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.

On Wednesday we went to a Pacific music concert. I don't like the music but I went to see friends who enjoyed it a lot, and it was great to see them happy. The main group everyone was waiting for was called Chocquitown.
Yesterday we went to another concert of Los Van Van from Cuba. We got there very early and waited 8 hours for the group to arrive, they were 2 hours late. Waiting for such a long time made everyone tired. We couldn't go to the toilet or to buy food as there were too many people and they wouldn't let you get back to your place. So we waited, thirsty and hungry. I was thinking: I would never do it in Europe, I would never ever spend so much time waiting and doing nothing but here is Cali, you do it because the group is good and the concert is free. In the picture: waiting in the crowd with Yeimmy.
Today I am in Orlando's house, with his family, waiting patiently for the New Year. My friends in Europe  already celebrated it, we are still waiting as there is 5 hours time difference. We don't do much, we are just waiting and trying to talk from time to time but.... the salsa music is so loud that you would never believe it can be so loud in somebody's house. But this is Colombia :) The music will be loud all night long and I suppose tomorrow as well, as it was at Christmas.
To all my wonderful friends all over the world: HAPPY NEW YEAR. I hope it will be happy for all of us and that in 2011 I will be able to meet up with friends I haven't seen for a long time.

Yesterday I saw "the other side" of Cali. Side I haven't known before and to be honest I was a little bit disappointed to see. Eduardo, my tattooist, invited me to a party in a gay club in a district called Granada. It was a famous gay club but everyone could come to this big party. When I arrived Eduardo was still working in a hurry, he had to paint bodies of all the staff. Then the party began. There was no salsa at all and there were many gays, something you will never see in salsa clubs here. Just a big modern, techno, electronic and pop music party. I had fun as I met friends I haven't seen for more than 3 months. Eduardo works in the club from time to time doing some art jobs so all the drinks were free for his "team", including myself. It was interesting to experience this "other side" but I won't come back to this kind of party, and I don't want to remember it too clearly :) For me Cali is the salsa kingdom, and I want it to stay this way in my heart.
In the picture with Eduardo on the right and his friends on the left.
Here is an interesting story about Jovita (symbol of Cali), unfortunately I couldn't find an English version.
http://www.caliescali.com/jovita-feijo/
And pictures of the waterfalls and from Paraguay:
Iguazu waterfalls and Asunción

On Monday we went to see "cabalgata" (horses parade). Horse owners gather on one street and they show off their beautiful horses and the way they walk (for example the "paso fino" steps). It was nothing special to be honest, just horses walking down the street and owners chatting to each other, as if there was no crowd watching them all the time (cabalgata in the picture). Well, at least it was a great way to spend an afternoon with family or friends. Orlando said that before they used to ride horses and drink alcohol at the same time, and then maltreating the animals (and felling down the horses I would imagine). For this reason cabalgata was suspended for one year. They started organising it again however alcohol has been prohibited.
In the evening we went to melomanos meeting. At the beginning they played very old salsa music and then there was a concert of a very good orchestra called Willie Rosario (it's name of the singer and name of his orchestra). The concert was great and all the local people knew words of all the songs by heart.

Yesterday the Couch Surfing people met in Plaza de Toros to dance salsa. There was also stand up comedy and some funny competitions.
This morning I had a long conversation with Yeimmy, my wonderful friend I live with. I admire her so much. She works as a stewardess for Avianka airlanes, one of the best South American airlines. She also sells clothes and cosmetics which she buys in New York, where everything is cheaper than in Colombia. She also works on a project, she asked me not to say what it is until it is finalised but I am sure she will be successfull and her business will go very well. She is doing this on her own. She has a great help from her aunt who lives in US and from few friends but all decisions are taken by Yeimmy. She told me a story of her childhood, it wasn't all roses (just like my life). In fact, her life was very hard until she got independent, found a good job and she understood that she had to cut off all the past to be happy.

Yesterday we went to salsodromo, it's the first event (salsa parade) of the 5-day festival "Feria de Cali". The parade is 1 km long, lasts 5 hours and takes 6 months to prepare. There are 25 salsa schools showing off their skills. Unfortunately, it wasn't a nice experience due to the crowd pushing us all the time as everyone wanted to see the parade and the organisation of the event was bad. The parade itself was very nice but we didn't stay long. We moved to a concert which officialy opened the festival. I liked the concert and I met a lot of friends but I was so tired after my trip through the continent that I came back home early.

