Cali Nights

Today is a little bit surreal. I am walking down The Sexta, a thick vein of bars and salsa clubs and sketchy dark corners that runs through our neighborhood, down to the main grocery store. The street is covered with flour. Everywhere are people with hoses, looking a little hungover and pissed, cleaning everything (kind of how I picture the other Keebler Elves who weren't in the commercials). All the tables, all railings, even all the morning-after garbage is covered with flour. I just passed a man having a friendly conversation while balancing a mounted ox head on a park bench. My glasses are halfway across town, hanging on someone's Christmas tree (an idea I knew would probably turn out badly, but that I pressed on with anyways). And I know all of these disparate events are somehow related... to... America de Cali, winner of the Mustang Cup - Championship of Colombian club soccer. 

So, as I walk, I allow my mind to wander to Cali in December. December in Colombia features the soccer championship tournament. In Cali, it is also a perpetual party. Party here means Aguardiente (distilled from sugarcane, the name literally means firewater) and Salsa. 

The last few weekends Jessica and I have spent some time in the sweaty salsa halls of Cali, kinda like Dirty Dancing; Havana Nights, except lose the hunky, cut-up leading man and insert John Kruk.  Luckily, there is sometimes a bit of Vallenato, Cumbria, and Merengue mixed in But then there is Bachata too, which is even more difficult, incorporating a little last minute hip hitch that is all but impossible for me. Those of you who know us well know that I dance like a stub-toed clod. Jessica, on the other hand, moves effortlessly through these new dances. But I don't want to take you to far along the wandering stream of my mind. Instead, we'll get back to the oddities of today.

So, I had planned to watch the final of the Mustang Cup Championship game at a salsa establishment of the masses (all places were broadcasting the game), El Viejo Barril (the old barrel). However, Jessica's friends from school advised that it could be a little hairy in that area. This idea was reinforced by the SWAT vehicle parked kitty-corner from the bar. So, instead we went to a less intense location featuring Mexican Ranchera music. It is hard to get too rowdy with this music playing.

Setting: America de Cali has won the first game against Medellin 1-0. As we settle into our booth at the bar, among bottles of Aguardiente, cups of water, and slices of lime, the crowd crackles with excitement. With a win or a tie America wins the championship. A one-point loss will bring penalty kicks for the championship. Since America won the first game, you cannot walk outside without being assailed by speeding cars, horns blaring, with the shotgun passenger hanging out the window waving an America flag.

Soon the game began. We sat with a collection of people, some Jessica's coworkers, others their friends and relatives. Soccer games in Colombia are broadcast with an almost endless barrage of in-game commercials, which make it essential to watch closely. You can easily miss a great play and end up cheering without knowing why.

America got out to an early 1-0 lead, and the crowd reacted appropriately. One woman in our group in particular really let loose with ear piercing screams. As America went on to win 3-1, we got a lot of exposure to her exceptional lung capacity. At a certain point, I figured, if you can't beat her, join her, as pictured below:

So, after the game everyone was excited. You could hear fireworks and screaming from every direction of the city (in fact, a gun battle between police and some criminals went unnoticed in one Cali community because the neighborhood residents thought it was fans celebrating). On this community high, it was generally decided we would hit a local salsa joint for some dancing. As usual, Jessica hit her stride quickly:

I, however, did not:

But, all in all, it was a productive night. I got some much-needed salsa lessons, and Jessica was able to dance with people who actually know salsa. The dancing continued until the wee hours, finally releasing us into the fog of the early morning, slightly sweaty and (for me at least) with slightly less self respect. 

Here are some more views of the evening:

Pre-Christmas Celebrations

So here in Cali December is like Summer vacation. School is out for a month, and there are tons of events leading up to and during Christmas. One of the big things here now is the festival of lights. There are lighted decorations up all over the city, but primarily along the river. These are no ordinary christmas lights, they are fairly intricate and show scenes typical to this city. We walked about checking it all out on 2 separate nights, as did the entire rest of the city - it was so crowded! Anyways, here are some photos of the highlights:





Here is me and Luc Estella, under some of the lights, and a little girl came up to see aureliano just as clayt snapped the picture.

He is Clayton hamming it up with one of the light figures.







These last 2 pictures are from the teacher's picnic the Colombo had this past weekend. As you can see, it was a good time!

Our Apartment

Here are some photos of our apartment on a good day - usually it is much messier, but nobody wants to see that!

In this first one you can see or our little 2 burner stove (at least it's gas). And, there are these strange open parts above each door and window. It is great for fresh air, but not so great for keeping out every sound your neighbors make.

We actually have a pretty big kitchen!

