FOGG Odyssey » Cali

Faces of America: New Jersey 001

T-Roy — Sun, 20 Mar 2011 13:39:31 +0000

What is your first name: Chris
What city are you from: Englewood, New Jersey
What country are you from: USA
What do you do: Full time student
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why: “Right now I’d say Brazil tops my wish list of countries because the people have such a great energy about them. They’re really fun people!“
What’s your dream and why: His dream is to open his own business and live abroad as an expat. Either a language or dive school of some sort. He said if that didn’t work, then a bar or club would be a fun try as well.

FOGG Notes:

I met Chris in Puno, Peru a year ago. He was working the bar in the almost empty hostel I was staying at. Since no one was drinking but me that night we ended up talking a lot about different subjects, mostly travel related.

Chris had recently gotten out of the US Navy and had a little money saved up. He always wanted to travel and learn a foreign language, so he decided to head to South America. First stop was Quito, Ecuador, where he took a month of Spanish classes, then started moving his way down south. He stayed in Ecuador until they finally kicked him out, as his visa was finished.

I admired Chris a lot for many reasons, example: “I wasn’t fluent by the time the Spanish school was finished but once I got a girlfriend in Ecuador who spoke zero English, I knew if I wanted any nooki I was going to have to learn a whole lot more. In two months I went from barley being able to order food and ask directions to having full conversations, a social life and an awesome Latin girlfriend!” And who says sex isn’t a great learning tool?

When I ran into him in Peru he was living off $5 USD per-day. I asked how he managed to do that and he gave me the inside scoop. Once his Spanish was up to par, he traveled to a new town and started looking for hostels, specially ones that had a bar. He’d ask for fee accommodation in exchange for working the bar in the evenings and 4/5 they would agree. Then all he had to worry about was food and little things. For $1 you can get a package of noodles, 50 cents for a small bag of pasta sauce and BANG you have enough food for the day! Left him with $3.50 per-day for drinks, smokes, transport exc. He did this all through Ecuador and Peru for better part of half a year and this allowed him to save his money for other things (like Colombia and Argentina). To my amazement he seen pretty much everything that any other backpacker got to see, plus some.

I actually stayed in contact with him and when I visited Colombia for the first time we met up in Cali. He had been staying there for a few months already and showed me and my girlfriend around the 3 days we stayed. By random chance later, I was in Cartagena, Colombia with a friend five months later and literally ran into him again. Man this guy gets around!

I asked him what was the hardest part of traveling South America and he said “…would either be the traveler shits or leaving!” Pretty much sums up Chris!

Faces of America: Louisiana 001

T-Roy — Sat, 20 Mar 2010 13:54:54 +0000

What is your first name: Tucker
What city are you from: New Orleans, Louisiana
What country are you from: USA
What do you do: Freelance advertiser and radio script writer
If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why: Carrasca, Venezuela because I was told it’s dangerous and as an American that I shouldn’t go there…which makes me want to go there that much more.
What’s your dream and why: I’m living my dream now working independently but would also like to find a nice quite place in Latin America to settle down in. Find a wife, maybe a make a few kids and just relax living pure vida.

FOGG Notes: I met Tucker in Cali, Colombia at the hostel. He has a pretty clean ascent for a Cajun and assume that’s because he works in radio. He’s a true digital nomad as he travels and works from the road making quirky little jingles for companies for use on the radio (think Charlie Sheen from Two & 1/2 Men). One jingle he wrote (while high on coke) was for a rehab company. Pretty much sums him up as wherever he is he’s partying, drinking and living the good life. He has found that the work he does doesn’t require him to be in the US at a desk and using a Magic Jack he can make all his calls for business for next to nothing.

He started his travels and work living in Mexico for 6 months, then stayed 3 months in Panama and has been in Colombia for 3 months. He has no set travel plans and said “… as long as I can get an Internet connection I can travel anywhere and work.” What a sweet jig he’s got and am finding more people like him on my travels, that are giving up the 8-5 job for mobile working instead.

I asked him what was the worse thing that has happened to him while in Colombia (seeing how he loves to party and do drugs, there had to be a few good stories worth hearing). He said he got arrested a few weeks back and spent a night in jail. Asked what happened and the story follows like this:

I went into a bar one night with the plane of just having a few drinks. When I walked into this one a really hot girl walked up and asked me if I wanted a shot. I love beautiful women as much as I love liquor and so said “Hell yeah!” We had one shot together and had been talking for about 2 minutes when this guy walked up. Found out quickly that it was her boyfriend and that they guy actually owned the bar as well. I knew I had gotten myself into some shit and said sorry and tried to leave. The boyfriend wouldn’t let me leave and instead said “No, no, sit with us and have a drink.” Thought that was funny but didn’t want to make it worse by saying no or running. So I sat with them and he ordered a couple bottles of booze and after 30 minutes I was ready to leave, as the whole situation was weird and didn’t fell right. When I tried to leave the guy asked why and I tried to make an excuse for leaving. He said ok but that I had to pay for the drinks that I had bought everyone at the table (ie; the bottles of liquor). I said I didn’t order it and that he had, plus I didn’t have that much money (the bill was 80,000 pesos or about $40 USD). He said if I couldn’t pay the bill then he was calling the cops. At this point I didn’t care and told him to go head. Well he did and within 20 minutes I found myself in a Colombian jail for the first time. They didn’t do much other then they kept messing with me and telling that I should have paid a bill that I made but when I told them that I didn’t order the drinks they just looked at me like I was crazy. By the next morning they told me if I could do 40 push-ups they would release me… I made it to 35 before they said “Get out of here loco gringo” while laughing.

