Salsa, Salento, and Soufflé

Since arriving in Colombia a couple of weeks ago, we have been steadily making our way north, slowly becoming accustomed to the Colombian style of ordering food (most always without a menu), taking buses (we heard we could bargain for 75% of the quoted price), and faster Spanish. Our first stop was in Ipiales, which was everything you could imagine a border town being, then off to Popayán, a beautiful colonial city where we watched Colombia lose to Argentina in futbol and visited some nearby hotsprings.

The next stop was the city of Cali, known as one of the world´s salsa capitals. Dancing salsa in Ecuador and  Costa Rica, we usually felt we could at least hang with the local crowd without our steps looking too out of place. We were warned, however, that the dancing in Cali was an entirely new game, so we decided to take some free salsa lessons at our hostel to prepare for that weekend´s festivities. The lessons turned out to be like Zumba exercise classes--we were sweating in minutes. After an hour of attempting to follow our teacher´s fast moving feet and hips, we still were not feeling too confident (maybe even less so) about fitting in on the Cali dance floors.

The rumors we had heard about the caliber of dancers proved to be true. (See video to get an idea of how intimidated we were.) After meeting some people at the salsa club and trying to convince them of how bad of dancers we actually were, some were still generous and patient enough to walk us through the steps. Most times it was for only one song, since they complained the dance floor was getting "too crowded," even though there was plenty of space to spare...

After Cali, we headed to Salento, a greatly-needed break from the fast-paced city. In this small, adorable, cowboy-filled town, we immediately felt at home in our hostel surrounded by farms and rolling hills. The streets of Salento are lined with the most brightly painted doors and walls I have ever seen.

We also found our favorite restaurant of Colombia in Salento--"El Rincón de Lucy." The almuerzo (lunch) we got at least a few times came with soup, rice, beans, a mix of vegetables, plantains, chicken or trout, and a couple of delicious fried pieces of dough--all for the price of 6,000 pesos, or $3. The soup came with a banana on the side, which is supposed to be broken up into pieces and eaten in the soup--a surprisingly delicious use of bananas we learned after watching the local diners.

Nearby Salento is the Valle de Cocora which is the perfect environment for Colombia´s national tree, the Quindío wax palm--the tallest palm trees I have ever seen. We did some hiking in the valley on trails that required some slighlty-sketchy river crossings. We crawled along bridges (more like nailed together slippery boards) from one side of the river to the other usually on our hands and knees.

Many people traveling through Salento recommended going horseback riding. I was extremely hesitant as horses are one of my biggest fears. After some convincing from Hannah and Katie, however, I decided to step out of my comfort zone and give it a go. The trail ride started off extremely muddy down a steep hill--at that moment I swore I would never get on another horse again. The trail ended up a lot less scary, and we rode to a gorgeous waterfall. Nevertheless, I will continue to keep my distance from those powerful animals.

The entire week before Thanksgiving we were thinking about how we were going to celebrate one of our favorite holidays. In Salento, we were lucky enough to stay at a hostel that was offering a three-course Thanksgiving meal! We were excited. The owner of the hostel, who is from New York, did a fantastic job cooking the meal. He somehow made the carrot souffle taste almost exactly like pumpkin pie. Out of the 40 people in the room, we and another girl from Wyoming definitely appreciated the meal the most as we were the only people from the States.

From Salento, our plan was to go to Bogotá, but we had just found out there have been road closings around the city. The country of Colombia was in a sort of "state of emergency" because of all of the rain and road closings. Not wanting to spend 35 hours on the bus in traffic, we decided to head to Medellín. 

Once arriving in Medellín, it was obvious the success this city has had in leaving its infamous history in the past (It was once known as the world´s most dangerous city). The city has a large student population, amazing public transportation system, unique neighborhoods, cute boutiques, a great nightlife, and interesting museums. We visited the Museo de Antioquia near the center of Medellin, which houses many works by Fernando Botero, a famous artist from the city. We quickly fell in love with Botero´s style and his sense of humour that was made obvious through his paintings. 

Part of Medellín´s public transportation sytem is the Metrocable that runs from the main Metro line over the lower-income neighborhoods on the outskirts of the city to a park on top of a mountain overlooking the valley. The ride up the mountain was breathtaking. We could see the cloud of pollution hanging over Medellín behind us, and people doing laundry on their roofs directly below us. During our ride, I kept thinking about what this one tranportation line had done to change the lives of the people living in these neighborhoods.

On the way down the mountain, we met an adorable family. The boys had the most contagious laugh ever and were eager to share what they knew in English with us. We got along so well that they decided to ditch their grandparents to ride another leg of the Metro with us. No worries, they eventually met back up with their family--only after telling us to find them on Facebook.