Here is the bedroom - the bed base and tv stand were built by clayt and a friend. The closets came with the place. There are 2 windows in this room too.

This is the bathroom. I took the photo from the shower, which is like a double wide. Stretching our shower curtain as wide as it goes still doesn't reach wall to wall.

Our living room - the tapestry came with us all the way from Mongolia!

The other side of the living room - and our most valuable piece of furniture, the computer desk - where we email, talk to friends and family back home, watch movies, do our work, and listen to music.

Catching Up!

Now that we have internet at home, we can post more frequently. So, here are some photos and stories that have been left out until now.

Here is a picture of Luz Estella and me. This picture was taken from our kitchen window, from where we can see down into their kitchen below, as they have the open air style kind of place. I was down there heating up rolls for thanksgiving dinner in their toaster oven. Luz Estella is our very sweet landlord.

Here is Aureliano in our washing machine, wondering why we are so mean to him sometimes.

On Halloween night, Clayton and I (well mostly clayton, i bought bread and cut it) cooked dinner for Luz Estella and her family, who live downstairs from us. With her lives 2 of her 8 brothers, her husband, son, and sometimes her mother. The smiley guy closest to the camera is the "family lawyer" who was pretty drunk when we got there. Clayt made some curried chicken, rice, a garbanzo beans dish (spicy!) and brought a bottle of wild turkey whiskey to share, which was polished off quickly!

These are some indigenous Colombians, in town for a protest march (for the rights of displaced people). Here they are checking out some souvenir jewelry.

This is a really pretty church in the downtown part of the city.

In the park, on the day of the march. You could absolutely see a difference in how these people looked compared to the people we usually see in the city. It felt like a big picnic to us, everyone was just sitting, lounging in the park peacefully, waiting for President Uribe to show up to begin dialogue.

The day of the protest was really hot, and most of the people in attendance had been walking for over a week to get there. Here you can see how crowded it was, and the vendors lined up selling cold drinks and sweets.

A mango tree! (we think...)

There is interesting grafitti all over the place down here. This wall is near our place, and kind of fun to look at.

Clayton and Aureliano in one of the bigger parks in the downtown area. Sundays are our days to get out and about, so we usually take the puppy for a long walk, giving all of us some much needed exercise.

This is a HUGE tree in one of the parks, with strange roots that come down from the branches. Apparently we aren't the only ones impressed by it, as they have lights installed around it. It must look a little spooky at night...

Seems like every time we're out on a walk, we spot some new birds.

Another bird, this kind we see all over the place.

Another common sight in the park are the lines of ants. The lines come down the trees, across the park and up another tree, carrying big bits of leaves. I love to watch them marching along, so often and so many of them that there are literally "ant paths" worn into the grass.

One benefit of living somewhere tropical is that things grow easily here. So, abundance means low prices! Long stem roses like these cost about 7 dollars for a dozen. I get roses from Clayton all the time now! :)

Here is our friend Juan Carlos with Clayton, goofing off. Colombians are pretty fun-loving people!

People here are so relaxed, and there never needs to be an excuse to make a party. We were coming back from dinner and were invited to join Luz Estella and her friends on the patio for some drinks. Her husband, Gerardo, busted out the guitar, everyone sang loudly, and had a good time. Singing in key not required.

A view of everyone from the smaller patio on the top floor.

Our Christmas break is coming in 2 weeks, and Clayt and I have been talking about maybe going to Ecuador for a week or two! December is a really big month for Colombians as well, with a lot of different holidays and celebrations, so we'll be sure to keep you all posted on the festivities!

Thanksgiving in Colombia

Thanksgiving went well this year! Our friend Juan Carlos joined us for the meal, and it was his first ever thanksgiving dinner. We don't have an oven, so we had asked the woman who lives downstairs if we could use hers. She said it was fine, but then at the last minute (when clayt brought the turkey down) she told us the oven wouldn't work well and that she had a friend who would take the turkey to his house and cook it there, in a better oven. He would cook it for us in exchange for a piece of the finished product.

Clayt said it all happened so fast, and the turkey was whisked away to be cooked in some oven in some house nearby by some guy we didn't know. We were a little nervous! Did he know how to cook a turkey? The correct temperature? The correct length? What about covering it, and keeping it moist? Would it come back burnt, undercooked, or worse yet, would he just take off with the turkey into the night, never to be seen again?

...as you can see, we ended up with a pretty nice turkey!




Juan Carlos enjoyed the food, and even took a plate of leftovers home! They don't have gravy here, so he was pretty interested in watching Clayt prepare his plate - then he did the same with his, even making a little pool in his mashed potatos for the gravy.