Most travelers I’d met on the way north didn’t have very good things to say about Cali.  The city of plastic and glitz was known for its nightlife, but not much else.  Others had quickly passed through on their way from Bogota or Medellin on their way to Ecuador, but I wanted to give the city its fair chance. Still traveling with Johan, we decided to try CouchSurfing in the city, hoping that whomever we stayed with would be able to give us some tips on the city and maybe show us around a bit.  Sadly we got Felipe and his Father instead…   

Felipe was a painfully quiet and shy fellow, but harmless enough.  It was really his father that made the stay interesting for us.  The two were working together to launch a natural remedy company (drops to be taken daily) and we got the hard sell constantly.  Felipe’s father decided he wanted me to be his American representative too, and refused to take no for an answer.  Felipe, whom we had hoped to see the city with, was instead constantly in front of his computer working on box designs and labels with his father and normal daily work adding on pressure.  The environment was uncomfortable enough that we spent as little time as possible in the apartment.  We were lucky to meet two American teachers that were living in the same complex (and knew all about the odd family) and we went out together finding a few hidden gems in Cali.  Things continued to grow more uncomfortable at home though, and we made a quick escape.        

The town of San Cipriono sits deep in the jungle near the pacific coast of Colombia, and is only accessible by the rail line that runs close to it.  Trains don’t stop there though so the locals have come up with ingenious ways of using the rails themselves.  For the ride into town we sat on wooden benches connected to motorcycles that rode on the rails.  The small metal wheels and overused axles or our wooden platform screamed as we reached uncomfortable speeds over wooden bridges and through the thick jungle.  One the way we heard the sound of a train approaching from behind and quickly had to carry our rig off the tracks.  After it passed we sped down the tracks to catch up to the rear of the train, and held on to use it power instead of spending out own gas.  The one road town of San Cipriano is situated next to a clear, shallow river and a few tubes for rent let us take full advantage of it.  We found the cheapest accommodation I’ve had in South America so far ($2.50) and met two German girls, Steph and Anja, to enjoy the place with.  Our first night in town we shared drinks with Carlos, a local shop owner, who invited us back to his “bar”, a wooden roof over the sand with a few plastic tables underneath.  Carlos plugged in the speakers and cranked up the salsa tunes, even though it was after midnight on a Monday and the rest of the town was quiet.  The evening ended with the group of us getting some impromptu lessons and eventually being sent home by Carlos’s wife.   After San Cipriano Johan and I decided to try and explore Colombia’s Pacific coast a little.  The guidebooks didn’t tell us anything about the area so we started asking locals around for good spots to visit.  This eventually led us through the city of Buenaventura to the coastal village of Juanchaco.  Juanchaco while not a backpacker destination, turned out to be a pretty popular spot for vacationing Colombians.  Full of mid-range hotels and restaurants, it wasn’t exactly the small fishing village that we were looking for.  Since this was the off season the town and beaches, neither of which were very attractive, were essentially deserted.  Still, it was an ok spot to stop and relax in the sun for a couple days and from one point high on a ridge you could actually sit and watch whales jumping in the distance.  We met one (very odd) girl who had been doing that for months, cataloging their activities for her studies.  All in all we left a little disappointed with out trip up the Pacific, but glad we made the attempt at finding something new.   

Categories: Colombia, Travel