Hormiga Culona (Big assed ants)

While waiting for the 7 pm bus, we went to the bakery "Central" right on the main square. They had some fantastic cakes. We bought some and came out and sat in the main square to eat them. After that we went to a nearby souvenir shop and bought some very unique souvenirs from this area. These included an actual ant of about 2.5 cms "Hormiga Culona" encased in a plastic cover as a key-chain. These are a species of leaf cutter ants that are found in this region of Colombia besides a few other places in Venezuela to Paraguay.
Atta laevigata is known in northern South America as hormiga culona (literally translated as "big-assed ant") or as bachaco. The hormiga culona has been eaten for hundreds of years, as a tradition inherited from pre-Columbian cultures as the Guanes. The ants are harvested for about nine weeks every year, at the time of the rainy season, which is when they make the nuptial flight. There are local beliefs that the ants are aphrodisiacs. The harvesting is done by local peasants who are often wounded by the ants, since the ants have strong mandibles. Only the queens are collected, because the other ants are not considered edible. The legs and wings are removed; after that, the ants are soaked in salty water and roasted in ceramic pans. They are supposed to have a high level of protein and very low levels of saturated fat and an overall high nutritional value. Hristo even bought chocolate covered ants packaged as candy.
At 7 pm, we caught the last bus to San Gil. There we went to the main square again to one last time have our dinner in one of the fantastic restaurants with their balconies overlooking the square. After the dinner, we picked our bags from the hostel and took a taxi to the inter city bus terminal. Here, we booked ourselves in the bus leaving San Gil to Bogota at 10 pm. The lady at the counter promised us personal entertainment systems and comfortable semi-cama (semi-sleeper) seats. The bus didn't turn up at 10 pm. The lady told us that it was bit late and would reach in about 5 min. Around 10:20 pm, there was still no sign of the bus. We went back to the counter and were told it was reaching in 5 min. At 10:45 pm, the bus did show up and sure enough each seat had a personal entertainment system but the driver had picked up extra passengers on the way, so there was no place for us. We were asked to get off the bus, we were extremely pissed and went to the lady at the counter. She expressed her helplessness as she wasn't aware that the driver had picked up extra passengers. But she promised to put us on the next bus that would be there in.... guess what... yessss 5 min :))
The bus did turn up in 10 min and we managed to get our seats but there was no personal entertainment system. We were pretty darn pissed at the lady at the ticket counter. First of all, we didn't get the amenities we were supposed to get, then we were starting an hour late and on top of it all, she had given only one receipt of our three tickets. The rest we guessed was going to her pocket. We went back to the counter and demanded the 3 receipts for our tickets. She reluctantly printed out our tickets. We took them and then were off towards Bogota.Read more