a few things that are undoubtedly culturally… more