Quick note: this time I am finally taking the untold advice to split up posts, which means, that this lacks a lot of things that I still need (and want) to write. I will write them but be patient with me. I have lots of things to do and when I don't have anything to do, I wander around my new home to discover more of it - which, mind you, is also a necessity for me to be able to write more. I am thinking a lot but until they invent a computer that writes down your thoughts, you will just have to be patient. In the meanwhile with the warmest (in all senses) greetings from the middle of the Earth:
[btw: the picture here is from my flight over the Alps - I couldn't resist the beauty...]

Hola! So, here I am. In Colombia, Cali, to be exact. It is a whole of 3 degrees north of the equator. That is around 400 km distance to the equator. What does that tell us? Everything I have ever learned in my life, is wrong: the sun always goes from east to south (north) to west. Moves with the clock when you are north of the equator and against it, when you are south of it? Forget it. Here, you actually need to know which time of the year it is, if you want to be able to orientate yourself using the sun. And the temperature or the presence or absence of snow are certainly no indicators for that. Which is nice, I mean, it's always nice to have your idea of how the world works torn from you and thrown into the garbage. It's what keeps life interesting, isn't it? I mean, just imagine growing up in a little village, surrounded my mountains, thinking that danger awaits you as soon as you cross one of those barriers that keep all the bad stuff of the world away from you, and by the time you die you still think the same!? (No hidden reference to anyone here, this is 100% hypothetical) Like, that people who are different, look different, have different habits, speak different languages, that they are somehow dangerous, bad, scary? Well. I have travelled quite far, I would say, and I have always travelled with an open mind, always ready and happy to learn from everybody who does things in a different way. And here I am, and within the first few days Colombia has made me feel like a complete imbecile when it comes to "how to live life". That this happens to me! I mean, did I just spend months travelling a whole continent by bike? And it never crossed my mind that instead of buying bungee cords to tie my luggage to my bike, I could have just used the old tube that I had been carrying with me, uselessly all this time. And me I was seriously thinking that Colombia is an under-developed country. "Under-developed" in a good way. Like in "forest" versus "developed land". And I guess that by most statistics and whatever they use to judge the degree of development of a nation, that is so. And if you view development as entirely bad, then Colombia is certainly blessed with a certain lack thereof. But, hey, the bicycle infrastructure in Cali is probably better than in most parts of Europe, certainly better than in Miami. So is the public transport system.

As for the climate, I must admit that travelling directly from a very hot week in Tyrol with few stops to Cali, here felt almost cool. Well, not cool but nice and warm not hot and gross. Seeing that we are basically at the equator, the difference in temperature between day and night (10°) is bigger than the difference between summer and winter (virtually none, only in the rainy season the humidity is higher than in the dry season, so it feels a little different). It is raining every day now, but other than in Mexico, where it was raining every afternoon and sunny the rest of the day, the rain here seems to come and go as it pleases. It rains in the night, in the morning, in the evening, apparently no way to predict it. Not that it is very important to do that, because even when it is raining it is still close to 30°C so too warm to wear any rain jacket or the like. Even at night it is still around 20° so a little bit of rain doesn't hurt. Of course, you are not supposed to walk around at night on your own, but so far this has not stopped me from doing so.

You remember the thing I said about Europe and Latin America and why I wanted to come back? Well: so, my flight arrived in Bogotá after about ten hours flight from Madrid. The bus terminal in Bogotá is reasonably close to the airport, my luggage was not heavier than the things I had been carrying around with me for the past twelve months, and I really, really needed to move my legs after sitting down in the plane for way too long, and I had at least five hours, since I did not want to arrive in Cali too early in the morning, so leaving as late as possible was the best option, so I decided to walk. Thanks to google maps I got lost and had to ask for the way. It was raining by that time. The family I asked for directions decided that it was too dangerous for me to walk alone - which was rather ridiculous, seeing that I had just walked all the way from the airport alone without being kidnapped, but when someone is trying to help you, you just ignore those facts. So they walked me all the way to the terminal, which was actually further away than I would have guessed. And granted, the way would have been a little difficult to describe. Number one. I bought a ticket for the bus, waited and then left on one of the latest busses at night, so I would arrive at seven in the morning in Cali. I managed to sleep a lot on the bus - not so surprising seeing that I had barely slept the nights before. Only, when I awoke I realized I was in big trouble. The bus was going at a much too high speed (of maybe 40 km/h) through the mountains down from Bogotá and across another mountain range. I was hoping for the road to just get down into the valley and become a straight road again but it just kept going on like this. I was miserable enough only from feeling sick with all the turns, so I decided it is better to not even start being scared, seeing that the bus driver didn't take the rule very serious that says that you should drive on the right side of the road. When I first woke up, there for a few seconds I even doubted if maybe in Colombia they drive on the left side of the road, but when a car came at us, the bus came back to the right side. Well. That was my night. It sounds maybe over dramatic if I say I made it just in time to the toilet in the back of the bus to puke. Which is why I write it ;) It is true, but I hadn't eaten for hours (it was by then 2 am or so, local time), so my stomach didn't have much to give. I felt better afterwards. And the road finally got straight and we neared my new home. A home, I didn't know yet.
The people that I was going to work for, told me to call them when I arrive, so that they could pick me up from the bus terminal. So I called and they told me where to wait but I wasn't sure where exactly they meant so I asked someone for directions and since that guy thought that I had to go several hundred metres with all my luggage (which would have been no problem for me but, whatever), he stopped one of the mini busses that are the "cheap" public transport around here and told them to take me. Which they did. For free.
Despite the very nice attempt to help, I ended up in the wrong place, meaning I had to call again. By that time, however, I did not have any coins left, and when you buy something on the street you always have to expect that people don't have change. So I made a call from some street vendor's phone and couldn't pay the 200 pesos (less than 10 Euro cents), and she didn't have change for my other money. So the lady that was next in line just paid for me, as if it were the most obvious thing to do - which, I guess, it was, but it was still very nice. So, I hadn't been in the country 24 hours and three times strangers went out of their way to help me. This is what makes this place special.

This way you can even forget about all the human rights issues there are in this country, and maybe even ignore the fact that the proud Cauca river, which formed one of the biggest valleys of the country and lent its name to two provinces, when it flows through this city it looks very sad indeed (I'll post photos). But hey, which country is perfect? And if you get to choose between a country where people are unfriendly and the government pretends to be nice and clean but you know that behind the scenes they sell weapons to terrorists while supporting the killing of refugees that flee from the same, or to live in a country where people are very, very friendly and the government does things that go against the human rights charter, while also trying to do things which are decidedly positive (invest in the environment, in schools and in health), then - well, everybody gets to choose for themselves. And so do I. I have not made a choice yet, by the way. Not want to sound like I did. I have not. I love this country. But sometimes love is not enough.