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Published: March 25th 2009
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Our first days in Colombia were supposed to be spent in a quiet mountain town called San Agustin. It is famous for pre-Colombian statues and ruins which are most commonly explored on horseback. Knowing that our bus stop was supposed to arrive at 3 AM, we both set our alarms for 2:15 to ensure that we didn´t sleep through it. We woke up at the aforementioned time, struggling to keep our eyes open, and eventually arrived in Cali a little after 4, at which point we were told that we arrived at 2 AM (rather than 3 AM) where Drew and I intended to get off. So despite all efforts, we found ourselves in Cali instead of San Agustin.
Unlike most of our travels for the last 6 months, we now have the constraint of time bearing down our travels. Nearly everyday from here on out was and is accounted for, and so we didn't have much time to explore all that Cali has to offer. Cali is Colombia's third largest city and famous for its salsa dancing and being a world leader in plastic surgery. After arriving early on a Wednesday morning, we grabbed a city map and set
out to take in as much as we could. Spending a few hours walking in and around the neighborhoods of a big city at least gives you a taste of the vibe, the feel, the culture and the energy there. So this is what we did. We walked along Avenida Sexta, the nightlife hub of the city, lined with salsatecas and restaurants. We explored the city center and its immediate surroundings consisting of the central plaza named Plaza de Caycedo, many weathered colonial churches, Cali's Museo del Oro (home to a collection of pre-Colombian gold artifacts). We crashed hard that night, as we usually do following a night bus, and woke up early to continue where we left off the day before. We walked along the Rio Cali which divides the city in two. We explored the artesan markets of the southwest. We wandered the streets of the San Antonio district with its European flare. And finally, we climbed the steps in the cities central park to Iglesia de San Antonio where we had a majestic view of the city. Though we didn't get to experience the salsa dancing (still a painful experience for me) or the plastic surgery that
Cali is especially known for, we still enjoyed our brief and unexpected stay.
We hopped a bus that night to Bogota, arriving Friday morning, just in time for the weekend. With relatively few sites within the city, combined with our lack of motivation at this point in our journey for day trips outside the cities we're staying in, Bogota was predominantly a party-by-night/movie-by-day stop for us... and we loved every second of it. Saturday and Tuesday, St. Patrick's Day, were the noteworthy nights. On Saturday, along with some new friends from the hostel, we adventured to a club called Andres Carne de Res in Chia, a suburb of Bogota. After a 45 minute and ridiculously expensive cab ride, we finally pulled up at our destination. A monster of a club with endless dance floors, bars and tables; the club seemed to go on forever in all directions. With a crowd consisting of locals, gringos and people of all ages and music ranging from salsa and reaggaetone to hip hop and classic rock, the tone was set for a mega dance party. We bought $20 buckets of mojitos to pass amongst our crowd and proceeded to tear up the dance
Storms over Bogota
I guess it makes for a pretty cool photo at least... floor. Though I only vaguely remember it, I'm told that at one point, Drew and I had a break dance session in the middle of one of the dance floors, taking turns center stage with a big circle around us cheering us on. I don't know how to break dance, so lord knows what I was doing. I imagine it was kind of like the dance-off scene in the movie
White Chicks when the Wayans brothers get down at a party in the Hamptons, except that of course we weren't showing anybody up nor were we dressed in women's clothes. Andres Carne de Res is easily one of the top clubs of this trip in my book. After Saturday, we rested up, saving our strength for St. Patty's Day. Though St. Patty's in Bogota was certainly celebrated in grander fashion than past ones on Kauai, its pale in comparison to any American city a fraction of Bogota's size. Along with nearly our entire hostel, we went up to Zona Rosa in the north of Bogota. Zona Rosa is filled with expensive clubs, restaurants and apartments. Prices aren't much cheaper than NYC. In true "St. Patty's in Colombia" fashion, we spent
the night taking tequila shots and drinking Colombian beer. We talked and smiled and laughed through the night, and sympathized with one another the following morning when most of our hostel suffered the prior night's consequences together.
Though these nights were probably the highlights of our Bogota stay, we did muster the strength to take in some of the city's sights. We explored the historic area of La Candeleria and also visited Plaza Bolivar which is surrounded by the capital building and several beautiful churches. Though we unfortunately chose a day with clouds and rain, we rode a cable car up Monserrate, a peak that overlooks Bogota and upon which sits, but of course, a church. The sightseeing highlight for me was definitely the Botero Museum. Botero is a comtemporary Colombian artist. His sculptures and paintings of people and animals display distorted proportions resulting in stocky looking characters in his pieces. Though my first reaction was something probably along the lines of, "how bizarre?", his works grew on me and I left the museum a Botero fan.
From Bogota, we continued on to Medellin, where Pablo Escobar once ran his drug cartel. Though most of our time in
Medellin turned out to be a total washout (it rained nearly all day, everyday), we were fortunate enough to have one beautiful 6 hour stretch, which gave us enough time to head downtown and explore this beautiful city. Once plagued by violence, Medellin is now quite a safe place and hands down Colombia's most cosmopolitan city. A relatively new metro runs across the entire city and connects to a cable car that runs up into the hillside slums that surround the downtown. We couldn't resist another cable car ride and were rewarded with a breathtaking view of Medellin after climbing high into the slums. Once again however, my day spent in Colombia was highlighted by Botero. Medellin is home to Parque Botero, a plaza scattered with enormous bronze Botero sculptures. Beautiful indeed.
So as you can probably tell, we've been pretty lazy for the past 10 days as we've city-hopped through Colombia (sorry... that probably doesn't make for the most exciting of blogs), but that is all about to change, as tomorrow we set forth on a trek to Ciudad Perdida, a pre-Colombian city overgrown with jungle. It will be 6 days of camping and trekking until I´m back
in civilization. Love and aloha from the jungle!
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