Live from Cali,
December 17, 2006
Note: In this journal I plan to write my daily observations as to life in Cali. This will not be a report on how to meet or date women in Cali. Hopefully it may give insight as to how the lady you are meeting lives. It is possible that the lady you meet may be from a wealthy family but it is more likely she lives like my lady. I think when we meet a beautiful, nicely dressed lady we fail to understand what her daily life may be like.
Well guys here I am on my 6th trip to Cali. Departed Miami Saturday evening December 16 on American Airlines, I have flown this route on all but one of my trips with no problems. But last night the flight was 30 minutes late departing Miami and we arrived in Cali just after the Avianca fight had de-boarded. This compiled with the fact the passport control/ customs areas are being remodeled and are in total disarray, it took 85 minutes to get out of the airport. To say the least the airport was a zoo, I’ve never seen so many people there before.
As always my beautiful lady was waiting for me along with a private car. On all my previous trips I have stayed at Cali Charm and highly recommend them. In my multi country search for my princess I have dealt with many agencies. Of these agencies most were bad a few were OK but none were good. I would rate Cali Charm as excellent; it is the best agency that I have ever conducted business with.
Now that I am becoming part of my ladies family we made the decision that I would stay at her home full time. My lady lives in a fairly poor neighborhood of Cali in a estrato 2 area, by no means a hell hole but very lower working class area. The homes are small and stacked side by side with just wide side walks serving as streets. As I have previously stayed overnight I knew that if I wanted to get any sleep that “EAR PLUGS†are a necessity. The neighborhood is filled with the sounds of life and music. I was very impressed as to how the whole area is decorated for Christmas. I can see that Christmas is a very festive time in Cali.
Today we stayed at home and I enjoyed home cooked meals and a 2 hour siesta. It was a little hot but not too bad, as the sun set the Christmas lights came on. The lights add a fairy tail mood to what is other a very poor street. We sat on the balcony and watched children play on the sidewalk. Somehow this neighborhood reminds me of a scene from a movie about an early 1900’s New York Italian neighborhood. Music fills the air, street vendors walk singing out there offerings. Even a man pushes a cart singing out “PIG FOOD†as he collects food scraps to feed pigs.
Monday December 18
Slept great last night with ear plugs pushed deep into my ears. Today I had some banking to take care of so we took a taxi down town. The streets of Cali have a lot in common with a NASCAR race. You have the drafting leading to the sing shot pass, the 3 cars wide on a 2 lane road. And they love their horns, I’ve never understood horn blowers what the hell do they think it will accomplish. As soon as a flow of traffic stops at a red light the horns start blowing, yea that will make the light change. I thought the drivers in Russia were crazy but I think Cali has them beat. We arrived at the Bank only to be told to return after lunch “nothing is easyâ€. So we went to a butcher shop and purchased some beef. As I was raised on a farm I am comfortable seeing whole beefs hanging on meat hooks but I think many Americans would be queasy. This is one thing I like about Cali; life here is more raw or real that the sterile lives many of us live in the states. Now I am not a fool and realize that life here is not a fairytale and if you have no money it would be a very cruel place to live. After the banking we stopped by Cali Charm to say hello and had a pleasant visit. The owner Walter has a wealth of knowledge as to how systems work in Cali and how to get things done. As I am getting closer to the “M†word I have lots of questions about how to get married in Colombia. As Americans we often take for granted how easy it is to conduct business in the states and how difficult and crazy many other countries are.
Tonight we walked to the neighborhood video store to rent some DVD’s. Every DVD was black market and first run release’s were $1.25 or rent 3 for $2.50. I have never paid any attention to the language and subtitle menus on DVD’s. I never knew that most American DVD’s are in English or French and Spanish is only offered as a subtitle. I know the French is because of the law in Canada But you would think they would also add Spanish for the Latin America market. So most of the movies we have rented were watch in English with Spanish subtitle.
