Two days ago I was sitting on this bus on my way back to the center of Cali, with my friend next to me. I was on the phone with Michael, who might join us for some drinks at night. The bus was filled, and then this guy enters the bus that starts selling candies. He is probably one of the many poor in Colombia, and it’s just one of the ways to afford a living. The process of selling candy in busses is quite interesting. First, the guys walks from the front to the back of the bus, providing candy to everyone. You could get the impression that he’s just giving it away. But then, sometimes after a short advertisement for the candy from the front of the bus, he makes his way through the bus again, taking money for the candy, or otherwise getting his candy back. The latter happens the most often.
This time, after the candy seller left the bus, this guy behind us stands up and starts talking. I can’t understand, but since the whole bus suddenly wakes up and starts talking, something must be wrong. My friend translates. The guy behind us was also on the phone. Instead of being sold candy, he got a knife pushed to his stomach, and got robbed from his cell phone and watch.
Cali, Colombia is with about 2.7 million inhabitants the 3rd largest city of Colombia, after Medellin, and of course after Bogota (7.5 million). Cali is famous for salsa. For me, Cali is not famous at all. I thought it sounded like a cozy and small colonial style town, where people live in peace and harmony and earn their living by selling handcraft and growing their own vegetables. As you figured, it’s not! But I like it here a lot, since I’ve met some great people from here, and I’ve been at many good places so far.
I guess that for most people outside Colombia, the country is mostly known for guerilla organizations like the FARC and its main export products coffee and cocaine. And so it should be dangerous! Well except for the coffee. Which is quite good by the way. The main slogan of the tourist bureau of Colombia is “Colombia. The only risk is wanting to stay”. I don’t think it’s a good one. When your country is famous for risk, I would not recommend to mention it in any way in the main slogan. I’m not a marketing specialist, so if anyone has a thought about this… Anyway, it’s just not true! For example, until 2000, Colombia was regularly leading the world homicide ranking list. Since then, the number of homicides have almost halved. Still, it ranks 8th worldwide with 37 homicides per 100.000 inhabitants (for the Netherlands, this is 0.92, ranking 17th place from the bottom of the list of countries mentioned) [1]. Multiply this with an average life expectancy and you’ll find that there is a big chance that you know someone who once has been in serious trouble.
Some people blame Hollywood for the image of this country being the Walhalla for cocaine lovers. I think the main reason is that it actually IS the largest exporter of cocaine. An 80% of the cocaine sold worldwide is produced in Colombia, adding up to 6.5 billion of black US dollars. However, I have not met any people here using cocaine, at least not that I know. Police and military are actively searching for it, which might be the reason why it is not sold on every corner of the street. It might even be easier to get it in my country.
But as I said, I’m having a great time here! And I don’t feel to be in danger in any way. I think Colombia can be a fantastic country to travel around in, as I hear all around me from people who did. Many places are safe to go, and as I hear the safety is increasing by the day. The government is actively trying to secure the country, and it seems they are having success. As long as you know where to go, my guess is you can have a great time here. And there’s not a lot of tourists here!
Unfortunately I won’t be traveling much more in Colombia, and until now only been in two big cities: Bogota and Cali. So I can’t tell you much about the beauty of nature of Colombia.
In Bogota I was walking in this touristic place called Montserrat, which gives a splendid view of the 8 million people big city. I bumped into Carlos, a student from Bogota, who was just showing around the city to Maria, who lives in Sao Paulo, Brazil. Carlos invited me to join, and the next three days we hang out and saw many places in and around Bogota, at day and night. Lucas (Bello Horizonte) joined as well, and I thank him for advising me this two week itinerary through the south of Brazil. Carlos showed us his university in Bogota, which is the best looking university I've ever seen. We also met up with the parents and grandmother of Carlos. We had lunch, and I still have to get used to the gigantic lunches people eat here in Colombia. Dinner, on the other hand, is often forgotten.
Right now I’m in Cali, and spending here quite some time already. Not that the city is so nice. I’m staying in a hostel in a nice park with a view on the city, but you won’t like the center of the city very much. Today I was talking with my hostel owner, being French, and today he walks around in his pajama or something. He just tried to put a punaise (that’s both a French and Dutch word, no clue what’s the English) into the wall, but instead the punaise hit the water pipe. I learned that here, water pipes can break when it’s touched by a punaise.
So I like Cali for the people I’ve met. I’m mainly hanging around with Lorena, who conveniently lives near the center and near my hostel, and less conveniently always goes places that are at least an hour traveling by bus. Of course, I just follow. Last week this World Salsa Festival took place in the city. I’ve had some lessons too. I think a need a few thousand private lessons more to get something done.
I'm gonna get some coffee now. Hope you enjoyed it!
