Wedding gift registry’s are really popular in the United States. For the first week, our registry only had one item- a Belgian waffle maker. We really, really wanted it. Affectionately in Spanglish we call our waffle maker “casa de los waffles” (house of waffles), and place a dot on it every time we use it. Needless to say it has a lot of dots.
Belgium is known for its waffles and of course its chocolate. For research purposes we had to try both, individually and together. And with ice cream. And strawberries….Turns out our little casa de los waffles doesn’t do such a bad job: it makes practically perfect Belgian waffles, American sized of …

We were determined to prove two Belgian travelers wrong about their country: it is NOT possible to see Belgium in one day. In fact we spent 4 days in Belgium and only left Brussels once. So there.
More than any place on this entire trip, Brussels reminded us of home. No, it wasn’t the french accent, the chocolate, the strange little boy statue or the little-Africa neighborhood downtown. While these could all be said of DC, it was the vibe of “power” in the city. The political center of the European Union, we attended a birthday party where the attendees were from no less than a dozen nations.  (In fact, ‘Happy Birthday’ was sung in three different languages.)  It was the first …

We took this picture hiking around the Juan Curi waterfall outside of San Gil, Colombia. After trying to touch the butterflies, I looked down and saw why they were congregating at that spot. Dung. Needless to say, I haven’t tried to catch or touch a butterfly since. Want to see more photos from Colombia? click here.

Before we left on this journey we hosted some couchsurfers from Malaga, Spain.  He was a chef, so when they told us they wanted to make tortilla espanola, I was all for it.
Also called tortilla de patata, its probably the most common dish throughout Spain.  Eaten as a light dinner or served between a baguette, for us it was a nice change from the constant ham and cheese options.   Simple & easy to make, our couchsurfing chef spiced his up with a delicious red pepper sauce.  Here’s his recipe for both the tortilla and the sauce:
Tortilla Ingredients:

4 medium potatoes
3 eggs
1/2l olive oil
onion & green pepper as you like

Directions:
Peel, cut and fry potatoes on low heat.  Remove from heat. …