The overnight bus arrived and after sharing a taxi with my 3 new bus buddies we checked into El Viajero which thankfully had place for me too. My first night there I had an entire dorm room to myself which was a consolation after a 24 hour journey and now back to travelling on me own.

Cali is the Salsa capital of Latin America/the world I´d say, well definitely of Columbia anyway. The friends I made on the bus left the following day to go up north and I decided to stay "una noche mass" (one more night). We went out to really cool places that did combos of Salsa, Meringue and Bachata. Most places closed at 1am and there was always an afterparty on offer for any takers.

The 2nd day there I finally decided it was time to reduce my 3 bags to 2 and post some things off to the UK with 472 (name of the post office). I met Sarah (English) and Laura (German) while packing my box and they acted as human weight estimators as there were no scales around. After a productive day to Chipe Chape (shopping centre with the post office) and lazing around the pool area we went out together with Ronald (the guy working at the hostel) to go to a Salsa place called Tin tin Deo. My attempt however to walk down the Colombian street in flip flops got brought to a sudden halt when a piece of Cerveza (beer) glass bottle got me on the side of my foot. I was the one with the bleeding cut foot, but Laura passed out after seeing the blood. Sarah was pretty good in managing the situation and Ronald became my transport back to the accommodation/first aid and Laura (back to consciousness) thought a Club Columbia would sooth the pain. This event immediately changed my mobility and I thought a few more days, well at least one more, might be in order.

Over breakfast I met Lisa (Sweden) while both of us tried to update our blogs, but have a suspicion she may have been better at the blog updating thing.

The people seemed nice and with limited mobility I decided that if I were to stay a few more mights I may as well take some Spanish classes. I met Zarahy my Spanish teacher who was running a volunteering programme too. So along with my 10 hours of Spanish classes I taught kids between the ages of 6-13 English.

I did some Salsa classes before my foot incident and eventhough not able to dance I stille felt like I experienced the best of Salsa night life Cali could offer. Tin tin Deo, Menga, La Topa, La Clave, Salsa, El Rincon de Elbert and Las Brisas to name a few. Salsa Cali style is definitely different from the Linea style I may have come across in the past, but so much fun.

Angel was the usually the dedicated driver along with a few taxi's as for most nights we were a good group going out, which meant the most dangerous city in Columbia didn't appear dangerous at all.

I left Cali briefly to volunteer for an organisation called Redeeming grounds, helping them to sort 2 tons of coffee by hand. Redeeming grounds assist with transforming communities where the farmers no longer wish to grow coca. They help them with the transition to plant coffee and exporting of it.

Lisa was staying put for spanish and dance classes. Laura left for the dessert (still not sure what one does there ;) ) The 3 of us however agreed that we all would be back in Cali over the weekend. We were indeed all back for the weekend, plus one, as Laura brought a friend Katha Rina (also German) back with her.

It was the Columbian national elections on the Sunday, Luis being a local living in NY arranged a BBQ for the Saturday night when most places would be closed. Even though we only ate at midnight and the music was painfully load it turned out to be an amazing night.

Sapo (the frog game) requires mentioning as many a night involved one or more games on the side. This game requires one of 8 rings to enter the mouth of the frog for a win, or to land in the holes of the table to score points. The first one to reach 1000 points wins or the frogs mouth is an instant win. I managed a Sapo (the frogs mouth) on a first throw but only once, who knows how the mind works that this could not be achieved again.

Eventhough El Viajero had everything one could possibly need (pool, hamocks, bar, salsa and yoga classes), Laura, Lisa and I did manage to venture out with Ivan and Simon at one point to the Cristo Rey and the Virgin Church on the two opposite hills with fantastic views of the mountains and the city below. Was really chilled and Simon even did some long boarding down a part of the mountain. It was a bit of a drive down to the river where we walked upstream. We however had to cut the walk short as Lisa and I had an appointment with Zarahy who in the end didn't pitch and rearranged the time (the South American way).

Lisa and I also made anouting to the Cali Zoo. As it was the first time I had seen a white tiger it was worth it, eventhough the Mozzies took a definate liking to us. The mozzies and some kind of stinging flies were a definite reality in Cali as evidenced by the extensive bits/stings on our legs.

I met a cool French guy Ben who was studying for CFA 2, pretty impressive. At that point though I was really thankful that I don't have to do that any more.

What would the hostel be without the guitar guy? Rupert (German band guitarist) had his guitar there and so we did song exchange and am now convinced to go back to London and market me songs, make a lot of money and keep on travelling

Even though I on more than one occasion mentioned to Leanne and Rona during our trip that we needed to do a reunion in Cuba, it was during my time in Cali that I decided Cuba needs to become a reality. As Leanne got decompression sickness and coudn't dive any more and would be close to Cuba soon with an unused budget it seemed perfect to rope her into the travel plan. Even though it would have been lovely to involve Rona it wasnt feasible for her, so the reunion with Leanne in Cuba was going to happen. I booked my ticket for 6th June. It turned out that Katha Rina was alsogoing to Cuba ad had a ticked out for the 7th June. Larry was also going to Cuba, so before I knew it we were going to be a cool group of people going to Cuba!!

Lisa and I realised that we were planning on travelling the same direction, but because of our "una noche mas" (one night more) syndrome it almost seemed impossible to leave Cali. We thus decided to leave together and it was going to be the following day...just to notice our accommodation we wanted in salento was fully booked so we continued in true style with "una noche mas" (one more night).

Even so, It was so hard to leave as by now we knew all the staff and made more friends, but eventually the taxi arrived and off we went to the Cali bus station and got an executive bus to Armenia. Once we got to Armenia we got a local bus to salento to La Sarana hostel with the most beautiful view.

We knew seperation with these amazing chicas wasn't going to be too long as Katha Rina was going to meet us in Medellin. We were still working on Laura to join, who has too been trying to leave for a while, but for Ecuador:)

Cali was an amazing experience and so incredilbly glad for the exceptional people I met there!