I am approaching day 9 here in Manizales, a medium sized city right in the heart of Colombia’s booming coffee region. But i’m not going to talk about coffee much this time. Rather, the 7 day Feria de Manizales that ended a few days ago. So choo choo, lets begin!

Many days begin with a cup of Juan Valdez coffee. Juan Valdez is like the Starbucks of Colombia, except it actually a coop owned by a union of coffee farmers.

These are some friends. Monica from Colombia, Jordi from Italy, and Diego from Buenos Aires.

The four of us hung out at Monica’s apartment my first night while Jordi cooked us one of his native pasta dishes, consisting of pasta with a vegetable based sauce of condensed milk, onions, peppers, carrots, mushrooms, etc.

Afterwards, the four of walked down the street for an electronic concert in the park. A quick observation is that this city is filled with soooooooooo many teenagers. Its ridiculous. Going out to discotecas or bars at night means hanging out with 15-17 year olds. The concert ended at 11 PM, just in time for the teenagers to get to bed.

Another day I was befriended by a Colombian couple from Bogotá.

They own a company that rents out musical equipment for concerts all throughout Colombia. They were here in Manizales to rent their equipment for huge sold out Marc Anthony stadium concert.

After chatting for a bit, they invited me and an Australian girl to come watch them setup for the concert the following night.

After an hour or so of wandering around the stadium, we walk directly outside to watch a car race around the stadium.

We met up again for dinner with a bunch of Colombians also staying at the hostel. This week has definitely been about practicing Spanish. My ability has definitely regressed from last year. My theory is that as I learned more complicated grammar is takes me more time to process what I want to say since I have a wider range of information to use.

By the way, I ate a pretty good chicken shwarma.

Walking back to the hostel revealed a very authentic looking US Army vehicle.

Wandering outside the hostel is a giant parade complete with beautiful Cristal Aguardiente (Anise flavored alcohol) girls dancing in a truck.

It is perfectly normal for Colombian soldiers with giant guns to help control the flow of pedestrians.

Another night some friends and I taxied it up to the city’s lookout point.

Of course we were not the only ones there as there was a widespread carnival going on, complete with games, clowns, etc.

Climbing this tower provides the view of the city.

Later that night I watched the Juanes & Miguel Bose concert. Juanes is arguably the most popular Latin American musician right now.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The following morning I watched even more live music at the Reggae, Reggaeton, and Hip Hop day in the park. One of my favorite groups, Dragon y Caballero happened to be playing!

Click here to view the embedded video.

They are pretty big, as you can see.

But before them, I and many others suffered through the performance of this reggaeton singer with a lisp. It was awful.

And finnally I am going to share a few random pictures from the park.

A bunch of Colombian soldiers huddled in the back of a truck.

Gambling with guinea pigs again.

Related posts:

1. Colombian Music Besides Shakira
2. The best part of wakin’ up … is Colombian Coffee in your cup
3. Last of Manizales

I have not really told many people while I am still in Medellin. I made some great friends here, a few of which left today. But the main reason I am here is that i met a Colombian girl the night i arrived and have been seeing her ever since.

We have spent the past four out of six days together and its been very enjoyable as well as a great cultural experience, especially today.

Today was her birthday and she turned 19. We met at Juan Valdez for coffee in Parque Lleras, a posh park just a few blocks from my hostel. Medellin is like that park; clean and well maintained with many nice areas to relax and visit.

After a strong cup of coffee i paid the $.75 cents for a crowded ride on the metro all the way across the city. We were mushed into other people with little room to breathe. But the metro is very safe.

You need to pay before you can enter a station. There are soldiers with machine guns patrolling the area. No eating is allowed. To prevent homeless from taking refuge, the soldiers stop anyone, even gringos, from sitting on the floor. There are even signs that indicate to let another person have a seat if they are either disabled, elderly, FAT (hehe), or another thing which i forget. Did i mention the stations and cars are spotless. So this metro rides above the buildings with great views and covers the distance fast.

This is Cristina.

We arrived at the station, where we transferred into a cable car to reach the top of the city for breathtaking views. Its even more interesting for the views that it affords tourists like myself to witness true poverty. Here the streets are not maintained. Many consist of dirt. The people live in tin shacks, or small brick huts. Its really not easy to describe.

But even so, this cable car allows people from the poorest areas to commute to work at an affordable price. Otherwise, their situation may be far more difficult.

Once we arrived the the top we watched the city for a bit and took another ride back town while overlooking the entire city. It was well worth it.

The next stop was a mall for dinner…pretty boring…and a stop at the hostel to pick up the flowers i had given her earlier so we could travel by taxi to her home.

Her family was very accommodating with the language barrier, friendly, and a lot of fun. I only met her siblings at first and we all talked for a while. It was challenging to understand everyone, especially at first. But my listening ability improved as the night progressed just as Cristina and my communication abilities have improved the past few days.

She knows when to slow down or repeat herself so i can understand. She helps finish my sentences when i struggle for the last word. It’s been getting much, much better.

I lost count of how many siblings she has between all of the friends, boyfriends, girlfriends, nephews, etc. that were there. I believe it is something like 3 or 4, possibly more.

I did not realize at the moment why it was suggested that we go out for ice cream…but i went along with it (because they needed to get everything organized..cake, candles, balloons, etc. for when we returned. Christina, I, a few of her siblings, their boyfriends, walked around her neighborhood to an ice cream parlor.

But before ice cream, i went on my first motorcycle ride…never again. It was such a thrill but i felt so out of control…and unsafe. I really enjoyed it but i was honestly more scared riding on the back of a motorcycle than when i jumped 13,000 feet out of a plane.

