BYE BYE SOUTH AMERICA !!!.... and thank you for teaching me so much...

Today is the last day of my one-year and 3 weeks South American adventure; this afternoon I am boarding a plane to London. I will change twice: in Bogota' and in Madrid, and I will arrive in Heathrow on Tuesday, 22nd of February 2011. Total time of the trip: 20 hours, approximate distance: 9287 km, cost: 644 pounds. 
How do I feel about it? I feel very sad. Sad because the trip was such a big life lesson for me that I am not sure if I get a chance to have another one like this in the future. I am thinking a lot about my return to Europe, preparing my mind and body to my London life. Am I going to be happy or unhappy when I am back??... this question bothers me every day. I am determined to be happy, no matter what.

In the picture: my host family in Santa Marta (without father and one son).
My last set of pictures from South America:
Santa Marta

Some very honest conclusions of my trip

Places of natural beauty I loved in my trip:
The Amazon river and jungle on the Brazilian side and the Uyuni desert in Bolivia (both incredible and magic places).

Cities I liked the most on the continent:
Caracas in Venezuela, Medellin in Colombia (they are very similar, both located in a valley and surrounded by mountains) and Buenos Aires (very beautiful and spacious, with many things to do).

Places of sentimental value for me (mainly because I was dancing a lot in there):
Porto Seguro in Brazil (the world capital of lambada zouk), Cali in Colombia (the world capital of a very particular style of salsa), Buenos Aires in Argentina (the South American capital of everything :)).

Places I didn't like the most: some cities in Brazil. I felt very lonely and excluded from groups of people because I don't drink alcohol, smoke marijuana or go to disco clubs. For this reason I wasn't able to make friends (but at other times in other countries my social life was blooming).

One thing that shocked me right from the beginning of my trip: the level of violence and crime in South America, something I have never seen or experienced before in my life, and level of poverty.

Feeling I hated in my trip: being treated by local people like a millionaire just because I live in Europe, and being used for this reason.

Something that surprised me a lot: very many excellent doctors, dentists and plastic surgeons. Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia are masters in plastic surgery and beauty procedures, the level of it is much higher than in Europe. There is a big emphasis on esthestics in these countries and many  people look good for this reason.

Another thing is that it's not only difficult for South Americans to visit Europe due to visa and immigration problems. It's also sometimes difficult for the people from Europe or North America to cross borders or stay in one country for a long time. I had "interviews" at few borders, I think it was caused by their concern that I was involved in a cocaine trade or prostitution (but do I really look that suspicious??...). I know foreigners who married locals to stay in South America. Before I thought that this business was happening only in well developed countries.

The past year was extraordinary for me. Before I handled my resignation letter at work I couldn't sleep for a week. Quitting job helped me to understand one important thing: if you quit, the world is not going to end and you are not going to die, as I thought before. Therefore, I feel stronger because I made this huge step.
I put all my stuff in plastic boxes, sold my car, said goodbye to all my friends, and I left. Now, a day before my return, I have to say that I don't regret my decision at all. I learnt so much about life, people, places... it's something you will never learn by reading books or watching TV. I was almost killed several times but I survived and I hope that this experience will change my life for the better too.
Initially I thought about calculating how much money I have spent in the whole trip. Well, I always put an amount I spent in my blog when I was leaving a country. Now I think that my trip has been PRICELESS and it doesn't matter how much I have spent. You can make this trip "cheap" if you stay with Couch Surfers as I did and if you are very careful how you spend your money.

Little records of my trip:
I spent only 8 nights in hotels in a year and 3 weeks, all the rest were houses of local Couch Surfing people
In 9 months, after visiting 9 Spanish speaking countries, my Spanish advanced from non-existent to fluent
I wore 1 pair of jeans and 1 swimming costume all year round :)
I was very close to death several times, and once... I died. (see Cusco in Peru section).

