Birthday Weekend - Cali, Caca, Popayan

Last weekend was a long weekend with Monday being a holiday for reasons I’m never aware of. So Gio and I, taking advantage of the few “puentes” (long weekend) that remain before we leave Colombia at the end of the year. We went with an girl friend of ours, and her male friend. E is American with an American dad and British mom, but she grew up in Cali, Colombia’s 3rd larg

est city, due to her parents’ work in an NGO in the region. For having spent half her life here in Colombia, she’s surprisingly very American, speaking English with a hard American accent and possessing typical American traits – stubbornness and a tough and sometimes indifferent demeanor.

View of Popayan from a small hill we walked up

So we set off on an overnight bus Friday night south of Medellin to her “hometown” of Cali. I had never been and Gio had been but years ago while passing through as a truck driver, one of his many odd jobs. The other day as we cruised through the city streets on our bikes, he pointed at the garbage bins and casually said he designed and constructed those exact ones when he worked in a plant that fabricated this sort of public necessity. Of course. Cali’s only 8 hours away from Medellin but with the rains that the country has been experiencing lately, the roads are never predictable. The journey was only prolonged by a short 2 hours, and we arrived to Cali at 5 a.m.
After a few hours of sleep back in the hostel we set off to find food and check out the infamous zoo (The week leading up to our trip when I was wavering in my decision to go, E assured me the zoo was worth it. However when I asked if there were dolphins, she said no. Elephants? No. Giraffes? No. Well..? “You basically named the only animals the zoo doesn’t have,” she said desperately. Ok. I will say that the zoo was entertaining, if only because of E’s childlike obsession with it, and a female baboon that was “in heat” and led the leader of the pack around their den with a bulging bum (no joke, the sign says when it’s their time of the month, female baboon’s bottoms swell up. Gross).Later that day, which was actually my birthday, we got an improvisedwalking tour of Cali by E, and then went to a surprisingly really nice restaurant. I say surprising because we just happened upon it while walking near our hostel, and it was really great quality food for a low price. I ordered ribs with a strawberry and cucumber salad, and Gio got fish with coconut rice. We all had “lulodka’s,” a vodka and lulo (tasty native Colombian fruit) cocktail. After the main meal a piece of delicious chocolate cake was brought out (surprise!) and everyone (the 3 people I was with + the waiter) sang happy birthday tome. Overall the day was pretty normal, with a lovely meal to finish it off – one of the best ways.

Gio and I in off-again, on-again rainy Cali.

The trip was not just about Cali though. The next day we went to Cauca, a state known for its FARC presence. E’s family had bought property there a few years back and was housing the family’s Colombian chauffer on it. The farm was really quite beautiful, set on 7 hectares of plantain, coffee, pineapple, and mandarin crops. We went on a fun, if not strenuous, little hike to the river at the base of the hilly land. On the way back up the path was on an angle and all of us slipped, with E’s nerdy friend falling on his backside and dirtying up his oxford shirt. Welcome to the jungle!

Enjoying a lovely bbq at E's finca in Cauca

Lovely colonial-looking streets of Popayan (day)

Could be the same street almost! (night)

After a wonderful meal (prepared by the family of E’s chauffer) we continued south to Popoyan, the capital of Cacau, known as the white city. And it really was white. It was beautiful, even though we arrived with the skies overcast and leaking rain. The streets were cobble-stoned, and all of the buildings were painted a plaster white. Traditionally a religious city where the masses flock to during Easter-time, the city was pretty dead when we were there. But I I didn’t mind, I thoroughly enjoyed my surroundings, soaking up the mountain landscape that ring all Colombian cities. We spent the night there and Gio and I got up early to tour the less touristy parts of the city before we caught the bus back to Medellin.

One of the many churches in Popayan

Although I was hesitant at first to leave my comfortable bubble of Medellin, especially to celebrate my birthday, I’m really glad I went away this weekend to explore another part of Colombia. I tried new food (empanadas with a spicy peanut sauce), saw new species of animals (the”King of Condors” bird), and picked up new regional Spanish vocabulary.

Cities and Tramites (bureaucratic processes)

Oh boy. Looking at my last post I realized I haven't written in a month! Of course my goal a few months back was to start writing more frequently, shorter posts 2 or 3 times a week. Well that's gone out the weekend, as these type of "resolutions" usually do.

