One of the most wonderful things about being in a Colombia's tropical climate is fresh fruit juice is offered at breakfast lunch and dinner. The list of fruits available in liquid form is extensive. Of course there's strawberry, pineapple, mandarin, lemon, lime and they are fresh and delicious. But I've been trying to sample the fruits that are unique to Colombia. The lulo fruit has an orange skin and the internal flesh looks like a seedy green tomato. When I first tried lulo juice I didn't like it. I would later discover that the fruit used in my first lulo juices wasn't ripe. While there is a tartness to the fruit -- the juice tasted thin and sour.

But today, we ventured outside the city, past crumbling stucco warehouses, weaving by motos and cyclists. On the road through Valle del Cauca, smokestakes towered behind fields of sugar cane, blowing black wisps into the air. The land is flat like Ohio -- but sandwiched between two steep mountain ridges. It was smoggy in the morning, but the air cleared by the afternoon to reveal the Cordillera Occidental.

We went to a sugar plantation museum, then to the home of the 19th century Colombian author, Jorge Isaacs Ferrer. For lunch drink orders were placed at Los Guaduales restaurante. I decided to give the lulo juice another chance. Unlike the thin liquid served before, this juice was chunky and thick- as if avocado and green tomatoes where pulsed a few times in a blender. The green chunks were sweet and fleshly -- with the creamy consistency of avocado. The liquid was a little tart like rhubarb. And the seeds at the base of the glass, surprisingly seemed to disintegrate when they hit the mouth. I stirred with a long spoon, ladling out the tender cubes of fruit.

I know after I depart Colombia this is the drink I will crave from afar. It will be hard to resist the urge to smuggle some fruit home.