Why I am happy about coming back home:
I will see my wonderful friends
I will dance lambada zouk again
I will wear my beautiful dresses, shoes and handbags :)

Why I am not happy about coming back home:
well... the weather in England...
hunting for a new job
leaving people behind, for example: Orlando and others from Cali, Renato from Rio de Janeiro, Adriana from Fortaleza, Hernan from Caracas, Nehomar and his wonderful family from Maracaibo, Marco from Maracaibo, Carmen and Claudia from Santa Marta, Silvia from Medellin, Christian from Guayaquil, Marco from Lima, Rosalia from La Paz, Familia Encalada from Calama, Carlos from Santiago de Chile, José from Mendoza, Crisitan from Córdoba, Hernan from Buenos Aires, Daniela from Buenos Aires, Rafael from Montevideo, Nicolas from Maldonado, Diana from Asunción and many others.... Thank you my angels for helping me feel good in this trip.
I have been hosted by so many people that I can't list them all here. I am sorry for this.... but I will always remember ALL of you.

Yesterday we didn't go out. I was tired after swimming in the sea all day and then buying presents in a huge shopping centre. José and Arturo showed me a video and a TV programme they made about modern music people listen to in Colombia. It was very interesting as I thought that apart from salsa, vallenato, Pacific and Andean music (and other traditional music) people don't listen to anything else. The brothers are very talented and creative, I hope that one day they will be successful.
This morning we went to another beach, situated 30 minutes by bus from Santa Marta. The beach is called Pleno Mar. It's wonderful, it's my favourite beach near Santa Marta so far, with few people on it (in the picture), because tourists don't know about the place.
In the evening we met my Colombian friend Rocio. We went to Toto salsa bar, one of two salsa places in the town. The music was good although the sound system was really bad (Cali would never accept such a low quality of sound). The place was nice and very traditional, and beer was cheap.

I had an interesting conversation with Jose' about my favourite subject: guerrilla. He and Arturo made a short film about it, about a young man who joined the Colombian army. Soldiers get paid if they kill a guerrilla member so they kill innocent people, put gerrilla's clothes on them and claim it to get money. Of course you can't talk about it openly; in the film mother of the young man asks him to give up the army. The message is hidden but everyone knows why she does it as there is blood on her son's uniform. I am happy I can talk about things like this with the brothers, there are many people in the country who deny the reality.

Last night we went to a district called Citadela to find a salsa club. It wasn't possible because there was only vallenato music in all the clubs and bars. This part of the country listens mostly to this kind of music, which I like too.
Today I spent all day at the sea again. First I went to the Rodadero Aquarium which was great, I saw a lot of species of fish and sea animals (in the picture: dolphins show). Then I went quickly to a famous White Beach (Playa Blanca) and then I spent some time on the beautiful Rodadero beach. The Caribbean Sea is just amazing... water is transparent and it's so peaceful....
Here is a next set of my pictures:
My last weeks in Cali

I went to Taganga beach yesterday and today (in the picture). I noticed that something changed about me, something I like. I have always been a beach lover, frying my body whenever I could without any sun blocker, to get brown quicker. The hotter a country was, the longer I stayed in the sun. So here I am - on the wonderful Taganga beach and I don't care at all if I am going to suntan or not. I just don't care... and I can't believe it. I still love the sea and swimming, I am glad it hasn't changed.

Yesterday I visited my ex-hosts Carmen and Claudia. I stayed with them for two weeks in May. I had a lot of fun with the girls as they were determined to find me a boyfriend. As soon as I arrived in Santa Marta in May, their male friends started calling me and inviting out, ha ha ha... unfortunately I didn't like any of them. It looks like the girls haven't changed a bit since my last visit. What has changed is that now that I can have a normal conversation with them as I speak Spanish.
Regarding my host family, their dog is dying and I am so sad witnessing this. He is 15 years old, blind and deaf. He can hardly walk and seems to be in pain, and he walks around the house bumping into objects.

In Santa Marta

Santa Marta is my last stop before flying back home on Monday. Cali - Santa Marta: 1170 km, 2.5 hours on 2 planes, cost: 60 pounds. I changed in Bogota'. The airport in the capital is the worst one I have seen in my life. The last time they lost my luggage, this time we were waiting 2 hours to board the plane. Yeimmy who is a stewardess and flies a lot in the country, confirmed that. I think it will have to change soon as Bogota' is the centre of economic activity in the country and the airport should represent it.
It's amazing that in Colombia you have so many altitudes. In Cali the temperature is perfect, in Bogota' it was cold and now in Santa Marta it's hot.
Anyway... I luckily arrived in the town and I took a taxi to the family house of my hosts Jose' and his brother Arturo. Jose' studies journalism and he works for the local television. Arturo studies cinematography and he wants to make a film or to do something to develop Colombian cinema, little known in the world at the moment.

