Zona Cafetera (Salento and Manizales)

I finally left Adam's apartment, and headed to the small city of Salento.  It was about a 5 hour drive, and really breathtaking.  The whole region is so green, it looks like a cartoon.  When I arrived it was dark, and I just went to a hostel, which was recommended to me by a woman on the bus who spoke Hebrew, and had a small dinner.  I read a little, and fell asleep very early. 

The following day (Tuesday) I went to hike up the mountain along the Valle de Cocora.  In the truck there I met a very nice Israeli couple, and tagged along with them for the day.  The views were incredible, and the hike was enjoyable.  At one point we stopped at a hummingbird sanctuary, and watched dozens of the for a while.  After the hike I had dinner with them and went my separate way.  I called my parents and spoke to Mike for a while.  Mike and I finalized the plan for him to join me for the first few weeks of January in Argentina.  I then read a little and fell asleep.

Wednesday was kind of a wasted day.  I am meeting Adam's friend Liam in Medellin Thursday, and elected to just wonder around another city called Manizales with the extra day.  It was a less than impressive place.  The church, like all others, was cool, and there was a central square beneath it worth looking at.  Additionally, I saw all the local children in their Halloween costumes walking around the streets, which was different and kind of fun. Not too much to report, as the Lonely Planet stated it isn't a photo worthy city. 

Tomorrow I wake up very early to meet Liam, and will thus call it a night early as well.  I pray the dorms are quiet.

Cali (#2)

I returned to Cali to spend the weekend with Adam. We had a pleasant time, although his lifestyle and regal way of dining is a burden on my wallet. We went to some fancy restaurants and had some nice meals. Friday night especially, as my bus was late, Adam waited for me, and took me to one of the nicest places in the city for dinner. It was an excellent meal, but I really don't want to be paying $20 a dinner, and am trying to be more cautious with money. Additionally, we met up with his friends again. The Jewish girls are nice enough, and make for pleasant company. Adam is desperate to become more than friends with one of them, but she appears not to be interested, and it makes for kind of a strange dynamic. Due to his lack of friends, he can't just move on and stop hanging out with her, so he continues to be friends with the hopes of more. On Saturday we hung out with them in the afternoon a little, before going to the birthday party of Liam's (Adam's friend from York)girlfriend. It wasn't a bad party, but my limited level of spanish along with Adam's incessant hitting on the girls there made it less than a good time for me. After the part we grabbed an arepa on our way home. We got up early on Sunday to hike up one of the local hills (los tres cruses), and brought the girls along with one of their boyfriends along with us. Despite heading out several hours after we had planned due to their predictable tardiness, we had a nice time walking up the hill. One of the girls (not the one Adam is interested in) was really struggling despite it not being that strenuous, and we went incredibly slowly, but it allowed for us to take in the atmosphere and enjoy the vies. At the top we saw a bunch of men working out along with some fruit juice sellers. After the climb we went and got lunch at a vegan place we had been before, and then set to make dinner for Liam and his girlfriend. Adam is excited for some new cook ware and was anxious to test it out both last weekend and this. It was a nice evening, and I was even able to complete my fantasy draft while things cooked. This morning I wait for Liam to have lunch with me before I head off to the coffee region. I didn't feel too well in the morning, so it is just as well that I had a slow start of it. However, I am feeling better now, and am looking forward to getting on with my travels. I am a little nervous that I will be lonely and bored in the coming months, but seeing this part of the world is something I want to do, and I hope that as time passes I can meet some people and have a good time along the way.

Popayan/Silvia and St Augustin

I went to Popayan from Cali, and explored what was once the most important Spanish colonial city of the region. It was very nice, and well maintained. The buildings were all white, and there were many beautiful old churches around. I think the churches may get old after a while, but for now they are interesting. In the evening I met up with a Mexican girl and a guy from Barcelona. We went to a local pub, where we met three Colombian men, who were very pleased to meet us and were buying us drinks. The Colombians in general are some of the friendliest and most outgoing people I have ever met. These guys were no different. They were just happy to see us enjoy ourselves, and wanted to show us a good time in Colombia. The next day the three of us headed out to a very small town called Silvia, where the local indigenous group holds there weekly market. The market was actually quite lame, and was really just fruit vegetables and different tools. It was clearly not meant for tourists, but we had a nice enough time anyways. On the way back to Popayan we again met some locals who wanted to give us a ride. It was incredibly nice of them, and they drove us the 40 minutes back to Popayan and said goodbye. I don't think with my limited Spanish I could have arranged it, but these men were very nice and helped us out. The following day I headed to St Augustine. It is a little nothing town without even a paved road leading to it (The ride to and from was bumpy to say the least). When I first arrived I met a man who deals with tourism, who set me up with a hostel and got me signed up to go horseback riding the next day. Since I was there kind of late I didn't do too much that day, but prepared myself to tour the next via the horses. When I did get up the next morning and go horseback riding to see all of the different archeological ruins around the periphery of the city I quickly remembered why I don't go riding often. It HURTS! I know it is only because I don't know to ride, but I don't and it is painful to ride. The sites were cool. I thought that the ancient headstones of the important people were interesting, and it is cool to see what the society was like before the christians. I then headed to the archeological park, which was just a collection of a few dozen of these headstones/statues placed in a singles location for tourists to see. There were almost no other tourists there, but I think it is just the slow season, because they had the facilities to deal with quite a few people at once. Again, it was very cool, and good to see pre-Columbian society, but after a few the statues all start to look the same and I was done. I walked back to my hostel, had a meal and just sort of read the rest of the evening. As I headed back towards Cali to spend one last weekend with Adam I was reminded what most of the travel on this trip will be. It was an over crowded bus with no air conditioning going over a dirt road, and taking unusually long stops along the way. The ride, which was really quite close took me close to 12 hours because of all of this, but eventually I ended up back at Adam's apartment.

Cali (#1)

I arrived in Cali and was greeted by an exhausted Adam, and his friend Liam.  Adam immediately went to bed and I chatted with Liam a little until he went home and I fell asleep.  Luckily Adam had been working crazy hard in France for the past three weeks and was given Thursday and Friday off in return (he had just returned Wednesday evening).  I was excited to see the city with him, but instead we just sort of bumed around his apartment for four days.  We met some very nice girls that he knew and hung around them a little, however, they were very flaky, and were either late or no shows to all of our plans with them.  Friday we were to go to a shabbos dinner at someone's home, but they had a dog so as soon as we arrived, I left.  Adam and I had dinner in a Mexican restaurant, and after trying to stay awake went to bed.  Saturday was his birthday, and we made plans to have dinner with those girls and Liam, but the girls were over two hours late and kind of glib about it.  The food was fine, but their behavior was annoying.  Sunday we made brunch and kind of just did nothing again.  I was really looking forward to leaving Adam and exploring more.  He had little interest in doing that with me. 

Overall it was fine, just a lazy visit with an old friend.

it starts!

today is my final day in New York. I arrived a week ago after spending the past year in Israel working and getting my MBA.  I really loved my time there, and I was sad to go, but it is time for the next adventure to begin.  I fly out tomorrow to Cali Colombia, where my friend Adam lives.  From there I will set off to explore the continent.