We have turned into civilization!!
The Cauca Valley
From CALI to POPAYAN
We have turned into civilization!!
The Cauca Valley
From CALI to POPAYAN
After great days of cycling from a finca to another, we started our urbanized phase, from Cali to Popayan. We left the luxuriant Quindio to enter the warm Cauca Valley, draped with sugar cane fields.
CHECK OUR PATH!
On this map, you can see our path from Cali to Popayan - and even more: to Ipiales, city located on the border with Ecuador. But that's for the next post!
Our hearts beat for CALI...!!!!!
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| Cali's artisanal area |
Ahhh Cali... How to start!??!? Both Arthur and I regretted to leave the city. As far as we know the country, Cali would be the city where we would like to live if we would go back in Colombia (or Medellin but we haven't seen it).
As the capital of the Valle del Cauca department, Cali is very dynamic. You can feel its positive energy when you walk down its streets. And maybe now even more since the city will host this year the ninth edition of the World Games!
Apart from that, we enjoyed the fact that people are calm, drivers not too much aggressive – for a Colombian standard ;-) - and the city has a lot to offer. In the end, we just both felt really good over there.
We ended up in a very nice hostel, all new, called la Casa Camaleon.
Such a nice and neat place! We spent 4 nights there and relaxed so much.
And on the big terrace, on the roof of the hostel, we spent some nice evenings, drinking fresh homemade juices (Arthur's art), eating fresh homemade salad - and once in a while throwing ourselves on a huge pizza!
The area of our hostel swarmed with restaurants and shops with a specific touch. The owners do a lot of effort to give their place its own atmosphere. Which is nice, since as far as we discovered Colombia, most of the time, shops in the same area sell exactly the same products. So you can have 10 shops selling the same kind of clothes on the same side of a road. On the other side? Idem!!
We've had diner in this nice restaurant close to our hostel, between books and games. And two good burgers :-D (Again????!!!!)
At the University
"Parlez-vous français ?"
On the first place, we went to the Universidad Santiago de Cali for a jazz concert. We arrived there about one hour before the concert would start, so we decided to visit the place.
From one building to another, we could read the class schedules, sneak in the classrooms and find nice places to wait in, like the library or the university cafeteria area. Of course, the cafeteria area is outside: in Cali, even when it rains, you can enjoy a very warm climate (Told you it's a cool city!!!!!)
On the walls of the language building, papers were hanging, detailing the programs for English and French. Both intrigued, we decided to look for a French teacher and an English one. To make it short, Arthur ended up in an English class and I ended in a French one. And we've had a really great time!
The students have a good level and it was really cool to interact with them in French and English.
In the English class, Arthur participated to a game with the students. Unfortunately, we don't have any pics since I was in the second French classroom at this moment...
 Italo, the French teacher |
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| I know I'm talking again... But I did my best to speak nicely!!! |
In the French class, Italo, the teacher, asked his students to prepare some questions for me.
It was a very interesting dialog. especially when we shared our points of view of Colombia. Arthur and I gave them the positive image we have from the country, thanks to our experiences with Colombian families.
We were both happy about this, since we know the negative image of Colombia around the world obviously affects Colombian people: they know how strongly the situation changed since 10 years from now, but they also see how long it takes for a country to rebuilt its reputation...
After the last class, we met in front of a tienda, where we shared some beers - and ate some empanadas: thanks guys!!!!! It was really nice to spend this time with you!!
Before the last bus, we headed back to the hostel, all happy and disappointed in the same time. Happy because we'd enjoy our time at the university so much; disappointed because we needed to leave the following day...
Goodbye then, dear Cali!! Hope to visit you soon!!!
SANTANDER, a messy economical crossroad
Santander. An unexpected small city, very different from what we had seen before: dirtier, more disorganized, filled with aggressive drivers (well, we found worse drivers, but this is a story for later!!) and where we met a crazy dog, as nationalist as racist! Yes you read me. From the hotel to the shop, this dog barked at me furiously, non stop, following each of my steps. Same story from the shop to the hotel. At least, it made a man rip-roaring on my way back. Since the dog was only barking at me, we both agreed that it was as nationalist as racist!
We didn't spent so much time anyway in the city: Arthur was hammered and crashed on the hotel's bed when I decided to write for the blog on the hotel balcony. At least up there, I was out of reach of anyone – and every dog!!
So yes, Santander is a colorful mess.
A mess of people pushing wooden chariots full of merchandise; a mess of buses arriving from the cities around and a mess of trucks transporting among others sugar canes, coffee products and yuca.
The reason of it, is that Santander is at the crossroad of cities like Cali, Popayan, Buga or Bueanaventura, giving it a crucial economical position. As you can see on the map below:
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| Almojábanas |
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| Buñuelos |
We still managed to find a nice place to relax in, with coffees, buñuelos and almojábanas, those delicious Colombian cheese breads!!
And we left the day after, thence due South to Popayan!!!
Popayán, 'two small houses built of straw' - Enter the white city!
You can see it on the image below: our trip to Popayan was not easy! But we made it!! And that's worth it.
As the title of this post implies, we left our tent in the bag for a while, since we spent 4 nights in a hostel in Cali, 1 night in another one in Santander and finally 3 nights in a hostel in Popayan. We may have spent one or two nights in our tent in between but let's say it: we definitely enjoyed a warm shower more than once a week!!
As many travelers, we chose the hostel Trail. Comfortable, warm atmosphere, special for its layout and amazing for the music its Scottish owner listens!!!
Time now to visit the city center!! The historical center of Popayan is gorgeous. The city kept its colonial buildings and takes a good care of them. We enjoyed walking in the streets of the White City, as Colombian people call it, and spent time visiting its University del Cauca.
'Po': two
'Pa': straw
'Yán': little house
These words come from the Guambianos, indigenous people who still exist in the area - around 20.000 people actually. From these two little houses built of straw, Popayán became the capital of the Cauca department (different from the Valle del Cauca departement - and remember it well, we will test you on this one!!!).
So here you go! Some pics from the white city!!
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| The central place of Popayan |
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| A church - yes, this one is yellow! |
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| A random street in Popayan |
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| Another random street of Popayan |
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| The last pic of a random street of Popayan |
Done with the random streets? Perfect, since we introduce you now to the University del Cauca!
See that building below, on the left? Looks like a church right? Well, guess what? It is a church - you are good!!
But now, look on the right, where there is a wooden door... Yes! This wooden door. Well, when you pass it, you enter a beautiful place... full of students - detail that make you realize that, wow, it is in fact a university!!
Damn you would have loved to work in such a beautiful environment!
The university is organized in squares (like in some Parisian high schools, for our French fellows!), as you can see on the pictures above. You even find different ambiances (isn't that cool!!).
Enough with the ground floor. Let's go to the first one!! (Yeepeee!!!)
Here again, the atmosphere changes with the study area. On the first floor, we passed many doors and reached a big amphitheater, where a student was presenting his thesis.
Fascinated with the subject, and already fluent in Spanish, we decided to listen to his theory. The guy really appreciated our inputs and we had a very nice chat after all.
Please tell me you believed in it - or that at least you doubted...? Ok, of course we didn't grab a word of the presentation anyway, there was no pictures neither cakes. So we took a couple of pictures and left.
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| Bye-bye, University del Cauca! |
Allez, just one more!!
Ok-ok. Let's stop here!
By the way, you have to realize that these posts bring you closer and closer from the border with Ecuador... And indeed, the next post will be the last one taking place in Colombia!
But what an ending, dear friends!! Well, judge by yourself...
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