I organised Valentine's Day party on 14th of February. I was surprised that so many people came as they don't celebrate it here, and it was also raining. When it rains in Cali, the social life stops. I was told that people don't like going out in the rain. Hmmm... if we were like this in London, we would never go out... :)
Colombia celebrates Day of Love and Friendship on the third Saturday of September and it's much more important for them than 14th of February. I asked people to wear red clothes at the Valentine's Day party and we did bbq on Alejandro's roof. I had a great time and it was my last opportunity to see my friends in Cali and to say goodbye to them.
This afternoon I am flying to Santa Marta.

It was Wilber's birthday yesterday. Wilber was my first host in Cali six months ago and then we were renting rooms in the same family house in Loma La Cruz. He is one of the people who do things for you and they never expect anything in return. He helped me a lot at the beginning of my stay in the city and for this reason I I had to go to his party, which was a lot of fun anyway.
Today I have been relaxing all day. I washed Argus the dog and had crabs for dinner, they were huge and beautifuly blue (in the picture). However eating crabs was a nightmare as usual.

I am writing down the last conclusions of my trip to South America. So many things are coming to my mind... and so many memories.
Yesterday we went to El Farro bar as it was birthday of Diego from Couch Surfing (us in the picture). After that we went to Tin Tin Deo, it was my last time in the club as the next week I am going to Santa Marta in the north of Colombia. I want to spend my last days in South America on the beach. Yes, I am sad because leaving places and people behind is something I am not good at. I have been doing it for the last 12 months, I have been sad and feeling emotional too many times.
My dental treatment has also finished today after 6 weeks of constant dentist visits. All my teeth are fixed now and their appearance improved a lot.

Yesterday Yeimmy invited me to a hairdresser. I wanted to go anyway at the end of my trip so she did it right on time. The hairdresser was expensive but very good. He looked at me for a few seconds and then cut my fringe on the other side of my forehead than all my hairdressers in the past did. Was this the secret to make me look beautiful? ha ha ha...
At night I met Orlando but this meeting was not a success again. There was a lower-class lady in the street who offended me verbally and I couldn't stay quiet. I had to tell her that you don't offend people you don't know in the street. He was very upset because of my reaction, he prefered that I stayed quiet and carried on our conversation as if nothing happened. Unfortunately I couldn't do this and what's more, I expected him to defend me and in the first place to say something to this lady before I did. His behaviour hurt me a lot.

This morning I had my permanent makeup done (cost: 50 pounds). I had it done in London before but it was semi-permanent, with use of an anaesthetic cream which didn't ease the pain much and it cost 250 pounds. Today it wasn't painful at all because they injected me anaesthetic in the eyelids and under eyes which made half of my head loose feeling. The procedure lasted 40 minutes only (comparing to London: 3 sessions, 3 hours each session). However, the impact of the injections was so big that I came back home and I slept for three hours without my earplugs, in the noise coming through the widow - something I could never do otherwise.
I can't stop admiring how all the beauty procedures are developed here and how many good specialists the South American countries have (especially Brazil, Venezuela and Colombia). Cosmetitians, dentists, hairdressers - they all can easily transform you. Especially dentists were a surprise for me, in Europe they just fix the problem. Here they also focus on how to make your face look better. For example Yeimmy had an operation three years ago. Her teeth are small so her dentist said that with longer teeth she would look better, and he pulled the gums away. After the operation she looks amazing.
In the picture with my wonderful dentist Diana, last but one visit in her dental studio. My red under eye circle is a result of the makeup aneasthetic injection.

I have finally booked my flight to London. It was very expensive, and what I found out after days of searching is that flights from London to South America are cheaper than flights from SA to London. Hmmm... So I am going back, it's hard to believe that my trip is about to finish.
On Friday we went to La Fuente bar and on Saturday to a birthday party of Orlando friend's friend. The salsa party was organised in a huge house and there were many guests. They were dancing in the house and outside in the street too. We were dancing a lot of choke. I love the dance and I am going to teach it to my friends in London because I am sure you won't find a club where you can find it in Europe, not yet.
On Sunday we were supposed to go to Jarmundi to a friend's cottage for bbq but unfortunately Orlando didn't wake me up on time and we missed it. I spent all day with Orlando talking about our habits and trying to find out why we can't understand each other's behaviour.

