Cali, Colombia

Before I left the states, I had talking to a coworker about my trip. She told me that she is from Cali, Colombia and that she still has family there. She insisted that I stay with them, which was completely fine with me. After a few days of being in Medellin, I took a 9 hour bus down to Cali during the morning and arrived around 6pm. Jose and his girlfriend Mari picked me up from the station. They were sooo nice!! On the way to the apartment, it started to rain and there was lightening. It was a very different setting from my arrival in Medellin.

Later that night Jose and Mari took me to this place were we just had a local beer and communicated in Spanish. I ended up speaking spanish for the next 3 days. I only spoke English for 2 minutes when I called my mom.

The next day, Mari really wanted to take me to the river, Rio Ponce. Apparently it is a huge spot for locals to hang out. We went during the week, so there was not as many people, but there were still a lot of family in the river and cooking lunch along the bend. That is what I enjoyed most about hanging out with Jose and Mari because they took me to places were there were only locals, no tourists. They were really excited to show me around to places they enjoy going to.

Mari and Jose were going to teach my how to salsa, since Cali is the salsa capital of Colombia. But I woke up from my nap to rain, thunder, and lightening. And the electricity had gone out all over the city. So we could not listen to salsa music and watch the video for my to learn the moves. We heard that a parking garage had become flooded at the supermarket, so we went to go check that out. The water was a few inches above the ground, so people had to walk in huge puddles to get to their cars.

The power stayed off for almost 24 hours. And I thought they would have hot water. But I thought wrong. So one day I couldn´t bare to wash my hair.

On friday, we went to the zoo. Going to the zoo was great because I got to practice my spanish for animals. Also, I saw some species of animals I have never seen before, but I forget some of their names. The zoo was quite big and well organized. And it wasn't that full with people. The weather started to get sunny, luckily it didnt rain that day.

Let me tell you that I was very well fed. I was living the poor life back in Medellin, and in Cali the family was treating me like a queen, plumping me up with so much food that my new first word I learned while there was llena, or "full." After my last dinner, Jose and Mari took me to the bus station to take a 10 hour ride back to Medellin.

I appreciate everything that Mari, Jose, and his parents did for me. They were so completely generous and open for me to stay with them in their a apartment. The people here are so loving and full of hospitality, despite what people may think.

Also, the bus system in Colombia is a HUNDRED times better than the nasty Greyhound Bus in the states. Ew. And it cost me $13 for a 9 hour ride compared to $60 in the states.

A special thank you to Lucy.