Hello, friends around the world. Hello, HIVE friends, lovers of the best drink in the world: beer. We are now in week 440 of the Weekly Saturday Beer Challenge, and it's time for you to join in the beer fun.

Last weekend, my city, Cumaná, celebrated its birthday, which is usually marked with a kind of fair called Las Noches de Antaño (Nights of Yesteryear), held in the historic center of the city, where people dress up in period costumes, eat, dance, and drink.

There are usually food, drink, and craft stalls for the public to buy from and enjoy a pleasant evening. Most of the drinks are artisanal, made with homemade ingredients and fermented. They are generally sweet liqueurs, fruit drinks, coffee, or chocolate.

Personally, I don't really like sweet liqueurs, so I had a few glasses and then said I wouldn't have any more. I wasn't going to drink, but when we heard that they were drinking beer at La Posada San Francisco, a colonial house, we went there not only to cool off, but also to sit down and give our ears a rest from the music in the streets.

There were several types of beer, but we ordered some Polar Negritas, which tasted heavenly. They were cold and cost $1.50. As I have said on other occasions, Polar beer is one of the most traditional beers on the Venezuelan market and one of the country's favorites. So much so that it is one of the most sought-after products by our immigrant brothers and sisters scattered around the world. Polar beer, Polar malt, and Pan flour, also from the Polar industry, are perhaps three of the products that Venezuelans outside the country miss the most.

It is always pleasant to visit La Posada San Francisco. It is a very spacious, cool house with interesting mosaic floors. Finally, we freshened up and went out to celebrate the city, the oldest on the American continent, at 510 years old.