Christmas in January

The video was too big to attach to an e-mail, so here it is family, thank you, I love you!

Rio Pance

Two exchange friends are visiting from other cities in Colombia so yesterday we spent the day at Rio Pance. The last time she came to Cali one of my friends was very unimpressed, it was right after New Year's Eve so everyone was gone on vacation and Cali was empty, very strange to see. She came back for a few days so us Caleños had to prove how awesome Cali actually is.

We started the day with Pandebono, typical Cali bread, in a cafe that reminded me of coffee shops in Minneapolis, except of course that in Minneapolis it would be all indoor and the poster board would be in English. There were even board games, we played Uno.

This is one of the poor neighborhoods in Cali, that make up for 60-80% of the population but less than half of the area. Even for the people that have lived here their whole lives it's still hard to see.

The river is really popular and was especially crowded yesterday because it was a holiday, but the place that we go is usually deserted. There were two other groups there, but it was still much better than everywhere else. It takes about 30 minutes of sometimes-terrifying hiking through beautiful scenery to get to the falls, but it's worth every heart stopping moment where you almost fall to your death, that's how incredible it is.

Astrid, Miguel, and I climbed about a third of the way up the waterfall, but it got too slippery and vertical to continue. It was incredible, you had to be there and do it to know exactly how awesome it was. Astrid loves Cali now.

I only almost fell once climbing, walking I fell about 5 times. Good job Gracie.

The water is freezing but it doesn't matter, we swam all day. One of my favorite days of vacation!

I love Colombia! I'll never get used to views like these, and will miss them dearly next year when I'm in flat old MN

Carnaval de Blancos y Negros Pasto

All year long in Colombia there are carnivals in different cities, after the Feria de Cali there's Carnaval de  Negros y Blancos in Pasto January 4-6 and I was lucky enough to be able to go. Some exchange friends living in different cities were in Cali and we met up and they invited me to Pasto with them, so in one day I called and got all my permissions and the next morning I was on  bus to Pasto! Pasto was where we had our inbound orientation at the beginning of the year, it's about 8-10 hours away by bus and is pretty cold for Colombia, which means it's like September in Minnesota for me. I stayed in a Rotary family's house with my friend Astrid, from Belgium, but spent the whole time with 8 other exchange students.

With two friends from Belgium. 

The foam spray, called carioca, is one of the highlights of the carnival. This was in the morning, right when we left the house, by the time we got home we were soaked head to toe in sticky foam that dries your face out horribly. They also chuck flour at everyone, so we had to buy sunglasses to keep it out of our eyes. The hats were an attempt to keep our hair clean, but it didn't work very well.

With two Austrians and a Mexican, the Finnish guy is in the back cleaning the foam out of his ears, it's awful in your ears.

Halfway through the parade we were already completely dirty. Of course being three clearly foreign girls we would always get attacked, but we fought back without mercy. The first day, after they parade, my friend and I were cut off from the rest of the group and were attacked with foam from all sides. It wasn't until after we got out that we realized they were robbing us nd had stolen my Blackberry and my friend's camera.

One of my favorite floats from the parade, it's carried by one guy who's supposed to be a baby monkey I think? He was really animated and had the perfect monkey face, it was hilarious.

Pasto is beautiful, the countryside and sky as well as the city, I love it there, though I'm happy living in Cali and wouldn't change it if I could.

Though in general Cali is more dangerous than Pasto (we could actually walk around in Pasto which I loved) during Carnaval there's more violence because it's so crazy and everyone is drunk all the time. There was a knifing two doors down from my friends house so of course we all went out to watch the police stand around, it was my first knife fight, I was really excited.

When we went to ask the police what happened, they asked to take a picture of me. It's fun being tall and white sometimes.

I'm so glad I was able to go to Pasto, and it being so spontaneous made it that much more fun. It was the first time I've traveled without Rotary in Colombia, but I'm planning on doing it much more now. I got a lot closer to the exchange students I was with and am planning on visiting them in Medellin and San Andres sometime in the future, hopefully sooner rather than later!

Feria de Cali

December 25- 31 is the Feria in Cali, basically a week long party.

The first day I went to the Salsodromo with my family, a salsa parade. It was really crowded, it reminded me of the State Fair.

This is from the Cabalgata, another parade, but with horses. Some kids had carioca, foam spray, so of course , being two white girls, we got sprayed a ton.

With my host mom and sister at my host cousin's wedding at the family's country house, it was only about 30 people, they're having a bigger wedding next year in Bogota. In Colombia, or at least for this wedding, everyone had to wear white, not only the bride.

Going out with some of the exchange students living in Cali, Morgan, USA, Javier, Mexico, Jakob, Austria, and Simon, Denmark.

New Year's Eve in Colombia is with the family, but my family was on vacation so I spent it with my friend Camilo's family.

We burned a doll, called año viejo, to end 2011 and bring in the new year. Before we lit it, everyone had to go whisper something they wanted to end with the old year in the doll's ear.

Bring it 2012, I'm ready!

Six Days in the Amazon

In the end of November to the beginning of December almost all the exchange students in our district plus those from Cucuta's district (including my Minnesota girls Alex and Lena!) came together in the Amazon Rain Forest for six days of sweaty, humid, mosquito-filled adventure. It was a while ago (I've been lazy, busy and sick, but mostly lazy) but I'm finally getting around to writing about it.

Right after arriving in the airport, with some new kids from Cucuta.

On the airplane Morgan and I overheard English but couldn't figure out the accent, turns out they were Greek-Australian and Italian-Australian, and we chatted the whole flight. They were spending the year traveling around South America, they had some pretty great stories.

The sunsets were amazing, this is from the first night on the way to our hotel. We had to walk about three hours through the jungle after an hour in boat to get there, but it was worth it.

The first day we climbed 35 meters up a tree, it was an amazing view.

And then ziplined to another tree!

 

Can't live without my peanut butter!

We spent at least a few hours every day on these boats, it's how we traveled. One day it was five hours on the boat, we learned to get pretty comfortable.

The blue dye is from a fruit and lasted about 10 days, I tried to have a hand print done on my neck but it didn't work out too well, rats.

All the Americans together!

One morning I woke up about an hour before anyone else and played with the owner's son, who got attached  to me and spent the whole day with me. It was nice being able to play with little kids again, I don't have enough in my life here, none really.

 

In the Chocolate House in Brasil, in all we were in three countries, we spent one night in Peru and took a taxi to dinner in Brasil from Colombia.

It was a crazy week but I would do it again in a heartbeat, great group of kids and the best tour guide in Colombia, gracias Fercho y Kuko!