Hot, Hot, Hot

Everything about Cali, Colombia is hot; the sun scorches, the dance floor sizzles and the women are on fire. The rumors are true. The women in Cali may just be the most beautiful and the salsa dancing is an obsession as is the plastic surgery. Despite lacking the obvious, a pair of heels, just one left foot, and a dress that barely covers my ass, I hit the salsa clubs anyway.

The first club, Tin Tin Deo was packed with salsa experts. I felt a little out of place since I arrived alone and everyone else had come with a partner. But after befriending a local woman who salsa'd with me on the dance floor to show me the basics again, guy after guy asked me to dance. They could see that I obviously sucked at salsa, but yet they still asked me to dance. They twirled me in every which direction and back again. I believe that you can be the worst dancer out there, but if you are with a guy who really knows how to salsa, then it doesn't matter. After awhile, I finally ran into the couch surfing group I was suppose to meet, but I only had an hour left to dance with them. Unfortunately, the clubs in Cali city proper close at 2am. And so to truly dance the night away, you have to go about 20 min outside of Cali to the clubs that close at 6am. So that's what I did the next night.
The next night, I partnered with Julia from NY and Lady, that's really her name, from Colombia and we went clubbing in the Menga district to TiTiFeRu. Apparently, it's best to go to these clubs in a large group with an equal number of men and women because the women get jealous if their guys dance with other women. Despite this, we chose a ladies night out. TiTiFeRu is where the beautiful congregate although after awhile, they all kind of looked the same; tall, skinny, long straight hair, lots of cleavage, and perfect smiles. I think if I had come with guys, they would have spent the whole night gawking. Instead, Lady, Julia and I just danced the night away to the rhythms of Merengue, Regatone and Salsa.

On another night, I joined up with a local guy from Couch surfing and we went to watch a dance show. The dancers really wowed me with their flexibility, creativity and high energy. At one point, 2 guys bent this woman's back in the air til she almost folded in half and I literally thought they were going to break her. Seeing the cultural side of countries is my favorite part.


Before the dancing, I checked out the local bars and cafes. I especially like this bar full of kitsch stuff with each room decorated in its own artsy theme. And on another night, I dragged some tourists out to a bar with a 9 piece live salsa band.

Other than the night activities, the day activities are rather boring. There's not a lot going on in Cali by day. Their zoo is rather impressive and I especially liked these strange creatures that look like shrunken head idols. I never did find their nametag and so I'm still unsure what they are. The zoo even had a Bengal tiger whose paws are as big as my head.
When not visiting live animals, I visited the cat statues in the cat park. I petted a couple but none of them purred. I walked around the city, visited the museums and received a facial. I could have received a full body sculpture for less than $1000 with every piece of cellulite drained from my body, but figured the facial was good enough.

Popayan

With a multitude of white-washed colonial buildings, I immediately lost my sense of direction in Popayan and walked in circles until my sense of direction decided to rejoin me. Despite its cute and quaint nature, Popayan remains unaffected by the tourism that is growing in Colombia, although I did stay at the first hostel to open up here. Very few tourists come to Popayan and if they do, only as a stopover to get to San Augustin and Tierradentro. I expect this town to grow in tourism once the infrastructure is in place given the many day trips that can originate from here. I rather enjoyed the sleepy town feel and spent a couple days just relaxing from all the killer bus rides over the last week while catching up on my blog.

Ancient Burial Grounds and Cool Statues

If you can stomach a 7 hour bumpy bus ride that makes you want to pee the entire time while your kidneys rock to a beat all their own, you will be lucky enough to see underground tombs with colorful designs, ancient statues carved out of volcanic rock and the picturesque scenery of San Augustin and Tierradentro. Within these two towns lie the essential elements for a new Indiana Jones movie or just good sightseeing.

Since I wasn't sure if I would hit both towns given the poor road conditions, I chose to go to Tierradentro first, the less touristy of the two. Throughout the hills of Tierradentro lie tombs where people buried their dead. Not a lot is known about the people and tomb raiders stole many of the artifacts. Stone steps lead down into each tomb that occasionally has colorful artwork in shades of red and black while others are just plain, but cool nonetheless.


While sightseeing the tombs, I came across a group of 20 locals from Cali who are all studying tourism. When they saw me, they immediately started taking pics as though the roles somehow reversed and I became their tourist attraction. I guess they don't see many Japanese American tourists and everyone wanted their picture with me. They were all so friendly and they once again reminded me why I love Colombia so much, the people. They wanted to make sure that I had a good impression of Colombia so that I would tell others to visit their wonderful country. So, go visit Colombia. After I left them, I hiked for some 6 hours and visited every tomb in the area.
The next day, I took the 5:30am bus, switched a couple times and eventually made my way to San Augustin to check out the mysterious volcanic rock statues. Little is known about these statues that sometimes accompanied burial sites. I think that instead of annual pumpkin carving contests, these people host volcanic rock carving contest and then just leave them lying around year after year.

To view these statues, I walked through a cool jungle where each had its own display. The rest are scattered in the hillsides and so I rode a horse to visit the rest.

So Over Bus Travel...

When I evaluate how I've spent my time over the last year, I can honestly say that most of it has been spent on buses. I may have lost months of my life on public transport going from one place to the next because I was too cheap to buy flights.

On each bus, I usually encounter some sort of animal whether it be a chicken, bird, cat, dog or even a guinea pig. People crowd the rest of the space and I just try to blend into the scene. Since I'm usually the only foreigner on the bus, the locals take great delight in helping me get off at the right stop. Sometimes the entire bus cheers me off so I know I can't get lost.