Lesson learned: that there isn’t anything free in Colombia.

Colombia From the Road by Bus: Day 3

T-Roy — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 16:59:45 +0000

Cali, Colombia isn’t really what I thought it would be. For some reason I thought it was on the coast (my fault for not looking at a map) and thought it would have more attractions to see. The truth is there isn’t really much to see in Cali. There is plenty of partying to be done that’s for sure as 6th street is chalked full of bars. There are tons of places though to party in Colombia though and think it’s really not all that just to come here to do that.

The people are supper nice here, as I have gotten more smiles in two days then I would in a month in Ecuador (mostly from little old ladies). Most people seem friendly and want to help as asking them a question almost makes you feel like you are doing them the favor. There are a few churches to see and plazas but there not that special compared to others in Latin America.

The hostel were staying at is called Laguana Hostel. It’s 20, 000 pesos per/person for a private room and comes with a huge bathroom and fan. The hostel seems to be full of nothing but guys and they all seem to be here to party out. A real mixed range of people staying here but everyone seems super cool and even had a BBQ last night. It was the first time I have gotten to BBQ in like 8 months and was super happy to do so. I was so full after the meal that it made it hard to go out later that night.

We ended up going down to 6th Street and drank till 2 am. The place is really lively with people and was surprised at how many clubs you could find. Beers seem to average about 3,000-4,000 pesos depending on where you went. There was also a lot of ladies walking around that night, some I assume were “working” girls.

Cali seems to me a good stop for a couple days and that’s about it. Do some parting and move on, then again if you are wanting to just chill for a while it’s not a bad city for that either. They have a pretty good bus system and taxi’s start the meters at $1.50 during the day and $2.00 at night. They do actually use the meters here, so if one doesn’t get out and take another one.

Photo Credit: Map

Colombia From the Road by Bus: Day 2

T-Roy — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 21:16:20 +0000

We arrived in Cali, Colombia after a 30hr bus ride. We were supposed to have been there at 9:00 pm but it was 1 am when we got dropped off on the highway, an hour away from Cali. We found a taxi and at first he wanted $30 but got him down to $20 total. I was super nervous about this as I didn’t have a clue where we were going, the route and because of the time/distance to get there. This is where I could see us getting robbed or taken on an ATM run where they empty my bank account.

We left the bus terminal and the taxi driver pulled into a gas station to fill up. When we went to leave another guy got in the car and I immediately asked who the hell this guy was and why he was in the taxi. The guy said he was the driver of another taxi and before he could finish I stopped him and said “Then he should be driving his taxi as he has no business in this one!” The guy nodded and told the other guy to get out… left a real fishy feeling in my stomach and was on high alert the whole trip until we made it to the hostel. In the end we had not problems and maybe I was just being a little overly paranoid but as a traveler you can never let your guard down and should always trust your instinct. 9/10 your instinct won’t lie!

The next day we did a little walk around Cali, Colombia and saw the town. I’ll be honest, there isn’t much to see in Cali and the only real thing to do is party at night. It’s known for being the salsa capital of the world and other than the nightlife that’s about all there is to see. The people in the city seem to be very friendly and the day we walked around we got lots of smiles from merchants and street vendors. We stopped at a few churches and although I wasn’t all that impressed with them I got some awesome shots of light pouring in through a window where a girl was praying.

Some days when you’re out shooting you get lucky and others days you can walk all day and get nothing, as you never know when that great shot will appear. This is a perfect example of getting a great picture when I thought there wasn’t anything there. We walked around the church for 10 minutes and on the way out I seen the light coming through the window like God was pleasing this girl and stopped dead in my tracks. I could have waited all day to get light like this and goes to show you that you should always have a camera with you when traveling.

Colombia From the Road by Bus: Day 1

T-Roy — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 07:43:15 +0000

Crossing the Ecuador border into Colombia

Well we didn’t start the trip off as planned. When we got to the bus terminal, an hour early like good little backpackers, we found out the bus was delayed. No surprise there considering we’re in Latin America and things are never on time here. What got us a little worked up was that when bought the tickets it was the same price to go to Cali or Ibague (which is 4 hours from Bogota). We decided last night to just get off at Cali and spend a few days there, as we had a friend that was there already.

When we tell the guy we’re getting off at Cali he said the bus doesn’t actually go directly to Cali but stops at a highway an hour away and that we would have to get our own transportation to Cali on our own. This kind of shocked me a little as we had been talking with the guy the day before about going to Cali or all the way up to Palmira and this was never mentioned in the conversation. We jogged his memory about that conversation and ended up coming to an agreement that they would give us $20 back because of it. Not sure if we came out ahead on this deal, as only time will tell. I’m more worried about getting dropped off in some shady town at 11pm with no clue on how to get to Cali.

Welcome to Colombia T-roy via Ecuadorian rules!

Entering the Colombian border by bus