So... What next?

13/6/2009

We finally succeeded leaving this place. Not that we didn't like it, but if I'm gonna start developing addictions already, I'm not gonna manage to see anything in the rest of the country.

The people, the food, the streets, the rum (damn rum...), the city... I fell in love with all that! And C. and E., our couchsurfing hosts, treated us so well, it was really difficult to leave.


The street market.


A local specialty. Tamal de Pipian!


The garden at C.'s place.


The two bridges of the city...


And the same bridges at Patojo village, the miniature Popayan. (Let's see, who reads my blog regularly? :p )

We spent a day at Coconuco and some thermal baths nearby.





It's really funny how they distinguish the baths depending on the water temperature: boiling water and warm water (agua hirviendo and agua tibia respectively).



That day we spent the least possible. Hitch hiked there and back (yes, it is possible to hitch hike in Colombia. Get over it!) y with a bit of persuasion, we got in the thermal baths for free. Ok, the fact that we spent quite a lot later on that night on beer and rum is another story. :)

The following day we spent it at a village called Silvia. A small, traditional, quiet village, where men and women dress up in traditional, colourful dresses.







The crazy fact of the day? Our lunch. Bandeja Paisa its name and its size ridiculous! They had told us to go there hungry and they were right!



And after these adventures, the wonderful food and the heavy drinking, we packed our things and headed to Cali...

Μ.

11/6/2009

Days go by and we're still in Popayan. We just can't escape it. If we're already starting like this, I won't have time to see not even half the places I have in mind.

Last night we went out for a few beers. Myself, P., Camilo our couchsurfing host for our first days here and Emma our current host. We went to village Patojo, which is a micrography of the center of the city. Something around the lines of "honey, I shrunk the city" sort of speak...

There happened to be a bit of a fest there, the guys found some friends of theirs and we started drinking for free. The whole rumble ends, the alcohol also runs out and after having sat around talking crap, we thought we'd set off home. However, no more than 50 meters away, the guys found more friends of their who had several bottles of rum in their possession.

- "Drink up guys" they kept saying.
- "Ok, we might as well. We wouldn't want to offend you" we kept saying.
- "All the rum's gone" they said.
- "Well, we'll just head home" we said (about 2am by that point)
- "Nonsense. We'll go to my place, there's more rum there. Get in the car" says one of the girls.
- "But it's 10 of us all together! And one of your guys is throwing his guts up! How are we gonna fit?" we said.
- "Just get in, will ya?" they insisted.

So out of nowhere, I ended up in a car with my three friends and six other random people, the one of which that was throwing up got shoved in the back seat, under a couple of others and one could say he was struggling.

Dancing, rum (eat up your beard captain Jack Sparrow), foolishness, complaints by the neighbors (around 40-odd the owner of the apartment and leader of the party), drunks falling apart, salsa lessons, olives, mango fruit... I guess they're right. Five Colombians in the same room turn it inevitably into a party.

M.