PDG

In Taganga, Colombia, we'd splashed out on food a couple of times.  Well, compared to our normal meal budget anyway.  Two pounds a dish is hardly breaking the bank for really delicious tapas; amazing cerviche, succulent prawns and melt-in-your mouth calamari no less than you'd expect in a fishing village I suppose, with a couple of happy hour cocktails in keeping with the spirit of a Caribbean holiday destination.  Two nights later we headed up the hill to the big backpackers, the most unlikely place to find a gourmet feed but chef Patrick served us up fantastic plates of food; a seabass with capers and white wine sauce, and a pepper steak at little more than a fiver each.  Both nights of 'extravagance' were well worth every penny and as we hadn't had such good food for a while, it prompted the discussion about which had been our best meal so far.  Naturally we both immediately thought back to PDG, but quickly added fond memories with much more humble origins to compete for our favourite: a feast of fresh calamari and fish washed down with a caipirinha in Gamboa cost us almost nothing; a tasty bbq chicken washed down with a couple of litres of coke at a roadside stall in Rurrenabaque, even less.  It was relieving to realise that PDG hadn't turned us into complete snobs!

But if talking individual meal, which one at PDG would we choose anyway?

Breakfast: the 8 course tasting menu?

Lunch: one of the special grills, meat or seafood?

Or dinner: private table for two on the island, or sharing with a handful of others on the candle-lit beach?

Yep, a pretty difficult choice!  Truth be told, if push came to shove, we'd both probably opt for the bowls of prawn and calamari down by the lagoon that we ordered as an appetiser, but pretty much ruined our lunch.  They were huge, and just the most moreish thing you can imagine.  Sorry, no pictures, but here's one of the view we had whilst devouring them...

Oh, and in case you are wondering, PDG is a swish resort in Brazil where we more or less started our whole trip.  Here's a few more non food-related views to paint you a picture...

Yep, more than a couple of times in the last few months we'd wished we were back there!  But you know what, we're just as happy munching empanadas on a street corner or sleeping on the beach in hammocks, and wouldn't swap the associated memories for the world.  We're just very very lucky to have had the opportunity to do both, and we sure as hell know it.