Crepes and Waffles - Colombia edition

On a recent trip to Colombia, I was excited to get up close and personal with the best Colombian chocolate, similar to what Caryn and I find on the shelves at Whole Foods.  When I got to Colombia, however, I learned that, much like Ecuador, all of the best chocolate is exported elsewhere, and I have a better chance of getting Colombian chocolate at my local grocery store.

Colombia is known for their Arequipe, which is caramel/dulce de leche, which is quite good but there was no way for me to survive 10 days without chocolate!
Thankfully, my friends discovered an ice cream chain which saved my chocolate cravings, and the trip!

Crepes and Waffles opened in 1980 in Bogota, styled after a French creperie.  Colombians love to eat traditional food and you won't come across as many foreign chains or cuisines as you will in other Latin countries.  Bogota is also located at a high altitude (2,625 metres - 8,612 feet above sea level), and as the third highest-altitude capital city in South America after La Paz and Quito, it is quite cold.  A French ice cream shop was definitely a gamble, since Bogota folks don't even wear shorts in their summer (learned this the hard way), however this chain became a sweet spot (literally) for Colombians,

Chocolate brownie ice cream, photo compliments of Grace Lee

turned out to be a tremendous success, and now there are 62 locations throughout Colombia alone, as well as stores across Ecuador, Panama, Mexico, Peru, Spain, Brazil, Venezuela and Chile.  I was actually quite surprised when I made this discovery, since I spent time in most of those places, ice cream-less.  I don't recall even eating in Ecuador aside from corn from a street cart, because the food was godawful. Knowledge for next time!

Some of the shops today are still heladerias (ice cream shops), however many also have grown to include restaurants with an extensive brunch menu.

You can order a plain, amazingly rich ice cream flavor in a cupo or a cono, or you can choose from their list of specialty desserts, which include cheesecake, fondue, ice creams with faces (picture below) and a lot of other desserts that are all detailed in Spanish that it's too early in the morning for me to attempt to translate. (Full list of desserts)

I really wanted to get the happy face dessert shown on the right, but there was a problem with the freezers at the location in Cartagena Julia and I went to on our last night, and the ice creams were half melting, and my poor cara de sonreir helado was not going to happen. Also, I think they're meant for 5 year olds and that's secretly why the lady wouldn't do it.  So instead I opted for chocolate and brownie, and I died and went to heaven right there outside the shop on Carrera 2.  There were full brownie chunks mixed into the ice cream.  My two scoops were so decadent, and you could taste the fresh chocolate that was probably picked in the nearby cacao plantation in each and every bite. I'm shockingly not a big ice cream fan typically, but I fell in love with Crepes and Waffles.  Julia and I were mildly depressed after that we hadn't made it here sooner, and crossed our fingers we'd find one at the airport so we could have it one more time (it wasn't.) We'll have to make a trip to another Latin country to get to experience this again!

Full list of locations throughout Central and South America:
http://crepesywaffles.com.co/puntos-de-venta

What's your favorite dessert you've discovered abroad?