Cali, y mucho mas!!!

Cali is one of the largest cities in Colombia, and I had always heard of it in salsa songs. So my impression and intent of going to Cali was to dance salsa nonstop for the entire weekend. As it turns out, there is more to Cali than salsa, and unbelievably so, I may have enjoyed the other activities even more!!!!

Maybe I should start at the beginning....

It was a (as always) beautiful Wednesday in Armenia and I met another teacher, Stephanie. We spent the day driving around with our boss working out the details of getting our Colombian IDs, or cedulas. She's Colombian by heritage, Floridian by law, and she invited to come with her and her cousin to Cali, where I could stay with her at her Tia's house. I actually considered saying no because I had to start work the next Monday and wanted to be more prepared. Our boss interrupted and informed me that I would have two weeks to prepare. There are no classes until August 10th! Knowing that I of course agreed! As she had been so generous to invite me to stay with her family in Cali, I invited her out that night for a few drinks with a Colombian girl I had met.


We went out to a small bar called El Vivero, where every Wednesday they have a live band that plays all types of music. My new Colombian friend, Lorena, used to work at Vivero, as did her roommate, and her sister-in-law still works there! My first friends here are in the industry!!! We got a reserved table right in front, and ordered a small bottle of rum for the 5 of us to share.




After a couple hours the place was packed! When we finished our bottle of rum, the owner gave us another one for free! Not even a month in Colombian and I'm already VIP!!!! After that Steph's cousin wanted to meet the singer.


And we sure did.......mid-song....




Once we had finished that bottle, they tried to give us another one, and we had to turn it down, because we had already had enough! We shared a cab home around 3am and I fell asleep with a smile from ear to ear for having such a fun night with my new friends!!!





The next morning, we left for Cali around noon. The bus ride is almost 3 hours, and the driver was zipping around everyone he could to speed it up. Unfortunately the previous night's activities meant that all his zipping around was pretty hard on my stomach, but we made it! We had pollito for a late lunch and went to the ChipiChop mall, an old train station that has been turned into one of the nicest malls in the city. Everything was really nice there, but a little more expensive than most places in Colombia.

Stephanie's aunt loves to mountain climb and I told her I was wanted to get into that also. I hadn't brought tennis shoes, so we went to another (less expensive) shopping center so I could buy a pair. After all of that, we decided to stay in and get some rest that night so we could walk up the Cerro de las Tres Cruzes (Hill of the Three Crosses) in the morning.





Tia Carmenza (Stephanie's aunt) had wanted us to wake up early to beat the heat for our little hike, but we were still recovering from the night before and got up around 10am. By 11 we were on our way to the bottom of the hill, and the heat was already beating down.












Tia Carmenza had made it seem like the hill would be very easy, most of it was just regular stairs, she said. Little did we know, Tia Carmenza is actually Jane of the Jungle. I would not call the hike little, or easy.





Im not even sure it qualifies as a hill, but either way, WE CONQUERED IT!!! I think the part that made it the most difficult was the midday heat in Cali. But we did it, and I got a tan along the way. :)






















Immediately following the 3 hour journey up and down the "hill", I had the most delicious lunch EVER! It may have been my body's response to the need to nourish itself, but the almuerzo that afternoon tasted a little bit like heaven. It was a typical Colombian lunch, which is always huge by USA standards, 3 courses (or sometimes more). Soup, salad, entree with meat, rice, and another side dish. Today's delight was black bean soup, a fresh salad with homemade dressing, steak, and platanos. Mmmmm-mmmm good!


Even though our little legs were tired, we somehow mustered up the energy to go out salsa dancing that night. :) There are three main drags in Colombia, throughout the course of the evening, we checked out two. In La Sexta (6th street), there are a lot of clubs that play salsa all night long. It is downtown and that is where we went first. AY QUE RICO!!! We sat down and ordered some drinks. My rear end almost never touched that seat again. Once I would get done dancing with one guy, another would come ask before I even got back to our table. There was so much stepping and spinning, I was dripping sweat at some points. I had to force myself to take breaks just to rest. It was wonderful!!! But it did make me tired. When the bar closed at 2am, I would have been ready to go home to bed. However, the rest of my crew was fired up and ready to keep going, and as the saying goes, "While in Rome, ..." I mean, I was in Cali, the capital of salsa, and the clubs are open till 6 am!!!