I am planning my return to London on the 21st of February, when my Colombian visa expires. I don't want to travel any more, I am tired now. I also need a mental challange which is difficult to find in Colombia. What I mean by this is a productive conversation, about good and bad things in life (here people avoid talking about bad things).

Yesterday Orlando's nephew (who is two years younger than him) organised a farewell party. He lives in Italy and he is going back this evening. We went to a salsa club called Nuvo. I liked the place but I didn't like the music, it was too slow for me. I was told that this kind of music people dance to in Buenaventura on the coast, and they dance very closely. This is how Orlando and his brothers (who were born in Buenaventura) dance. In the picture: his cousins.
95 per cent of people in the club were black. I have been to clubs in Cali where almost everyone was black or where I was the only white person, which was an unusual experience.

Yeimmy sleeps by the window, and her flat is situated on the first floor. Three times in the past she woke up in the middle of night because there was a hand sticking in through the window and searching for something valuable. Luckily there are metal bars in the window so the man couldn't enter the flat, he could only believe in being lucky to grab something profitable. But it was sleeping Yeimmy who got the hand on her head and as soon as she realised what was happening, she shouted loudly. The person immediately run away. Can you imagine this happening to you??? Yeimmy didn't report it to the police because this is kind of normal thing in Colombia...
Yesterday I met my friend DJ Ara. He opened a hotel two months ago. The hotel is very nice, with many pictures of famous salsa singers on the walls. We talked for ages and then he invited me home for a dinner cooked by his wife. We talked a lot about subject which interests me very much at the moment - where I want to live in the future. Ara lived in London for 5 years, he hates the city. He also lived in Rio de Janeiro, and now in Cali. He and his wife are planning to come back to Rio, city they love. Well, I was reflecting on this. I think I love London, just that I need to organise my life better when I am back. However, I don't want to live in London forever. I love sea and I want to live by a beach. I love Buenos Aires however it takes one hour to get to the seaside, like from London to Brighton. Living happily is what I want when I am back. I wasn't happy in my last year in London, there is why I began my South American adventure, to change something. I ask myself every day now: has something changed through my trip?????

1 year has gone....

I left London on the 1st of February 2010.... exactly a year ago. How is it possible that the whole year is gone????.....
I am preparing myself for the comeback although it's a little bit difficult and stressful. Returnig to the other world, world of activities I repeat every week, of stress and unbearable traffic in the streets. World..... which I prefer than the world here, mainly because of security. I will be able to walk safely in the streets again!!

To celebrate 1 year in South America, for the first time in my life I experienced an earthquake :) A very strong one, of 4.5 in Richter's scale. Colombia is situated on the same platform that Chile and San Francisco so I was told that quite many earthquakes occur here, of which I didn't know before. I found out on Sunday night, when I woke up because the bed Javier was sleeping on was shaking and jumping, making a lot of noise. It all lasted for about 5 seconds but it was enough time to get scared and to end many lives. Luckily, nobody died. Javier lives on the 12th floor so the impact of the earthquake is bigger than when you live on the ground floor.

Yesterday in the evening I met Alejandro, the guy who came to my Pijama Party and who organised the Terraza Party. We went for a drink to a nice bar with a great view. We had sweet red beer (in the picture, it was lovely...) and we talked about many things in life.
Later at night I moved into Yeimmy's house in San Antonio. I left her flat at the beginning of January because she was going on holiday.

On Saturday we were invited to a house party organised by a nice couple: Gaya from Italy and Julian from Cali. They moved in together and organised the party to celebrate it. They live in a nice part of Cali; as much as I don't like the city, this part is my favourite although it's not the poshest one (situated between San Antonio and San Fernando districts). The view from their flat is amazing.
All Sunday I spent in Orlando's house, sleeping, making sweets (Brazilian brigaderos), washing Argus (in the picture) and relaxing.
Here is a next set of my pictures:
Cali and Juanchaco

