Cali

One thing I learned about long bus rides in Colombia is that they are COLD! I was just coming off a hang over from the night before and wearing some comfortable light travel clothes. It was the roughest ride i've ever had. I trembled for 8 hours and by the time I arrived in Cali my body temp had risen high with fever (even Dr. Vic seemed worried and wanted to go to a clinic or something). I just wanted to get to our destination. I popped in a couple of Tylenols, an antibiotic and jumped into bed for 8 hours of sweating. By morning time I was fine and on my way up for the remainder of the trip.

Our stay in Cali lasted only a couple of days and we were there early in the week. One of Cali's finer points is the night life. Besides getting propositioned by an intermediary for a prostitute and a few hops to empty bars/clubs not a whole lot was going on during a monday night in Cali. There was the option of a strip club we were recommended, but passed on both the ho and the show.

The highlight of Cali for me and one of the best parts of this trip was paragliding. This was always something on my "bucket" list of things and powerless flight has always intrigued my attention. Coming from MIA, where all is flat except the tail end of a Cuban woman, paragliding is only possible with either a motor or tow. We got picked up at the hostel around 9:30 am by Felipe a native Caleño and went to go pick up Heinz a 25 year paragliding vet from Sweden. Another German guy (forgot his name) and a young guy also named Victor. On the way up to the take-off point, Heinz and I had a long and interesting conversation about psychedelics (mostly psilocybe cubensis). Since the areas where the paragliding trips ended were usually cow pastures, Heinz made it a habit to pick mushrooms when the time was right after landings. Once we arrived at the mountain top it was set-up, take off, fly for about half hour, then land.

Words fall short of the experience of paragliding. It is dream-like for a man to be able to fly through the air in this manner without the use of machinery. It is such a pure and liberating experience. The keys to paragliding/ hangliding is through the use of thermals. These are tornado like pockets of air that circulate briefly between the clouds and ground. Birds are often seen circling in these thermals in order to rise up, then glide down. The concept is the same for paragliding. Find the thermals and your ride is longer and higher. Timing is key. My flight lasted just over thirty minutes and we rose over 2,000 meters above sea level. Incredible!

The rest of our Cali trip was just about exploring the city and met some shady characters as well as some interesting travelers. I wake up early, Victor wakes up late! I spent one morning looking for music in the city with Maria a woman from Portugal who once had a Cuban boyfriend when she lived in Spain. Another one of my mornings I met Rafa a very happy energetic woman from Italy who convinced me to travel to Rome. She gave me some brief examples of how similar Italian is to Spanish and how easy it would be to learn some Italian and get by in Italy with very little. Never considered Italy much before, until now. Thanks Rafa.