We went to the ritzy section of town where there are all sorts of nightclubs, including electronic, and some international chains. We went to our guide, Vanessa's, favorite place, Mango Biche. I was inside less than 10 minutes before I got my second wind! This was a huge club, at least 5 times the size of the first one we went to. The large stage at the front center of the club had about 4 types of shows throughout the night. (For my Argentina friends, think: Meluco Belleza!) Also, there were small stages on either side of the dance floor with the absolute most incredible salsa dancers I have ever seen. Before that night, I actually thought I could salsa. Now I know, I have no skills at all. I don't make a fool out of myself, but I have no skills.



I couldn't pick which club I liked more. At the first, I was able to dance much much more, and you know I loved that! At the second, I didn't get asked to dance but a couple of times. However, it was much more entertaining. As the club emptied out a little after 5am, we were some of the last to leave.




The next morning we slept in, of course. And once we finally woke up and got showered and ready, barely in time to get a 3:00 lunch, we walked around the city of Cali. One of the most famous Cali sculptures is "El Gato del Rio" made by Hernando Tejada. Behind the giant cat, are about a dozen smaller sculptures of cats. These cats are made by various artists and are called the novias del Gato, or girlfriends of the cat. By each of the smaller cats is an explanation by the artist of why it should be the girlfriend. It was very interesting and beautiful. After that, we walked to a museum, but it was closed. We had dinner and while my two partners in crime went out for the night, I stayed home with Tia Carmenza to rest up for our BIG day tomorrow! She was taking me with her weekly hiking group, and we had to be up at 5am. That's earlier than when we had gotten home the night before!





















The next day was absolutely the most incredible, beautiful, unbelievable experience of my life. Words and pictures will not even come close to describing how beautiful the day was, but I will try. We got up at 5am, packed our backpacks and headed to the bus terminal where we met up with about 40 people going on the hike. I didnt expect the group to be THAT large! It took about 45 minutes to arrive to Pance, a small town that had barely woken up by the time we got there. There were 3 or 4 main guides who knew the area well and stayed with the front, middle, and back of the group to make sure we were all together and safe. The main point of today's hike was to find a hidden waterfall. The guides had come out here and nearly gotten lost trying to find it for us, but they marked their path so they could take all of us there easily today. Within 30 minutes, 4 people turned around and went back home. It was a steep incline, and the sun was already hot. I was dripping sweat already, but there was no way I was turning around. I kept telling myself that the waterfalls were magical, and that once I bathed in the waterfalls I could wish for anything I wanted and my wish would be granted. I thought about all the things I wanted: that I acheive a career in education that changes the world, that more opportunies become available for those in need, that fewer people choose financial profit over altruism, and mostly, that my brother and sister have everything they dream for, and that they can find happiness and harmony living together. The physical cost of the hike was nothing compared to the benefits I imagined could come from 15 minutes under those waterfalls.




The hike began at a steep incline over grassy hills. We came across a house where a family was outside working their cattle, one young girl was milking a surprisingly calm Bessie. As we continued to ascend the mountain, it became more and more like a jungle. I was wearing long shorts and a tank top, the most appropriate attire I had with me. As we began to duck under large branches and squeeze between trees in the jungle, some of the other hikers offered me additional clothing. You could maybe even say they demanded that I put more clothes on. Even though there were other hikers without long pants and sleeves, I was given pants, and long sleeve tshirt, and gloves to wear. Sometimes I get annoyed when people become over protective of me, I think I am as capable as anyone else! But I was happy I accepted their offer, and it made the hike much easier as I only had to concern myself with where I stepped, and not with every inch of my body. After about 4 hours of hiking we could hear the waterfalls approaching. I took off the clothes I had been wearing over top my own outfit, and got in the water in my shorts and tank top. Some of the people tried to make me wear my shoes in the waterfall so I wouldnt cut my feet on the rocks, but I had to decline. I stepped carefully (and mostly walked on all fours) over to the waterfall and began to thank God for this amazing opportunity, for this beautiful planet, and for my luck in being able to be exactly where I was at that moment. I don't know if all my wishes will be granted, but I put them all out into the universe as the water fell over my body. The water was freezing cold, and when it fell from the waterfall onto my back, it stung because gravity pulled it down from hundreds of feet in the air. Cold and almost painful, it was the most wonderful shower I've ever taken.







