Cali, Colombia!!..

I went to Cali in December 2006 for 2 weeks; I went there to visit my best friend while I was living in Belgium, the same one that went with me to Germany, Luxemburg, Paris, etc etc.

I know that Colombians tend to have a bad reputation around the world with all the problems with the guerrillas, cocaine and drugs in general, but avoiding all those stereotypes I really have to say that Colombians and Venezuelans are THE SAME THING!!.. well, we just have a different Spanish accent.

I met the Colombian girl, Adriana, in Belgium, and since the first time that we spoke we had a connection; all the stereotypes and jokes against Colombians that we had sometimes in Venezuela flew away, and we just understood and felt how similar we were in many senses. Once the exchange student year finished and I went back to Venezuela I started to work to save money to go visit her as soon as I could. I stopped the university in Venezuela in 2006 as soon as I knew that I was going to come leaving here, so I started to work full time as a secretary in an office until I had enough money to pay my trip to Cali, Colombia.

I spent more than one year without seen my friend, and I was just dying to see her. At the same time I have to say that in Venezuela, Colombia, Cuba and other many Latin American countries around the Caribbean, we dance salsa music all the time and all around. As a result, I am really into that music, I’m saying this because Cali has one of the best reputation in Salsa music around Latin America, so I was desperate to go dancing in Cali and experience, by my own, how good the men over there dance. But anyway, I ended up, after 3 month working full time, having enough money to buy my ticket and visit my friend. I was pretty proud of myself because it was the first time that I was actually leaving the country earning my own money, and paying my own things.

Cali is a disaster; it was like traveling to another city in Venezuela; so I really can’t say that I didn’t feel like home. They were constructing a new Tram called “MIO” all around the city, so many streets were closed, and the other ones were collapsed with the crammed traffic. But I did have a great time anyway, as I said before, I really don’t mind to be in messy cities, I’m used to, Caracas is a completely mess, and I love it anyway. So, I went to the zoo in Cali, they have the same exotic animals that we have in Venezuela, so I wasn’t really amaze, but I had a great time just walking around and talking with my friend like in the all times.

Travels don’t always have to be about going to tourist places and taking pictures of everything, even though I did go to a few tourist or typical places. This trip meant A LOT to me; I had the opportunity to meet my best friend’s family and experience the way she lives in her own country; we had some typical Christmas reunions with all her family and close friends, and we even participated in a "FREE HUGS" campaign around Cali, where I not only had the opportunity to hug random people all around the streets, but to share and talk to them; I found that experience one of the most open minded experiences in my life, is a shame that I don’t have pictures of that day, only a t-shirt with the “Free Hugs” words written in Spanish.

I went to Venezuela after two weeks of cooking Christmas cookies with my friend, dancing salsa every night and meeting more and more important people in her life. Since the day I left her there, in the airport, and I went back to Caracas I’ve been looking forward to spend another 15 days with my friend, It doesn’t matter where, I just want to be with her.