Anyways, I should mention I went to Bogota last Friday to renew my work visa, something that thankfully could be done in the country this time around, as opposed to the first time when I had to leave the country to do so. Though I needed to make the trip to Bogota, it wasn't so bad. I caught a 6 a.m. flight in the morning, hopped in a taxi and made my way to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. After arriving to the old foreign affairs office (they moved 10 blocks at the end of May I was told by the security guard) I took the minor setback lightly. As it was such a nice day and I still had 10 minutes before the office opened I decided to walk to the new office. I was in the north end of Bogota, which is known as the posh, nicer bit. And to me it did look nice, but something else I realized was that it was also much more cosmopolitan than my tiny home of Medellin. Here I found "Exito express" supermarkets, modeled after the small convenient stores and markets you would find in London or New York City. For some reason that was the most striking thing to me - it was a Colombian city acting like a Western city! I also noticed more conservatively dressed people (a difference between Bogota and Medellin I long ago concluded is that people just have better style in Bogota because the average temperature is 55 degrees and they just have more options with layers, jackets, sweaters, boots, etc). People here don't stare at you as you pass by, they don't even give you the time of day. Hallelujah! I felt right at home in the hustle and bustle in the city, where the atmosphere was not as "tranquilo" as Medellin, nor as stressed as New York.

Once I got to the Ministry I settled in to wait my turn, occupying myself with some new levels of Angry Birds. I barely passed 3 of them when my number was up. I proceeded to hand over my papers to the woman, dreading that I had forgotten something, or that the wrong person from work had signed the form. But everything went surprisingly smoothly! I paid my $205, waited just 10 minutes more, and was called back in where I had in my passport a smooth, new visa. I got to Bogota at 7 a.m. and was out of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and on my way to our office with visa in hand by 9 a.m.! I couldn't believe my luck. Nothing has ever been so smooth or less stressful in Colombia than that experience!

Unfortunately my visa process is not finished yet. I still have to renew my "cedula" (like a social security/ID card), something I got up for bright and early this morning with all the papers in hand, foolishly expecting another smooth process. I had even read in the paper about a month ago that some minister declared that these foreign cedulas shouldn't have any cost - even better, no bank lines. Of course when I got to the office in Medellin I was told that that law had been declared, but it hadn't been passed yet. Oh right, of course not. That will take another 6 months. So missing just one tiny requirement, I begrudgingly walked back to the main road, hailed a cab, and made my way to work at 7: 15 a.m. I'll have to give it another shot tomorrow!

Santa Elena

Last Sunday I touched upon Colombian families, and the guilt that they generate. To show you a complete different side of Colombian families, I'd like to use my friend Sergio's family, who I met today. Yesterday Giovanni, some girlfriends of mine, and I went up to a town called Santa Elena, about an hour from Medellin, up at 2,500 (8,200 ft) meters above sea level (just to give you an idea Medellin's altitude is about 5,000 ft). So the climate is a chilly, but nice 55, 60 degrees during the day (when there's no sun) and falls to about 40 at night. Most homes don't have heating, so we stayed warm with lots of layers, blankets, and a fire. Santa Elena is a nice little town, where a lot of people have weekend homes, and has become so popular recently for its laid-back lifestyle and ease that many Paisas (as Medellinenses are called) have re-located up there to escape the hectic city.

When we got to Sergio's place I was pleasantly surprised. The little 2 bedroom house was quite charming, with stained-glass circular windows, a ceramic-tile countertop in the kitchen, and enough floor space upstairs to sleep about 10 people. Sergio gave the house his own touch though with some great old-fashioned and retro decorations. The house is tucked back along a trail that you need to take a bus and a taxi and walk for 15 minutes to get to from Medellin. It's surrounded by forest, with pine trees and blueberry-like bushes everywhere.

This morning, as we were eating breakfast, the group of us (Sergio included) were surprised to find Sergio's family heading down the trail towards the house. Sergio had just moved to the place a week ago, so his family wanted to pay him a visit (and make sure he wasn't scrounging for nuts and berries in the woods to stay alive). As soon as his family arrived (mom, dad, sister, and nephew) they got right to cooking. They had brought along a number of "house-warming" gifts, including a cutting board, which his sister told him would be much better than his current wooden one, which was full of bacteria, when he showed it to her. Despite the fact that we didn't know they were coming, and they surely didn't know there was a group of 5 of us there to keep Sergio company for the weekend, at lunchtime plates were set out for all of us. We had a typical Colombian meal of plantain and potato soup, and a plate of rice, chorizo sausage, salad, and avocado. Not even planning on feeding 10 people instead of the 5 expected, there was more than enough food to go around (with rice left over, of course!).

This kind of hospitality is so common throughout Colombia. On Saturday Gio and I went out on our bikes and we went to say hi to his son, who was staying at his grandma's house. We arrived right around lunchtime, when Jeison was about to eat, and instead of just 1 plate on the table, his grandmother eventually brought 3. Again, not even planning on us, there is always more food than enough food. This situation resonated with me in particular because visiting your boyfriend's son's maternal grandmother, you wouldn't typically expect more than a hello, let alone a whole meal after you show up uninvited.

I've gotten used to this type of welcomeness that it's become normal for me, and I even find myself acting like a typical Colombian woman, offering guests not just something to drink but a whole meal. Being able to take on things like this that are part of Colombian culture and make them a part of me is one of the things that I most love about living in a different country. I just need to make sure I always find the good bits of each country's culture to weave into my personality!