I felt completly refreshed after that. And me and Tia Carmenza had a lunch of boiled potatoes and canned tuna. Delicious nurishment. After I had dried, I put back on my hiking gear, socks, and shoes and we began the last leg of our trip. It was another 1.5 hours to Villa Carmela, where we could take a jeep back to Cali. Everyone kept asking me how I enjoyed the hike, all I could say was that it felt like I was walking through my imagination. It was unnreal, even as it happened. They all wanted know if I would be back next week. I told them no, because I live in Armenia, so they said, every two weeks then? I said I will try to come once a month and hike with them. They said I did great for my first time hiking in the jungle. They said Im a natural. Im nervous to go with them though, because Tia Carmenza told me that this was longer than the usual hike, but not as steep. I thought it was very steep! We went up to 2,200 meters, or approx 7,200 ft. I will of course, let you all know when I do go back to hike with Los Amigos de la Camineta (their group name).



I was back at Tia Carmenza's house around 3:30, took a shower, and got my things together to head back to Armenia. She went with me to the bus station (the other girls had to go back earlier so Steph's cousin could catch a flight back to Bogota that afternoon). She told me I was welcome anytime to stay with her, and I said thank you, that I was sure to take her up on the offer. Once again, the Colombian hospitality shining brilliantly!

Even just writing about the hike, I am feeling the contentment, pride, and awe all over again. I felt a very strong presence of God that day, and the memory brings the feeling back. I have been to Iguazu Falls, a much larger waterfall and tourist attraction in Argentina, but there's not a comparison. I hope places like the unnamed, hidden, magical waterfall I found last Sunday will remain unexploited for others to experience the beauty that I have. If any of you come to visit, rest assured, we can go somewhere like this together.

Buena Gente

A couple of "incidents" here in Colombian have really shown me the Colombian hospitality, and I am very impressed. These incidents could have given me a very bad first week here, but because of the wonderful nature of Colombian people, I had just the opposite. This may be the most amable peoples I have ever been in contact with.

Incident numero uno: Run-in with the traffic police.

Two American teachers here, a married couple named the Carpenters, just arrived from a mission trip in Ecuador. They have a car and decided to take me downtown to show me around my new city. Not 5 minutes into the trip we are pulled over, apparently today is a pique-plaque day. Pique-plaque is an attempt to keep traffic down in the city, and each license plate indicates which day is your pique-plaque day. (If it ends in a 1 or 2, no driving in the city on Monday. 3 or 4, no driving downtown Tuesday, etc...) Unbeknownst to them, it was their pique-plaque day. Come to find, their licenses and insurance had also expired over their two week mission in Ecuador and so they really had no business driving at all, let alone driving downtown on their pique-plaque day!!! My experience with South American police so far in my life has been this: avoid them at all costs becuase they will try to get as much American money from you as possible. Even though it was an honest mistake, I was waiting for them to threaten to throw us in jail, but they didnt. Not only did they not throw us in jail, they didn't give the Carpenters even one ticket! The explained the pique-plaque situation, which the Carpenters hadn't ever experienced before. They had us park the car, walk to the nearest insurance office and get insurance. The insurance wouldn't be valid until midnight that night, so they gave us a police escort home, so we wouldnt' have an accident, and told us not to drive again until at least midnight. I almost went into shock, it was so different from anything I had ever experienced. I don't even trust the 5-0 in the States, and here the Colombian police have done us a huge favor.

Incident numero dos: My flooded kitchen.