On Thursday we went to Tin Tin Deo, as every Thursday, but this time there were very few people in the place. It's probably because people don't have money after Feria de Cali and they go out only on Saturdays in January.
Yesterday we went to a rock bar called El Faro, in south part of the city. The place was very nice but I couldn't sit down without dancing for more than a couple of hours and listen to rock. Luckily, most of the people felt the same, so we moved to Terraza Party organised by Alejandro, a guy I met at my Pijama Party. We danced a lot on a beautiful terrace of his house.
In the picture: The Polish Team of Cali at the Terraza Party.
And some more pictures from the party: http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/macleod-older/album/112071/?
My next photo set:
Carnival of Negros y Blancos in Pasto, Jan 2011

On Monday I went to Las Brisas, a famous salsa club in Jarmundi, 24 kilometers from Cali. I went there with Javier but he was tired after work so he came back home soon. I was dancing with friends I had met in the club months ago. The music and passion of people in the place are unbelievable, as well as people's simplicity, a lot of plastic (meaning: women's breasts and bottoms sticking out in a very unnatural way) and a lot of mafia men. Incredible place.
My friend offered me a lift home but five minutes after we took off, his car stopped as it had no petrol. We were waiting on this quiet at night road for half an hour until an angel on a motorbike stopped and helped us. He brought some petrol in a plastic bag, from the nearest petrol station.
Yesterday I had my second teeth whitening session. The pain I experienced after that is difficult to describe. I went to Orlando's house and cried in his arms, he tried to distract me from the pain by talking to me all the time and singing. I didn't sleep most of the night. I took a lot of painkillers but they didn't help. Never again the same torture.
In the picture: the view point in Dapa where we went on Sunday.
Another set of my pictures:
Cali Christmas and New Year's Eve 2011
And video: Concert of Los Van Van

On Saturday we went to La Matraca bar, a tango place. I don't like tango but I wanted to see the place of which I heard a lot before. It was beautiful, with many colourful pictures on the walls. However, I couldn't bear the music and others seemed to be bored too so we went to a salsa place called El Ricón de Heberth (in the picture: Dominika from Poland and her Colombian boyfriend in the middle). It's a new bar, small but you can dance outside in the street, like in La Fuente bar.
Yesterday I was invited to a trip to Dapa. It's a place in the mountains from which you can admire a wonderful view over Valle del Cauca (Cauca Valley where Cali is situated). We went to a restaurant called Racamandapa, sat at a table with the great view, had some typical food (bowl of hot chocolate with cheese) and talked for hours. There are also two discos, one with salsa music and another with electronic music. It was very quiet though as few people come to the place on Sundays.
After the trip we went to a cinema to see "Hereafter", a great film called in Spanish "Mas Allá de la Vida".

I moved out of Orlando's house and I live with Javier now, in a nice part of Cali. Orlando's family was great and helped me when I needed accommodation, and his mum was wonderful.
Yesterday I organised Cali's first ever Pijama Party in La Fuente bar. Unfortunately most of the people in Cali didn't understand the purpose of the party, which was a lot of fun and laugh. These people were scared of gossips and they keep appearances so they wouldn't go out in pijamas. I was a little bit sad because Orlando was one of them.
Fortunately there was a small group of brave ones, about 8 people, who made it. We were dancing salsa in pijamas in the street but not many men asked me for a dance because of my look (in my picture), which I partly understand. So I was asking them: would you like to dance with a crazy girl? And they did, and after that they relaxed and talked to me. Many people thought that we were completely insane but we didn't care, we had a great fun. We were also dancing with my sleeping mask on, it's so difficult to dance when you can't see anything!!
Here is a link to Andrey's pictures (a Russian guy who came to the party in pijama):
http://fotki.yandex.ru/users/macleod-older/album/111111/?

Yesterday I had laser teeth whitening done. Ufff... that's painful... Just like having my tattoo done, it was kind of a torture. My dentist Diana put bleaching gel on my teeth and soon after the excruciating pain started. Imagine having a very very sensitive tooth (big pain when you have a cold drink or inhale cold air) and multiply the pain by 16 (only the front teeth are bleached).
When I woke up this morning the pain disappeared which means that you suffer just one day. Now I look in the mirror and I can't believe how beautiful my teeth are. The result is worth every single minute of suffering.
At night we went to Tin Tin Deo to celebrate Natalia's birthday. It was also Severin's farewell party (a guy from Switzerland who spent a year in Cali). He is going back to Europe in a couple of weeks, after visiting Bogota'.

