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I arrived in Cali at the beginning of the month with exactly 31 days until I need to be back on the north coast for my lift out of here to central America. I wanted to work here for a while in order to improve my Spanish a bit more and to see a part of Colombia from a non backpacker point of view. I had chosen Cali as it is not really on the gringo trail but if I am honest the fact that it lists itself as the salsa capital of Colombia was also a big draw. Coincidentally all the people I met at Christmas on the beach were also from Cali and one girl in particular, Wisely, thought she might be able to set me up with some work connections.
I arrived here at the same time as one of my friends mother was visiting and so I tagged along with Patricks mum and her two friends while Patrick acted as tour guide, taking us on a rather wet but lovely walk just outside a small village called Pance up in the hills to the south of the city, then to the zoo (which was nice but still
just animals in cages like any other) and generally showing us around the area where he and most of the others live called San Antonio. I had got myself a hostel in the north of the city close to the avenida sexta an upmarket modern area where there is a big strip of bars blasting out loud salsa music at all times, unfortunately having arrived on a Sunday there wasn't much happening there and so I only stayed a few days until the loud roommates and miserable staff drove me out of that hostel and I found a very quiet little place in San Antonio just round the corner from my friends.
Cali is not on the tourist map mainly because there is not much to do here in terms of sightseeing or museums or colonial architecture. That's not to say it doesn't have its charms its just that its lovely bits are a bit obscured by its ugly bits and traffic and exhaust fumes. San Antonio is by far the nicest bit located around a church on a hill and down towards the river is very posh area full of designer boutiques, cafes, restaurants and posh bread shops -
proper brown crusty home baked - Colombia is just miles ahead of the rest of South America! Then there is the big road called the Quinta (all Colombian cities are laid out on the grid system with road numbers instead of names), which is a busy polluted highway that runs all the way from the north to the south of the city and that you pretty much have to get on to get anywhere. Across the Quinta from my hostel is the old centre with some fairly ugly squares squashed in amongst streets full of stalls and shops selling cheap crap.
It was turning out to be a bit of a slow process finding a job and having done as much sightseeing as is possible here, I was getting a bit bored. Wisely had told me about a foundation for poor people with terminal diseases which also ran a home for the children of those parents who were too sick to care for them or had already passed away and I was waiting for her to put me intouch with the woman who runs it to see if they could use my help. But while I was waiting and all
my friends were at work I didn't have much to do.
To while away some time I took a day trip to a restored sugar cane hacienda, where there was a slightly pointless collection of sugar cane presses (there is really only one way to extract the liquid from sugar cane - squash it between two rollers) the only difference between them being that each one was slightly bigger than the last. But it was set in beautiful grounds and as always in South America the journey is usually more exciting than what you are going to see. I caught the bus to a small town and inquired about taxis to the hacienda, but at 4 pounds one way I decided that was too much and I would walk the 6km (I think I might get a shock when I get back home and actually start spending in pounds again!). People in Colombia didnt really walk much and I passed several people on the way there and back who were shocked and concerned that I was walking all that way and on my own as well. I always get asked "Are you not scared?" but so far no one has
given me a good explanation when I reply "Of what?", they just look at me kind of confused. Anyway I didn't actually walk far until the original taxi driver stopped and let me jump on the back of his pickup for a free ride half the way there, then someone else did the same at the entrance to the museum driveway. These same people then adopted me and forced me to have my photo taken in front of every display, flower and tree along our way round the grounds. I only kept a few of them though and forced them all to get in the picture with me in front of the big ceiba tree as revenge! I managed to escape from them and spent a good while watching the hummingbirds fighting over the water and sugar in the feeders dotted around the grounds, then walked half way back to the bus stop past people having Sunday barbecues by their garden poolsides, was stopped for a chat by a man on a moped who saw me taking pictures of the vineyards then came back five minutes later with two bunches of grapes that they had just harvested and then managed
to hitch a lift in the back of a truck which dropped me off just in time to watch a group of people practicing the traditional cumbia dance of the northern coastal region. Like I said its always exciting going anywhere here.
To kill more time I also took a trip back to Popayan for a day, but after all this time in Colombia I have got a bit blasé about all these lovely whitewashed colonial cities so couldn't be bothered to take any photos and only spent an afternoon there, from there though I went to a small village called Silvia where an isolated group of indigenous indians bring their wares to market every Tuesday on the traditional form of rural transport, called a chiva, from the surrounding villages. It was a fascinating place full of the colorfull costumes of these people where the men wear purple sarongs and small ponchos with a coloured trim and the women wear a multitude of white beads around their necks and walk down the street spinning wool. I returned to Cali that afternoon with a bag full of vegetables and the delicious soft local cheese, plus, finally, a date to meet the
kids of the orphanage and hopefully arrange a schedule with them for daily visits.
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