Starting to see Colombia

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I didn’t have anything special that I wanted to see in
Cali, so on my second day there I just went along with
Yonatan. By the time we both woke up and ate lunch it
was about 15:00, and then we went to Loma de la Cruz,
where we could see a little of the old part of the
city and snack a little. Then we went to one of the
universities, where Yonatan’s friend (actually, his
boss…) told him that there is some music performance,
but when we went there, there wasn’t really anything.
So we walked around the campus a little, met his
friend-boss, and then ran into a students’ political
parade, and joined it because we where basically going
on the same direction and had nothing better to do. It
was quite amusing, a lot of ppl where with whistles,
costumes and balloons, and I learnt some march protest
songs in Spanish. When the march turned we moved on,
basically to a club that played some traditional
Colombian music, where we were supposed to meet his
friends from work. We got there too early and they
only allowed in couples, so we decided to go out to
some area near his house that has some discotheques.
We basically didn’t find anything good over there, so
we went back to meet his friends. There in the
beginning they said they don’t let us in because we
are not a couple, and after one of girls from
Yonatan’s work talked to them, they said that they
don’t want to let me in because of my hair… Well,
Yonatan had to wake up early the next day, so we gave
up and went home…
The next day I woke up late again, said goodbye to
Yonatan and his family and took a bus to Armenia.
Basically, I went there on my way to Salento, but I
decided to spend the night there. Since it was
Saturday night, I walked around to see the city and to
look for a place to go out. The city is basically just
another city, nothing special, but was a little
friendlier than Cali. I came to a street in the city
that was full of young ppl drinking, it reminded me a
little of Merkaz HaCarmel in Haifa, it was nice to
watch but I didn’t really had what to do there. I
didn’t really find any place interesting, and at a
certain time it started raining like crazy. After
feeling a little sorry that I didn’t had my soap on me
(the hotel shower had only cold water…) I waited a
little for the rain to calm, it didn’t really work, so
I just came back in the rain.
The next day I woke up early to go to Salento, a small
town near a beautiful green valley called Valle del
Cocora, where Colombians go to relax on weekends and
of which I heard good things. I checked in the local
hostel, which had really nice owners and a lot of
Europeans. I walked around the city a little, met a
German girl from Couchsurfing, her host and his
family. We walked around a little, saw how the host’s
uncle’s friend makes patacons (the closest analogy
that I can find is a lafa from Bananas…), the local
cemetery and the square. Then they went horse riding
in the Valle, so I went to walk around the town a
little. It was full of vacationing Colombians, but
still very relaxing and beautiful. I went up a hill
where there is a cross at the top, like in every South
American Mirador, and from where you can see the
whole town and the green hills around it - very nice.
Well, this whole area, and Colombia in general, is
full of round hills completely covered in green… Then
I went on a path that had nice views of the town from
behind and the hills, got to a nice waterfall, and
went back. I also spent quite a lot of the day talking
with the local Artesanos - in many places in South
America you can see sort-of-hippies that live of
selling hand-made accessories and stuff like that,
many of them wander around the continent and like that
finance their traveling (though they spend most of the
travel working…), living from the hand to the mouth.
They always somewhat interested me, but Salento was
the first place I really got friendly with them. I met
one of them on the bus there, she was very nice, and
when I was bored I just with her and her friends near
their stalls in the main Plaza and talked. At the
evening I went to eat with a British and an Australian
girl(s) from the hostel, on the way we met a guy from
Medellin that Australian knew and his family and sat
with them for a while, then we went to drink something
and afterwards I came back to the hostel and watched a
movie with a bunch of British guys. Overall I really
liked Salento, and could’ve easily spend a week or two
there if I had the time.
The next morning I went to Valle del Cocora. Before
going on the jeep that goes there I sat on the Plaza
drinking fruit juice (really good…), and met there
another girl from the hostel that came there 2 minutes
after me and did the same thing… We went together to
the Valle, and overall I thought she (Layla) was a
little like a female version of me, and of course she
was Argentinean and Jewish (: … After a ride in the
jeep with wonderful views (I stood on the back) of the
valley, green hills, tall weird sort-of-palm trees and
even a waterfall, we started the walk around the
valley. It was basically a very muddy path through a
field and afterwards through a forest full of rivers,
but I was in a very good mood (also thanks to Layla)
and actually enjoyed it. After a while we came to farm
that had a lot of hummingbirds (one of them flew right
in front of my face), where we drank the local
Chocolate with cheese and ate arepas with dulce de
leche (that Layla was very happy that I brought…).
Then we went even higher to another farm, to get to a
mirador and to come back from a different way. It
turned out to be a good choice, as the way back was
much more beautiful with view of the valley and the
hills and many of those palm trees. We took a jeep
back, and after getting organized I took the bus to
Pereira. It was again just a necessary stop on the way
to Medellin, and again I made the mistake of staying
for the night. It is a bigger and less friendly city
than Armenia, again I walked around a little looking
for a place to go out, and came back to sleep early,
to wake up early and to get away from there.
I came in the afternoon to Medellin, and at least the
part that I am staying in reminds me a little of north
Tel-Aviv. Also, it is the first place where the ppl
that told me that the girls are especially amazing
were right (: …
Before I got to Colombia I heard many good things
about the Colombians, but I think I can say that most
of the people I met here are in one of two edges: or
they are interested in you because you are a stranger
and are especially nice and friendly (like the ice
cream seller that gave me extras for free…) - and
there are more of them in the smaller towns - or they
have an especially shitty attitude towards strangers
and people in general (just one example, 3 buses in
Cali didn’t stop for me because I had my mochila…).

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