We were supposed to go to the seaside on Sunday but we woke up very late (after coming back home at 6 am from a birthday party) so we quickly, half-asleep, postponed our trip until Monday.
On Monday we woke up early but I got fed up because Orlando spent almost an hour in the bathroom taking shower and doing his hair, so at the end we left home at 10 am. We took a bus to Buenaventura on the coast and then a boat to Juanchaco. It takes an hour to get to the village by boat. This time the sea was stormy so our bottoms got really sore because of jumping up and down on the benches. When we arrived, we found two guys with motorbikes who took us to Ladrillieros village, it was exactly the same way I did it four months ago.
We stayed at the same hotel I stayed previously. I really liked it, it was clean and nobody was there apart from us. It was like having the whole appartment for ourselves, not only a room. We spent Tuesday on the beach, the waves were huge and strong. After few hours in the water we got very tired because of the constant fight with the waves (but we got very happy for this reason too). At night we met a friend from Belgium who we previously had met in Pasto at the carnival of Negros y Blancos. We had a drink in a nice wooden bar, it was pouring with rain. It rains heavily in this part of the country but it's hot at the same time. I like a lot this typical tropical climate.
The following day we went to the beach again, the waves were smaller but as strong as a day before so we had a lot of fun again. At 4 pm we took a boat to Buenaventura where we had dinner in Galleria, dirty and smelly food market. We ate typical Colombian soup called san cocho which was fantastic, very thick with a big piece of fish in the soup.
We took a bus to Cali and we arrived home late at night.

On Friday we went to La Fuente, a tiny salsa club next to a fountain (thus the name, I used to go there every Friday during my last stay in Cali). The music was great and I met some friends.
Yesterday we went to a birthday party of Orlando's friend from University (in the picture with his friends at the party). All of the people were very young, from 18 to 24 years old. The salsa music was fantastic and of course everyone was dancing a lot. However, they were drinking so much aguardiente and ron that there was a moment when I got very worried about their health, especially about the birthday boy who was pouring a lot of aguardiente into himself. Such a self-distruction at the age of 23....
Tomorrow I am going with Orlando to the seaside for a couple of days. We want to be alone, relax, swim and sunbath.

I don't do much during the day but the time is flying which is very scary. I am having a hell of rest in Orlando's house, I feel very relaxed and I sleep a lot. It is a great way to finish my trip, instead of taking buses every three days and rushing from one place to another.
We also party a lot, we go out dancing and come back home at 5 am. Then I sleep until late. I don't like sleeping during the day but I need energy for the next night.
On Wednesday we went to Menga (a district in the north part of Cali with a lot of good quality salsa clubs) to a club called La Mariachi, with Orlando's brothers and friends. When I go out with them, I can't complaint about lack of men to dance with :) All of Orlando's brothers love dancing, they are excellent dancers and they are tall, big and good looking.
Yesterday we went to Tin Tin Deo and then to Menga again with a big group of Couch Surfers, to Cafe Mi Tierra club (in the picture with Javier and his two friends).
I go to the dentist every 3 days and I stay there for about 3 hours each time. I am having a dental bridge fixed, two fillings, cleaning and whitening done (all this for 470 pounds). The dentist is the most important mission of my stay in Cali as to have a bridge fixed you have to stay in one place for at least two weeks. Unfortunately I don't trust dentists in England and I don't want to go to Poland for two weeks.

Yesterday it was Orlando nephew's birthday and it was Saturday. This day of the week always feels more important than others. All the family and I went to visit the nephew in a district called Marroquin, and I met a lot of neighbours' children (in the picture). Everyone knows each other in the street and they are kind of a big family. However, the district is very dangerous, I was told that I absolutely could not walk there on my own. Orlando and his family used to live there before they moved closer to the city centre, to Nueva Floresta district.
At night we went to a great salsa club called Bronx, in La Quinta (fifth street), one of the main streets in Cali where I used to live last year.

