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Published: October 12th 2009
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At the bus station in Armenia the buses are the same prices as the expresso collectivos, for 20,000 pesos you get to Cali straight, no stops. 3 hours later i found myself at the bus station, I went inside to look for an ATM machine then found the info desk, I asked the lady how much taxi costs for Pelican Larry, the hostel I will stay. Nice place with comfy beds. My roomies are Veronica from Oz and Lafonsa from Alabama. I was on FB when Sasha my German friend happened to be online as well, we found out we were both in Cali, just arrived and staying in the same place!! He was outside at the living room so out the door i went and he was there! Last i saw of him was a good 4 months ago in Asuncion, Paraguay, man small world and what technology does to stay in touch with friends is .amazing.
We catch up, he is travelling with a friend from Germany, Catherine whose mom is from Paraguay, we reminisced about Asuncion but have to stop and walk the city. They leave tomorrow quickly to coffee country, we walked to downtown, occasionally getting
lost but the locals are very helpful. The city center is modern, not that interesting, a few nice old buildings, some parks, an intriguing church. We sat for coffee at a fast food place then decided to head back to the hostel and chill for a bit, Cali is hot but not too humid.
There is BBQ in the hostel, Gunther the owner cooked up a storm, too much meat, very good1 I gave Sacha my steak, cant finish it, that's how much food we had. We walked to the mall Chipichapa to see a few bars, we got lost a bit eventually a local dude speaking good English walked us there, very nice guy. we had a drink at a kiosk inside the mall, very expensive so we left after that. At the hostel had a few more beers with Sacha and said our goodbyes, they leave early tomorrow. It was quite noisy that night, some guests are outside the patio talking loudly at 4am! Finally they shut up when the receptionist asked them to go to bed!
Lazy start for me, after lingering in bed i decided to head to Chipichapa to find food and grocery
shop. i found Carrefour and Exito but did not find anything interesting to buy. i walked the mall and had chicken wings at a chicken place La Brasa Roja I think. I discovered there is a movie theatre here to so checked out the time scheds. back at the hostel got to talking to Lafonsa, very friendly guy, who was in the US army, been to Olongapo and all. He loves Colombia, so do I. Spend most of the day in the internet sorting out my plans for the next months. People from the hostel went out that night to a salsa bar but i begged off, too tired. Hernan a roomates from Argentina, a salsa teacher living in Barcelona, Spain got to chatting with me, he set his alarm clock to midnight then he went out to a salsa bar, i thought of going with him but I would absolutely look like an idiot since i cant dance like him and he'll pick up all the girls, so i begged off. The same boys next door to our rooms, i think theyre Peruvians are making noise again, only the next day we found out the Peruvian dude got robbed
at gunpoint in a taxicab by himself, his head was covered and was taken somewhere, he was let go after giving all his cash.terrible.
Lafonsa and I went to the Alameda mercado a big local market where we can buy some fresh fruits and veggies, we had a good lunch first inside the market, ate with the locals. Then bought some veggies to cook up tonight, i decided to make a chop suey for my hungry friends coming from their lountain trek in Salento. Late afternoon Chris, Julie and Mark came to the hostel exhausted and hungry so me and Julie started up cooking while the boys ran errands and bought rum and coke. After a hefty meal he hangout and chatted with fellow backpackers in the hostel, then prepared to go out tonight. We went to a few bars near where we live and it was not as exciting as we thought it would be, a few salsa music mixed with reggaeton. After 2 bars we got tired of it and called it a night at 2am, last call here in Cali anyway, went for burgers then to bed.
Another lazy day, basically just hung around the
hostel apart from lunch at Kuty. Still a bit tired from last night we mostly just sat watching soccer matches on TV. Made dinner of pasta with spinach and mushroom sauce, yummy, while shopping for food we bumped into Lafonsa who moved hostels to learn more Spanish, he agreed to meet us at the hostel later to go out.That eve we wanted to go out and take the Chiva bus, a party bus that goes around the city. We were aiming for the 11pm bus we went to the rendezvous point after buying booze but then the bus never came after much walking and not been able to figure out where to take it, we settled to sit down in a park and just get drunk, At least 3 party buses have already gone so Julie decided she will flag the next one and see if they let us on. Eventually one came and it did let us on board and boy was it fun! Dancing salsa, and reggaeton swaying and falling on the floor, we danced with locals who were very friendly, of course they were also all drunk, group of girls dancing with us and licking our faces!!
and occasionally doing a crotch grab! they were all plastered on Aguardiente, a repulsive local drink akin to sambuca which is nasty for me, i hated it with passion so everytime they offer a shot for me I give it to Chris.
The bus eventually stopped at this strip of bars on the outside of town Changa i think was the name of the bar, lots of salsa dancing and an occasional bout of reggaeton music, then we moved to another part of the bar complex where it is more lively and dance some more with the locals, we found it not difficult to dance with girls here they oblige even if you are a crappy dancer. A couple performed some salsa moves, the guy has only one leg! they were really good, at the end they went around with a bucjet for contributions, we gave them a few coins with delight. 4am back to hostel, a registered taxi took us back, very safe. we finished our left over pasta dinner and off to bed, Mark the American dude from Chicago was so tired and drunk from the awful Aguardiente he went straight to bed.
Great sleep, great
scrambled egg breakfast that we made ourselves then mark and i went to the cinema to see Sector 9.Another day of basically doing nothing, watched tv, movies and chit chat ith fellow backpackers, then 6pm BBQ time! As before, Gunther cooked up a storm. The Spanish dude who had been staying here for awhile gave us some Ciban rhum and we drank it till it's empty, good quality, a bit strong, i went to bed with a headache not after i got some movies off from the Danish guy Stefan. They went out clubbing again, me and Mark stayed as we did not feel like it anymore. 2 hours later Chris came back dissapointed, he thought he just wasted his time going out, the bars were not lively.
After a hearthy breakfast i said goodbyes to everyone and got ready to leave for Popayan, been here in Cali 5 days and is time to move on, all my friends are going to Bogota, am the only one going south. Today is holiday and the streets are almost empty but the bus station is still bustling, Chris came with me to buy his night bus ticket to Bogota.
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Angus
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Gratuitus Crotch Grabbing
Gil, all this booze, ladies, dancing and food sounds fantastic. More lively than I was travelling with you, remember us trying to find proper nightlife, often to no avail? Right now I'm sitting at my desk on a wet miserable morning at work! Have another drink on my behalf!