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Published: June 25th 2008
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Greetings!
This past weekend I traveled into the coffee region about 3 hours outside of Cali with my friend Aleja and her mother Martha. The terrain was unlike anything I have ever seen. The mountains are very different from ours in Colorado as they are covered in tall deep green grass rather than pine trees and rock, though they do house the same pumas and bears as we do in the Rockies. The two trees that do cover these mountains are palms and eucalyptus.
We stayed the night in a small mountain town, Salento, where the trims of the houses are painted in traditionally very bright colors that would have Home Owner Associations in the U.S. passing out (orange and green combos, or blue and pink, red and yellow was my favorite).
This may not shock the rest of you, but what really hit me about this weekend trip was the blurring of lines between the images I have in my head of different cultures and places. For example, on the radio during the drive, I was being educated on salsa music and found the very traditional salsa (with accordions and trumpet solos) to at times sound like
Country Club
Aleja and I were invited to this snazzy country club, with hundreds of horses (many for polo), and a dressage arena, complete with a German Spanish-speaking coach. It was beautiful. the jazz out of New Orleans. Also, a local plant here, guadua (bamboo) is the prime building material in the coffee region, producing goods that I thought would only be sold in Asia and houses that resemble the log homes of Montana. Finally, in Salento, we found a little bar-cafe that was playing Cuban music, had pictures of Ella Fitzgerald and Billie Holiday on the wall as well as paintings from my favorite Dutch artist, and made espresso using a 100 year old Italian espresso machine. Interesting...
On Sunday we visited a Butterfly Pavilion/Nature education center that was fabulous. Colombia's Constitution is called the "Green Consitution" because of its commitment to maintaining the health of the environment. The tour included a walk through a preserved jungle and I felt a tad adventurous taking the tour in Spanish, becuase though the guide talked quite fast, I was able to pick out the word key to my survival: poisonous.
I am leaving tomorrow for Ecuador and am feeling the same pre-trip jitters that I felt 3 weeks ago before leaving Colorado. I am sure new adventures are on the horizon, and I am excited.
Things I will miss:
Living with a local family. Experiencing all of these new things from both a local and foreign perspective has been invaluable.
People here pointing at things with their mouths (no joke), describing the landscape as "delicious". and thinking I am crazy for not wanting to add sugar to my coffee or tea.
Everyone asking how I like Colombia and being so tickled when I tell them that I love it (which is true). The long-standing poor international image of Colombia seems to have definitely affected the psyche of people here. Many people from different parts of the country have told me how frustrated they are that Colombia is perceived as the cocaine capital of the world when the U.S. is by far the largest consumer of it.
My kick-butt female friends I am sure will (and should) mock me for this one, but a part of me will miss the men here, from age 9 to 90 calling all women (even me, a short-haired, flat-chested, gringa): "mi reina, mi vida, mi amor" which translates to "my queen, my life, my love".
Things I have to look forward to:
Solo travel. Living with my friend Aleja
Bridge
The guide assured us it was safe and then found it hilarious to run up behind us and jump... and her family for three weeks has been luxurious, restful (I don't remember sleeping this much since before high school), and wonderful, but I feel I am ready to rely completely on my Spanish, and be my own guide for a little while.
Less colorful skin. I will be in the Andean highlands of Ecuador for the next week and thus will be able to escape some of my large and unfriendly neighbors here in the Colombian jungle (scorpions, cockroaches, mosquitos, spiders, etc.) some of whom enjoy my company more than I enjoy theirs.
More dreams. I don't know if this is a byproduct of me actually sleeping 8 hours a night consistently, or the malaria medicines (of which a possible side effect is nightmares), but every single night for at least the past two weeks I have been having the most outrageous dreams, and I remember most very clearly the next morning. You can be sure that every single one of you has been in at least one of my dreams, doing something ridiculous.
Well, that's all she wrote. I will try and keep up with this blog as I become much more transient. I
have had the privilege here of free internet access, so if my blog entries are distinctly shorter and include less pictures next week, please don't be insulted, it will be because I am cheap, not because I do not love you all very much.
Abrazo (Hug), Beso (Kiss), Ciao
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