Dear Obiwan,

The next 4 days I spent in Cali, Colombia, the Salsa capital of South America (and maybe the world?)! And I salsa-ed…absolutely zero times, but it was because I was with my new family. So you know my Uncle Robert? (That makes him your…second cousin once removed or something terribly confusing). Well I forget if you remember Obi but a few years ago he married a wonderful woman Ani, who was a fellow doctor with him in Boston. Ani is from Cali, Colombia! And her family still lives in Cali. Ani’s mother, Esperanza, invited me to visit her in Cali once she found out I was in Colombia. I did not know where my journey through Colombia would take me, and initially I thought I was not going to visit Cali because it is far away from where I started…in Cartagena! But I eventually chose to make my travels of Colombia end in Cali, and I am very glad I did.

My day began with one of the toughest days of my trip yet. If you remember Obi, tú Madre is currently in Santa Rosa, Colombia due to taking 6 hours longer than expected on my beautiful motorbike journey through the coffee triangle yesterday.

Look how beautiful the views from the hostel in Santa Rosa are!

After leaving the hostel we stopped at a coffee farm on the way back to Salento, it was super cheap, about $5 in total for a tour of his farm and him explaining how he farms his coffee beans. I also bought some chocolate covered coffee beans for $2. It was me and this nice Scottish or Irish guy who took the tour. The tour was lovely, here are some pictures:

After this, okay Obi, so at this point I have spent over 24 hours with this guy Pedro on the motorbike. And in summary…ugh it’s hard to explain- simply I just wanted to be off the bike and in Cali. BUT I oh-so-intelligently took his offer (prior to how I felt at this moment) for a ride from Salento to Armenia to the bus station.

Here is a picture of me, oh naive me! -Before I rode this bike with ALL my stuff with about…50-60 pounds on my back? And on a high way…and it was a very long 30-40 minutes, my dear lamb chop. My back and arms hurt so much from holding on for dear life with a medium sized child (my back pack) on my back.

And look how fashionable I am! But honestly this is the best poncho ever! It is for motorbikes and has pants and booties!

BUT, I made it. (Side note that we are not going to dwell on- in the end due to some bus issues I took a cab and Pedro told me I could have done that from Salento- BUT WE DON’T dwell on things we can’t change right Obiwan?!)

Anywho, finally, a few hours later I was in Cali! The cab pulls up to Esperanza’s neighborhood and it looks beautiful and has a nice fence all around it and guards that are SO friendly who let you in. Finally, I meet Esperanza! She was waiting with the door open and welcomed me with open arms. I was exhausted BUT- I wanted to go out Salsa dancing on Saturday night in Cali!

I don’t know if you remember but I met this really nice guy, Aurelien, in Guatape who was in Cali tonight! He was out Salsa dancing staying in the part of the town where most of the back-packers go- which was about 30 minutes from where I was staying.

After eating the sandwich Esperanza immediately made for me I told her my plans to go out dancing, but, I didn’t know how to go about it since this was my first time on this trip staying at someone’s house instead of a hostel. And, she’s family, so, I kind of…asked? It was a mixture of a statement and a question, and Esperanza with so much certainty and confidence stated and shook her head, “no.” I honestly, just, was not expecting that response? And I did not want to…what, disagree? So I just went, “oh, okay,” and tried to tell her that I had a friend there and then she said “es muy peligroso muy peligroso,” (it’s very very dangerous) and at that point I was tired and smiled and just said, “okay! Gracias!” And showered and went to bed in my OWN room with my OWN SHOWER and it had a little balcony! Ah, it was so nice Obi! And then, I went to sleep.

Goodnight Obi, miss you and your snuggles so much,

Carly