So... What next?

29/06/2009

We arrived in San Pelayo, a tiny little village up north. All year round days pass quietly here. However, for one long weekend per year, thousands of Colombians gather up to sing and dance unde rthe rythms of Porro, one of the numerous colombian rhythms ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Porro ).







There, we met up with A. and E., whom we had met at the national meeting in Armenia, and also with a canadian, D. The guys had managed to rent a whole house for the weekend with very simple, yet large enough spaces for the seven of us to enter. And the cost for that? 35 dollars in total. That's 2.5 USD per person per night! HA!



From there on, that's when the crazy party began, the endless dancing and the ridiculous laughter. Young and old, men and women, the whole village going crazy. :)

















Μ.

22/06/2009

One of the primary reasons that I dragged my arse all the way to Colombia for, the couchsurfing nacional meeting of Colombia, just outside the town of Armenia, is finally taking place.



The organisers have rented a house for the whole weekend, not too far from civilisation, but right into the coffee crops. We got all necessary elements for a successful long weekend: a house, a garden, hammocks, tents, a pool, a soundsystem and 100 wacky people, ready to laugh their lungs out.









Obviously, every single hour and every single moment, it was a bomb. But the best of it all had to be the so-called "chiva rumbera". The chiva is a classic, kolombian bus, which, for the purposes of a "festive night", it has suffered several modifications and has been transformed into a moving nightclub. So imagine, a bus with 40-50 people, all standing, all with drinks in their hands and the music blaring away, roaming through the streets. Every so often we'd make a stop at the main square of whichever village we were going through and set up a party with the musicians. People looking at us, other laughing at us and others even joining the party. This was one hell of a night and a story to tell for months to come.















Amongst all this we also visited Salento, a village nearby. It is a small, graphic village which happened to be holding those days (just like every other little village in Colombia as it seems) a muic festival. Well, to me, the two things I remember very fondly are (once again) gastronomic. A trout of epic proportions that we filled our stomachs with and the tubs of arequipe de cafe, or dulce de leche de cafe. You don't know what it is? Well, look it up! I'm not gonna be doing all your homework, am I?

On sunday early morning P. and I parted ways. She had no desire to do so of course, and I fully understand her (mmmm..... arequipe de cafeeeeee), but she had her flight already booked. After having travelled together for a whole month, it feels kinda strange now. It's not as if I'm used to travelling with other people, so this was something new for me. I must say, she was a perfect co-traveler and we had a blast. It's not an easy thing to achieve spending with someone 24 hours a day and not having had a single argument! So, next stop Brasil? :)

The party went on strong all day, despite the rain. It didn't seem to bother anyone. Without having slept much and after two days of partying however, the energy level were not exactly topped up, but the day progressed wonderfully.



Monday is here and people start making their way out. We have had an unspeakably fun weekend. Nevertheless, for some of us the fun seems to go on. Five of us squeezed our way into L.'s car and we're heading to Bogota. Let's just see what's next.......

Μ.

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.