Getting ice cream was interesting. The neighborhood felt like such a pleasant place to live. Its a tuesday night and the entire neighborhood was outside walking, talking, doing aerobics, praying in church, etc. When it came time to pay the bill they all said to get ready to run. I thought they were serious and got a bit nervous. Not surprisingly, everyone began laughing as they revealed they were only joking. The joke was on me i guess. So, after we all payed for the ice cream we returned and we waited a bit more outside. All of a sudden, it was time to enter their apartment and the six of us were greeted with the feliz cumpleanos song.

It also turned out to be her little sisters birthday as well. There must have been 20 or more people there as we enjoyed arrequipe (wrong spelling i think) cake and coca cola. I met a bunch of her friends. Though one of which i met this past thursday and she has accompanied us and another friend from Ireland that i am traveling with during the time we have gone out.

Heidi actually lives with Christina. Both of her parents died when she was young (seems like the only possible reasons why are from a traffic accident, terrorism like the Farc, or medical reasons i suppose). Heidi then moved in with very strict and religious relatives until she had enough and now lives with Christina and her family.

The rest of the night was a lot of fun. We listened to some of my favorite music, talked, laughed, learned more spanish, taught more English (see ya later…), etc.

The night soon ended and Christina and Heidi accompanied me back to the hostel in a taxi where they dropped me off and returned back home.

It was a great day!

Related posts:

1. Daddy Yankee in Medellin, Colombia
2. The “Car Parade” in Medellin
3. How I Found Myself Stuck in Medellin, Again

I had my favorite cup of coffee yesterday; better than Starbucks, any independent cafe in the States, and even better than the men selling tinto on the streets here in Colombia. I got my cup at Juan Valdez and took it to the main plaza where i read The Fruit Palace, a book about “The Great Cocaine Story.”

The bus ride to Popayan was interesting to say the least. I left on mothers day after walking around La Candelaria and the old center for a while. Everyone was outside walking, talking, and listening to live music.

In Bogota:

But after a few hours i was ready to take my first long distance bus ride. I boarded a bus to Popayan. It took us 1 1/2 hours to leave Bogota as we circled the city tens of times picking up random passengers on the side of the road. Once on our way, I saw an overturned milk truck (bigger than one would imagine) blocking half of the entire two lane highway. Glad i wasn´t heading towards Bogota!

That’s another thing. Colombia is a mountainous country making it difficult to build roads. Instead of the 10 lane highways we are accustomed to in the States, Colombia’s highways consist of only 2 lanes that curve around mountains every 5 seconds of driving.

But unlike the U.S., buses here are great because you could be anywhere and a bus will stop to pick you up. For instance, at 3 am on the side of the highway in the middle of nowhere (not even in a small town) with nothing around, we passed a passenger. It was an accident actually as the bus backed up for a good 20 seconds to pick the person up. Yes, the bus drove backwards on the highway!

I also nearly had the opportunity to save the bus ride. The driver popped in the dvd I Am Legend but to everyone´s suprise it was all in english…including the dvd menu. That´s where I came in and told the bus attendent that i speak english and can point where to turn on the english subtitles. I felt so useful. That was until we tried turning on spanish subtitles 10 times and gave up since it clearly was not working. Instead we watched Life Is Beautiful, dubbed in Spanish. I also saw that it last August on another bus ride in Colombia.

After this little event, the passenger next to me, who we also picked up on the side of the highway, started talking at me really fast. I made her repeat herself 5-8 times until i understood. She was simply asking me what i am doing in Colombia but her accent was hard to understand. We got to talking about my travels, Colombia, her, etc. That´s when i got my first phone number in Colombia. She insisted we trade contact info and so now if i ever stop in Ibague i have a 49 year old woman..who i think says she works as a maid, to visit.

We stopped in Ibague for an hour for a break. After that, the ride was terrible. The roads felt like we were going down switchbacks full speed with all the curves. I really had to hang on to the armrest or i would have fallen out of my seat onto someone else. Subsequently, there was no way for me to fall asleep.

So after leaving Bogota at 3:30 pm we arrived in Popayan at 6:30 AM. I got a quick taxi to my hostel, rang on and off for 30 minutues with no answer, left, got a taxi to a new hostel, jumped into bed, and then feel asleep for the next 6 hours.

This is Popayan.

I explored the city for a while once i woke up. Its beautiful here. In the historical part of town, every building is painted white. Literally every building. After tiring myself from all of the walking, i grabbed my book and bought a Juan Valdez coffee to drink while i read in one of the plazas. It was so relaxing.

Later in the day i met a few people from my hostel and we got soup, rice, salad, and chicken all for $3000 pesos or about $1.75.

That brings me to today. I woke up early at 7 to get ready for a traditional market in Silvia. So four of us from the hostel took a 1 hour bus ride (curvy roads) until we reached Silvia.

We hiked up this small hill to one of the town’s many churches.

Crosses on hills are popular in South America.

Back in town, the action was just beginning. Pictured below is a chiva, an old artisan modified bus used in rural Colombia for publ
ic transport.

The market was traditional and not meant as a tourist attraction like many of the popular markets in South America…Otavalo, hippy market in Rio, etc. That also meant I did not find much to buy that interested me.

Here I am waiting near the bathroom for one of my buddies to finish.

Not only did they sell produce and clothing, but they also put on shows.

A church in town.

This poster can be found throughout small towns in Colombia. If you look closely, you will see some of them are crossed out.

But now i am back in Popayan where i plan to go to the hot springs nearby tomorrow morning and than catch a 3 hour bus ride to Cali.

Related posts:

1. Futuristic Colombian Train Travel
2. Bus Travel: A Series of Highs and Lows
3. Going to Colombia?