In the picture with Orlando and Karen.

In Cali, Colombia again

My trip up the continent was pretty horrible. It took the whole day to travel (well, I did almost 4000 km) and my luggage didn't arrive in Cali. But... I was happy. Orlando and Javier picked me up from the airport, it was wonderful to see them again. We went to Tin Tin Deo, the famous salsa club, where I met other friends.
Then I came to Yeimmy's flat. She invited me to stay with her as long as I like but at one point I would like to rent a room somewhere as Yeimmy's place is really small. It is fantastic to see her too.

Yesterday, on the 24th of December, I spent the evening and night with Orlando and his family (in the picture with Orlando's mum and niece). I enjoyed myself a lot, we had nice food and ron of course :) The street where they live is decorated with many lights. When I arrived in Cali I could see no lights and I couldn't believe it because it's Christmas. But then I saw Orlando's street and some other streets in the city, and they were all illuminated.
In Colombia 24th is the most important day of Christmas, you spend it with family. 25th and 26th is just salsa party, salsa party and salsa party (called Feria de Cali). In Cali you will never hear Christmas carols, all you hear is salsa music in houses, streets, supermarkets and buses.

Last night I went out with Diana. I really enjoyed her company, she is kind of a person you must see in your life again so I promised to come back to Asunción one day, for her wedding :)
I stayed just one day in the city however this day was very long. Diana took me on an intensive cultural ride and I heard a lot of interesting stories about Paraguay. I visited many places, ate typical Paraguayan food and drunk terere (ha ha ha... sorry, the name is so funny). Apparently Paraguay is the hottest country in South America... it was really hot.
Early in the morning I boarded a plane to Cali, Colombia.

PARAGUAY, In Asunción

The bus was 45 minutes late. Too many tickets were sold so as a result people didn't have seats, the bus was overcrowded. The conditions were unhuman as the temperature outside was 40 degrees. We stopped at the Argentinian border and an hour later at the Paraguayan border (it is a big distance between these two custom offices). We arrived in Ciudad del Este and from there I took a bus to Asunción, it was another horrible and tiring trip. When I finally arrived in Asuncion at 1 am, I took a very expensive taxi to Diana's flat. She works as a music teacher in a college, before that she used to play violin in an orchestra. She travelled to many South American countries with the group, playing concerts, until she stopped few years ago and started teaching. She is a great person.
We visited the city centre this morning and afternoon (it's small) then we got caught in the rain so we went to a bar. I tried the typical Paraguayan food, for example the only in the world solid soup. I couldn't believe it was soup!! I tried "terere" (ha ha ha... what a name) - it's tea or "mate" but drunk cold, with ice.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terer%C3%A9
In Asunción people carry thermoses with them too, like in Argentina and Uruguay. However, here the thermoses are big and heavy (but also very beautiful - in the picture Diana and her monster thermos). I really admire the people, I would never ever in a million years carry such a heavy thing all day round, every day.
In Paraguay they speak Spanish and Guarani (and in Asunción also Jopara). Not many people speak Spanish but all of them speak Guarani which was the main language until recently, when they added Spanish as an official language. In Paraguay you can pay with American dollars except from some small shops.
There is a huge hydroelectric dam in Itaipu in Paraguay:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Itaipu_Dam

Porto Iguazu is a nice small town. For the first time I felt the atmosphere of Christmas because many houses and bars are decorated with lights, which looks lovely at night.
This morning, very early, we took a bus to the waterfalls. We spent 6 hours in the Iguazu Park, walking, walking and walking. Walking from one fall to another, walking up and down stairs to see them from the top and from the bottom. The falls are absolutely fantastic, they are another proof of how powerful the nature is. Many people were visiting the place which I didn't like but well, I was one of them. The waterfalls are great so no wonder the park is crowded all year round.
We also took a boat which gets to the bottom of two waterfalls. I couldn't breathe several times because of the water and I got completely wet. It was a great fun.
Later in the afternoon I am taking a bus to Paraquay.