I loved the second day of the carnival. Jorge's aunt woke us up before 11 am and we went to the city centre with all Jorge's family, buying cariocas and flour on the way. I couldn't sleep at night because of the cold - in Colombia nobody hits up the houses so the cold gets in your bones.
That day of the carnival was a "flour day" - everyone buys it and throws at each other. It was a real flour war. The weather was beautiful, it was warm and we were fighting like children (in the picture with our enemy team). Sunglasses were a must on that day.
We stayed all day out and at night we met some people from Couch Surfing Cali. We went to a great salsa club where we did a lot of dancing, still covered in flour.
Yesterday in the morning we took a comfortable bus back to Cali. There was a Cuy festival in Pasto on Friday ("cuy" are guinea pigs, they eat them in this part of the country, like in Ecuador) but we didn't stay.
We arrived home late at night.

In San Juan de Pasto

Pasto is a nice small city, surrounded by low mountains. We arrived on Wednesday morning, I couldn't sleep all the night because the minibus was very uncomfortable and the road very bad. However, Orlando could sleep regardless, despite his head jumping in all the directions. The journey took 8 hours (570 km) and the return ticket cost 28 pounds.
When we arrived, Orlando phoned his University friend Jorge who was going to put us up. Unfortunately there was no space in his house any more as a lot of family members came to the carnival, so his aunt kindly agreed to host us.
On the same day we met Jorge's family and we visited the city. It's not overpopulated as Cali and there were not too many people at the carnival so I sighed with relief.
At night we went to the main square. That day was a "painting day", everyone had to paint their faces and arm themselves with "carioca" - a big bottle with white spread foam. Everyone was shooting the foam in everyone's faces to the point that people got wet and dirty, and the temperature is quite low in Pasto all year round due to the city's altitude. After being bombarded with paints and foam (in the picture), we went dancing to Andean music, very popular in this part of Colombia and in Ecuador.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andean_music
Pasto is situated very close to the Ecuadorian border and there is a big influence from Ecuador in the city. Dancing was a lot of fun and afterwards we went to a pub where we met Jorge's friends. Everyone was very drunk to the point that some men were falling off the stools. There was more dancing going on which I enjoyed but I really didn't like that everyone was so drunk. They were buying a very sweet and strong "wine" which tasted exactly like gripex to me. I drank it previously in Quito and I hated it as much as I hate gripex :) This is what the people drink to get wasted quickly and cheap.

Yesterday I accompanied Orlando to the place where he practises karate. I met his friends and we went for a drink after the training. I had a good time. Sometimes people from South America are scared of me or they feel so uncomfortable that they don't even look in my eyes, and for this reason I feel ignored many times. Luckily yesterday it wasn't the case.
This afternoon I went to a dentist and I had a long conversation with her. I will have many things done, it's going to be cheaper than in London and I also feel that she is a good dentist.
This night we are going to Pasto to the Carnaval de Negros y Blancos.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blacks_and_Whites'_Carnival
I want to visit the city but I am not really keen on the festival (my usual issue: crowd). It's also cold in Pasto and it often rains as it's situated on 2527 meters above the sea level.

New Year came quietly. I only noticed that it was coming because Orlando's mum put plates and glasses for wine on the table. In Colombia on the 24th of December and new year's eve they eat at midnight, in Europe we have dinner much earlier. For example in Poland everyone is looking out for the first star on the sky, which in winter is usually at 4 - 5 pm. If you see the star, you can start eating the Christmas dinner. I think it is a very beautiful tradition. In the picture right after midnight.
I like that they make a dummy called Old Year, they put explosives inside it and at midnight they burn it causing a lot of explosions. This way they say goodby to the last 12 months.
Yesterday we didn't do much during the day. On the 1st of January the city seems to be dead. All the families sit outside the houses doing nothing and waiting for the time to pass. It is hilarious to see it but well, the same happens in Europe just that people sit inside the houses and watch TV.
At night we went to Tin Tin Deo, the first time since I arrived in Cali I felt I was in Cali.... La Feria de Cali is nice, there are good concerts but waiting in the crowd for ages and queuing for hours is not for me. I prefer going to clubs and dancing, instead of wasting my precious lifetime on waiting.
I moved out of Yeimmy's flat as her family is coming over this night and she is going on holiday to US. I moved in with Orlando and his family. It's great that his mother allows me to stay in the family house and I think unusual here as many families are traditional. It's all nice but I feel I want to have my own (well, rented but own) place again. I am fed up with moving from one house to another as I did last year and I am doing now. I miss so much having my own room, own wardrobe, own bed and own laptop.