What has become a typical travel day, I took an hour bus from Montanita, Ecuador to Puerto Lopez, then switched to an overnight bus to Quito and arrived at 4:45am. I took the 5:30 am bus to Tulcan that took 5.5 hours, switched to a taxi to get to the border, crossed the border, took another bus to Ipiales, switched to another bus to Popayan that took 8hrs. After 29hrs, I arrived at my final destination in Colombia. En route, I took a quick detour to visit the Santuario de Las Lajas near Ipiales. The church was built into the valley to memorialize the appearance of the Virgin there in the early 20th century.

Video Updates to Blog

I finally found a fast wifi connection and hence the multitude of updates. I was able to finally upload some videos for past blogs too. Here are the links.

Playing with Pumas in the Bolivian Jungle

Howling Faustino the Howler Monkey in the Bolivian Jungle

Partying with the Dutch at the Heineken House at the Beijing Olympics

Cheering as the Chinese Weightlifter Wins the Competition at the Beijing Olympics (still uploading video)

Watching a Penguin Waddle in Patagonia

Mating Dance of the Blue Footed Bobby in the Galapagos

Mating Dance of the Waved Albatross in the Galapagos

Celebrating with the Sandinistas at the Nicaraguan Election in Leon

Top 10 Travel Tips for Women

Since the Lonely Planet editors in the end rejected my boxed text submission for the new Nicaragua book to come out next month, I've decided to repost my top 10 travel tips for women. Maybe this will one day be included in my own travel book. Who needs Lonely Planet anyway? Thanks Liz for the edit

Let's face it. Traveling as a woman has its challenges and men just don't understand. With such little room in our backpacks, we need to make the most of the space we have considering hygiene, beauty and safety needs. In order to make traveling easier, below are my top travel tips for women. The first few are not bad advice for a weeklong getaway. The last few will prove your mettle as a hard core travel diva. Guys, just be grateful for all that you don't have to deal with, and one tip for you-NEVER blame her mood on "that time of month".

1) Face Wipes-Although an obvious addition to bring these, this is more of a reminder. Face wipes keep your face clean at all times of the day especially on long dusty bus rides and so don't leave home without them.

2) Wristband Fleece Wallet-It has a zipper opening to keep money and keys inside and is fashionable enough to wear out on the town at night. No purse to worry about losing and it can double as a sweat band when jogging.

3) Fake Wedding Ring-Great distractor to keep local lurching men away. Just simply flaunt the ring when an unwanted on-looker asks if you would like a boyfriend, usually meaning him.

4) Leave-in Hair Conditioner-Being on the road can take a toll on your hair and leave it fried and frizzy. Leave-in hair conditioner or just leaving in the conditioner helps smooth out the tension to keep your hair looking healthy all the time.

5) Sarong- Use it as a towel, beach blanket, dress, wrap around to change into a bathing suit, shawl, and much more on the road. This one item serves multiple purposes and takes up very little space.

6) Tiger Balm-This little menthol cream is a catch all for everything under the sun. Put a little on your temples for a headache or for heat exhaustion, on your body for aches and pains and to relieve the itchiness of mosquito, bedbug or flea bites, under your nose to remove stuffiness, and even on your wrists as last minute perfume.

7) Tinted Eyelashes-For women with light colored eyelashes, tinting them avoids having to wear and apply mascara every day. Additionally, the panda look after swimming is not attractive. Each tinting lasts about a month.

8) Laser Hair Removal-Yes, it is expensive, but well worth the cost in the long-run. Forever you will be bikini-ready. Ingrown hairs and the ugly in-between stage are not an issue. Laser hair removal takes between 4-6 sessions over a 6-8 month period depending on your hair and so start early in your planning


9) The Pee Funnel-This is the ultimate in female empowerment-to pee standing up. Avoid squating over dirty outhouses during the day and searching for them in the middle of the night. You can even join the men as they line up on the side of the road during a long bus ride. Best part-you can write your name in the sand.

10) Diva Cup-No longer do you have to search every pharmacy for tampons and be weighed down by them. The Diva cup is all you need. It is a silicone based cup that fits inside you to catch your menstrual flow. It is reusable for up to 10 years and therefore environmentally friendly. It's simple to use and comes with its own carrying case. On a related topic, Multi-month Birth Control Pills can help regulate periods and simply life. With certain combo estrogen/progestin and progestin-only birth control pills, you only have to worry about your period once every 3 months by taking the daily pill. This provides so much freedom in traveling, however, it is not for everyone. Talk to your doctor for more information and for what is most appropriate for your body.

Surf's Up!

Board shorts and bikinis line the beaches, surf boards grace the waters and bare feet cross the sands. Montanita is a surfer's delight-endless waves, warm water, and plenty of sunshine. Although I'm not a surfer, I thought I would try my luck at the sport once again. Italu, a local guy I met, offered me surf lessons including board for only $4/hr. I couldn't pass it up. On top of my surf lessons, he also corrected my Spanish and so I received free Spanish lessons as well.
I've never been a fan of surfing because I hate cold water, but the water here really wasn't as cold as I would have imagined. Despite Italu's best efforts, I still suck at surfing and will stick to land sports once again. Gradually, my fear of the ocean and water is fading, which was one of my goals of this trip.
Besides the surf, Montanita is known for its non-stop partying. The weekends are like one long never-ending party with bars open 24 hours and since that's not the scene I was looking for, I only arrived for the mid-week surf. Another hotel on the beach, a hammock and a surfboard, that's how I spent my time.