El Vago en Suramerica

I left Bogota on Tuesday. Before leaving, I had a funny little experience…

So I`ve had a bit of a problem dealing with Traveler`s Checks. The issue was that I signed the checks under “Pay This Check To The Order Of,” though apparently the bank is supposed to sign there. During my entire trip up until this point, I had cashed only 3 of the checks, though it took approximately an hour of arguing with the people at the bank each time. I decided to have this all sorted out in Bogota, so I took a trip to the city´s American Express office. From there, I was told to go to a bank called BBVA to change the checks.

I arrived at the BBVA, and after a short time of waiting, they did actually change the checks. The unfortunate thing is that, rather than recieving new, corrected checks, I recieved all of the money in Colombian pesos. My $1,350 was converted into just over $3,000,000 pesos, and I recieved this money in 100 bills of $10,000 and 100 of $20,000. I left the bank with this enormous stack of money, which wouldnt even fit in my backpack. I feel generally safe in Bogota, but I didn`t feel safe carrying around such an absurd amount of money. I went to a place that changes pesos and dollars, and exchanged the money for $1,350 US. It is the same amount of money, but at least it takes up less space. Since then, I have been carrying $1,300 in a pouch I wear on my lower leg. At least nobody who robs me is going to go for my legs.

I went from Bogota to Manizales, a city in the principal coffee growing region of the country. I thought it was a beautiful place, and it was a real shame that I didn´t have more time to spend there. It is a city located on a number of steep hills in the mountains, all surrounded by coffee plantations.

In the hostel in Manizales, I met a German guy, Simon, who was also planning to go to Cali for the weekend. As it turns out, he is a hospitality club member, and had already contacted somebody for accomodation in Cali. I ended up staying with him in the apartment of Gustavo, which worked out wonderfully. There were several other friends living in the apartment, and others would stop by periodically throughout the day, so we quickly met lots of people.

We spent our days in Cali in gridlock. At the moment, the city is in the process of constructing a mass-transportation bus system, and as a result the main streets have become narrower and ridiculously crowded. Just to get from the house of Gustavo to the city center took about an hour and a half during the day.

On friday night we went to a nearby university, where there were two parties going on. One was an open air dance party, with way too much salsa music, and another was a hip hop concert. The hip hop was good but repetitive. The best part of the concert was a very impressive freestyle session. The groups were good, but far too political… It isnt bad to be fighting the man, but you really can´t make EVERY song about how much you hate imperialism and capitalism. The dance party was perhaps more fun, but it was quickly extinguished by a heavy rain shower.

On saturday we went to a great disco. When it closed we spent several hours on a street corner and in a park with some girls we met, drinking aguardiente (strong, cheap alcohol). The next day was spent doing absolutely nothing. We watched some movies and recovered from the previous night.

I had a fun time in Cali, but I must say, it doesn`t live up to its reputation. It may be one of the party capitals of colombia, but it is certainly not the city with the best woman. Bogota, Medellin, and Cartagena are far better in that respect.

On Monday, Simon and I headed to the beautiful city of Popayan, arriving at night. The next day was great. We woke up a bit late, and then went to the center to hang out. The girls who passed us were being rather ridiculously flirtatious, and as one bus passed the girls were even whistling and yelling at us. Feminists would hate it. There was a protest going on against president Uribe, and we decided to join in and talk with the protesters. After some people began to chant “fuera gringos, hijos de puta,” (get out gringos, you son`s of bitches) while looking directly at us, I decided to tell people I was German. I let Simon do the talking.

A bit later we met a girl, who basically fell in love with us and invited us to her house and gave us coffee and food, and hung around with us for the evening. She was nice, but unfortunately boring as well. Later in the evening, Simon and I passed a bread shop that was closed, and i went to the door and yelled that I wanted bread. Two guys came outside and gave us a huge bag of free bread, and then they accompanied us in our walk for a bit.

Yesterday we left Popayan, for an incredibly scenic bus journey to the city of Pasto. Simon got off there, but I continued to the border, and on to Quito.

As I crossed the border were two crazy Rastafarian guys from brazil. They unfortunately couldn`t enter Ecuador because they didn`t have a visa. They seemed like cool guys, but in terms of being Rastas, in their dress, their attitude, their hairstyle, they really went all-out. It was funny to see here. In Bogota there are lots of rastas, but most are young, and they don`t look so genuine.

I didn´t arrive in Quito until 1:30 AM, so I headed straight for a nearby hotel. Today I arrived at the house of Lisa Balaban, a friend of my uncle. Quito seems like a cool city. Unfortuntely, at the moment I have very little time here, but I think I`d like to come back.

On Saturday, there is a concert of the bachata band Aventura in Cuenca, to the south. I would like to go, if possible. 

Peace, my friends.

Dan

I’ve got an idea… basically, its the original idea of driving to Chile. But who knows, we could drive through any country in Latin America.

I feel that I’m missing out on something by taking buses. Granted, they are a far easier (and cheaper) mode of transportation. But with a car you can stop wherever you want, go wherever you want, and spend however long you want there.

Also, it would be fun traveling with other people. I don’t have any trouble in the cities, but once I get to little towns or really into the countryside, it feels like there’s just nothing to do. As long as you’re with crazy, interesting people, it wouldn’t be a problem finding an adventure.

So the plan is for a wild, random road trip through latin america (or anywhere, i guess…).

It’s not really a plan though. We’ll see how it works out.

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