Another new experience of mine this week was renting a washing machine. When I asked my landlord where I could take my clothes to be washed, I was sure I misunderstood the concept. I knew I heard the words "come to my house" "rent" and "24 hours". I thought it must mean they would take my clothes and bring them back within 24 hours. A washing machine seems like a very heavy thing to be dragging around the city. But low and behold, yes, not only did they bring me a washing machine to hook up in my apartment, they brought it on a motorcycle. The gentlemen who brought it hooked it up and made sure it worked and left me to do my laundry. After two loads, I hung everything up to dry and went to read in bed. My big bro, Jeff, called me a little later and while I was on the phone with him, listening and drifting into a sleepy haze, my doorbell rang. And then it rang again. I got some clothes on and went to see who was there. The doorman, or guard, was standing there saying something I couldn't understand in my state of half-sleep. He was indicated something in the house so I stepped aside and he walked into my kitchen and turned the light on. It was flooded in there! I told Jeff I better call him back later. The doorman then began mopping my floor. I was very confused and trying to figure out what happened. I assumed the water must be dripping into someone else's apartment, which is why we wanted to get it mopped up right away. He must have seen how confused I was and showed me the hose on the washing machine and where the connection had cracked. (Apparently he had noticed right away what caused the flood.) I started to notice there wasn't just water all over my floor, but on the walls and all over the top and sides of the fridge too. But I didn't notice how the water could be leaking down to the next floor. I asked how he knew what happened, and he pointed to the window opposite the wall I had the washing machine hooked up to. In other words, my kitchen being flooded was not bothering any other tenants. It was really my problem once he got the water stopped (which he had shut off before I answered the door). I can't imagine a doorman in the States mopping my floor. He turned off the connection hose and wished me a good night sleep. My head was still spinning, I wasn't sure what had happened until I worked it all out in my head the next day.

These two stories are the strongest (but my no means the only) pieces of evidence I have to support my new claim: Colombians are the nicest people on earth. There are probably many reasons for this, but I think the biggest reason Colombians are so nice is to overcompensate for the bad press the country gets internationally. Not only are they not all kidnappers, guerillas, and drug traffickers, but the majority of Colombians are incredibly giving, caring, and helpful to foreigners.

I love it here.

Los Primeros Bailes!

I arrived in Colombia Wednesday morning, a beautiful day had come to welcome me to my new home! Two people from my school were waiting for me with sign that said: Erica Misel. Bueno, at least they were waiting on me, I was afraid they would be late, so I was just happy to see them. They took me straight to my new apartment, which is beautiful and HUGE, at least by my standards. Two bedroom, 2.5 bath, patio, living room, pantry, kitchen, and an office! They already had it furnished for me, and some minimal groceries in the fridge too. I was very tired from traveling. I hadn´t been able to sleep for more than 3 hours at a time during the flight and layovers, so once I got most of my things unpacked, I slept.

The next morning my new landlord (who will NEVER take the place of the Alfaros en mi corazon!!!) came to fix a few things around the house with his nephew. Both of them live in the States and are here on vacation. They asked if I wanted to walk with them to buy the hardware they needed and I could buy some of the things I was needing also. They showed me around the city, el centro. I got my cell phone (312-293-8069) and few other key items for my new casa. I met two other nephews along the way. Later that day I met Rosita, the sister of my landlord who lives in the apartment building. She is so sweet, less than 4 ft tall, and absolutely adorable! The whole family told me whatever I needed, to just come knocking.

The next day, Friday morning, my boss took me for a tour of my new classroom and school campus. I also had lunch at his house with his wife and two of his kids. It was the first time I ate well since I arrived. I had a typical Colombian dish, bean soup with platanos y carne. Followed by un dulce y un cafe. I was so full when I came home that I took a 2 hour nap! :)

I had mentioned to my landlord that I would love to go out some evening and they could show me the city at night. They invited me to go that evening. He and his three nephews took me to place near the house, where I had (what else?...) Tequila. One nephew was raised in the States, one in England, and the other in Colombia. The two gringos didnt dance much, but the Colombian had me on the dance floor within 15 minutes! And I loved it! My first Colombian salsa!!!! The other two got out and danced a little with me too! I was thinking to myself what a great date! When one boy gets tired, I can just dance with one of the others!! And then...it got better! A cousin and a brother-in-law showed up and took us into the city. I hardly had time to drink anymore, I was dancing so much! Salsa, bachata, merengue, and they taught me some new Colombian dances. I dont mean to brag, but they were impressed with my skills ;) It was a great night! All the guys were very nice, respectful, and very fun! The cousin was telling jokes all night, none of which I understood, but they way he tells them made me laugh anyway!

I got home a little after 1am and slept like a baby till late this morning. Less than three days in Colombian, and I have to say, its been a great success so far!