Rule #2: Don't Die.

I recently realized that while we have settled into our lives up here in Cali, some of you may be wondering what it is we are doing with our time (right, M?). Well, honestly even I’m not entirely sure…

There is undoubtedly a lot of dancing in our lives, quite a lot of Spanish speaking (I will even call older native Spanish speakers on my own initiative to get shoes made now!), and some English studies. But some of the best parts of our days here is chatting with all of the random friends we have within our house, around San Antonio, and at all of our favorite salsa clubs.

We walk by our friends on the street and convince them to come grab ice cream with us, we go into the local vegetarian-friendly restaurants and see it full of people we know, and our local dance clubs take us at least a half hour to walk up to every person we know and kiss them on the cheek both when we arrive and when we leave. We have a little life here for a moment while we breathe and wait for me to get older at the end of the month.

But I feel sure that I have mentioned all this before. So instead this week I plan on telling you the little trips and adventures that we have enjoyed on particular days. Starting with our house-girls’ trip to the river Pichinde!

Our tall, model-esque English roommate had adventured up to this river before, and knew that the local jeep transport was simply at the edge of the large hill we live on. So we packed up our river/beach ready selves and sauntered over in the broiling heat of Cali.

It hadn’t been raining for about a week, and the heat each day felt as though someone had cranked up the temperature another notch. We settled into the shade and began the semi-frustrating task of flagging down jeeps and asking them to take us to the river. Many did not. But after only about 20 minutes of shouting the strange name at passing transport our chariot arrived!

However, it was full. This meant that both H and our English roommate hung on to the back while our Santa Cruz yoga teaching roommate and I settled onto the bench inside.

The two outside had an awesome view on the way up the hill through the forest, and struck up conversations with the men hanging on with them. One such conversation lead to the discovery that there is a waterfall at this river, only a short 40 minute walk from the road.

Of course we went with him. We were four ladies on our outside adventure, and a kind local wanted to show us his secret waterfall! We jumped off our jeep at a random street lamp and paid the 2,500 COP jeep fare. Then we struck off on a small path into the forest and chatted our way down to the river through some brambles for about 20 minutes.

Then we slipped and slid our way upstream in icy water, and only our ever-prepared Santa Cruz friend had thought to bring non-lightweight slippers to change into. Our local guide was gentlemanly enough to carry our bags, run up the river in his jeans and sneakers, and then come back to fetch us as we struggled on the sharp and slippery rocks in our bare feet.

But we arrived, and it was magical.

We swam, sat, and enjoyed the nature. Our guide had named the waterfall Caida del Tulcan because on his first time here he saw a tucan battle to escape a hawk.

We then gathered ourselves back together and hiked another hour upstream to reach the main road (he mentioned offhand that the walk takes him only about 10 minutes). We came up with a fairly useful system of making a human chain across the stronger rapids and were able to struggle a little less while we passed one another upstream.

We stopped for a break at a local berry bush and enjoyed the tart-and-sweet fuchsia berries while our feet dried out and warmed up a bit. Eventually we found a path he thought would work to get us off the river, and we started our climb up to the road. But it turns out (even though I had specifically asked him before hand if he had taken this path before) we had trekked right onto private property.

Good news is this was the perfect moment for a coffee tour. And then a group photo overlooking our river hike.

We saw some impressive orchids on the way out, and tried sucking nectar out of pretty red flowers. The jeep stop had banana bread that was not only moist and fresh, but tasty and only 1,000 COP!  Rare find indeed.

On the way down we all settled into the back benches of our jeep and had time to truly appreciate our little adventure.  We had found a waterfall right outside Cali that even our local friends didn’t know about!  Good day.

Tags: Cali, Colombia, travel

We spent the last week in Cali settling into our lives here, which for us seems to include minimal English-teaching study, intense salsa dancing practice, afternoon naps, and five hours worth of dawn cleaning.  That is, until recently dawn cleaning.  Turns out, we got “fired” from our volunteer job this week.

How does one get fired from volunteer work?  Especially if we were really good sports about the 5am wake-up calls, the possessive and slightly inappropriate physical work environment,  and the strange reward and punishment system (ranging from giving and taking away our keys, feeding us at random moments or not, and the strange balance of messaging obsessively to complete ignoring of our presence).  Well, actually, it’s quite simple: I just didn’t show up for work.

Yes, all of you who have worked with me in the past, I know this goes against everything I have ever complained about in regards to students, co-workers, and professionalism. I was shocked at my behavior as well. However, there is something wonderfully freeing about waking up, looking at the clock and seeing that we were meant to be there at 6:45 am, and instead turning over and going back to sleep.

H did, however, go to work that day, even though we had been staying with my boyfriend for the past few days as there wasn’t even a bed in the hostel for us at that time. She diligently put in the required 5 hours to earn our keep, and warned me that it may not even be worth coming in to deal with it. And no, I did not call or message my absence.  I just slept.

We had an apologetic conversation with the owner afterwards, and we all decided that it made sense for us to just continue staying with my boyfriend and not work going forward. I feel the guilt about my behavior, but it is difficult to regret the outcome since the universe has chosen to take us dancing every night since, fully able to enjoy the Cali rumba every day for a week.

Today we will be cheering on our Colombian favorites for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.  To be followed by some evening dancing.  Tomorrow we go to the Pacific coast to camp and enjoy the ocean.  And dance, of course.

(and maybe even study some English grammar!)

Tags: Cali, Colombia, travel