Tuesday December 19
Last night we had one hell of a thunderstorm with the thunder popping like a 44 magnum going off in the bed room. Our house did not flood but I saw and heard many ladies sweeping water out the front doors this morning. The excitement today was a neighbor trying to push a large hog into his house. It was squealing and all of the children were running up the sidewalk to see. I asked my lady if the man was going to butcher the hog at his home but she did not know and said it was for Christmas. Toady I am going to the “Home Center†which is akin to our Lowes or Home Depot. As my lady needed to work I was accompanied to the Home Center by her 8 year old daughter and 15 year old niece. A 45 minute $7.00 ride later we arrived. Now $7.00 for a 45 minutes taxi ride seems cheap to us but you must remember many people here make less than $200 a month and some much less. However at the Home Center you enter a world akin to the USA in fact you could easily be in a Lowes in Miami. The easiest way to describe it is that it is just like being at home. Every tool product and feature you would find in the States is here, Black and Decker, DeWalt, WD-40, Craftsman etc. It is interesting to note that although Colombia is on the metric system many things are on the US “INCH†system, water pipe, nuts bolts etc. I purchased some electrical supplies for my ladies home. To put it simply the wiring in her home is scary. Have you heard the expression “a light bulb hanging from a wire� I plan to rewire some lights and receptacles, if you are wondering, Colombia using the same 110 household voltage as the USA. However much of the wiring I have observed is ran with single strand wire with only a hot and ground, not the 3-wire coax hot, neutral, and ground that we have. Now the breaker box is even scarier, the reason behind a breaker is the “break†the flow of electricity when a resistance or build up in heat is felt. In the states we would have a single bedroom wired to a single 15 amp breaker. My ladies home has only 4 beakers and they are 30 and 40 amps and all 110 volt
single pole. If she had a toaster oven it would catch on fire before it would trip a breaker. I’ve never seen paper masking tape used for electrical tape or worse some of the wires are just wove together with not insulator (SCARY)
Tonight we went down town to the river walk to look at the Christmas lights. This is one of the nicest displays I have seen anywhere. Lights are strung across the river and large animated characters hang from them. The river is flanked by large trees and they were also full of lights. There were many people but also many police and I saw no problems.
Wednesday December 20
Today we had made plans to ride a tourist train up into the mountains; the train was scheduled to depart at 8:00 AM. From 7:00 to 7:30 we stood on the side of a wet dirty street in a heavy drizzle trying to catch a taxi. When we finally caught one, we arrived at the depot with only 5 minutes to spare “nothing is easy in Cali†I do not know when passenger service stopped in Cali but the Depot was built in 1948 and is in poor condition. The train consisted of a diesel engine one passenger car and one club car. The ride out of Cali took us north through and industrial area and several small very poor villages, then we started up the mountains. Cali lies in a pancake flat valley surrounded by mountains. The mountains are stripped of almost all trees and are covered in weeds and small bushes, cattle graze freely or in large fenced areas. It appears that the mountains are often burned to retard the growth of trees. On my trip to Cali in November a large area burned just behind Chipichape Mall. The trip finished in the town of La Cumbre at an elevation of approx. 4800 feet. The depot was in falling down condition and a few local people had set-up their wares in an attempt to sale to the tourist. We then rode in a jeep to a local club / restaurant and had lunch. I would guess the temperature was about 70 and a cool drizzle fell almost all day. I found the temp to be very comfortable but my lady froze all day, she had on a shirt a pull over sweater and my jacket as I wore only a shot sleeve shirt. All in all it was a good trip and the children enjoyed it very much although I was a little bored.
Thursday December 21
Today along with a brother-in- law you has lived in the USA and speaks good English, we went down town to purchase a bicycle for the 8 year old as a Christmas present. There is an area with lots of bicycle shops and you can see 1000 bikes in a city block area. I asked my lady what her 8 year old daughter would have received for Christmas if it was not for me. Her reply was “nothing†you see I only make enough money to cloth and feed my family. Although there are several American style malls in Cali and the local versions of Wal Mart, target etc. the mom and pop local shop is still very strong. Professions that have almost died in the states are still strong here. You can see small appliance repair, shoe repair, fabric stores and so on. At a stop sign I looked into a shop to see a man installing a new compressor in a very old refrigerator, I thought that in the states we would trash the fridge and purchase a new one. As in many areas of this world you do not trash what can be repaired. There is a bicycle repair shop just up the alley from the house Tonight we visited a niece who has a new baby and a 2 year old. Note I said “visited†this seems to be the main form of entertainment as there is little money for anything else. I sit and try to understand the topic of the conversation. Conversation still seems to be alive in this culture were as in the states we never seem to have time to talk. Walking home I discovered the fate of the PIG, he is hanging from the neighbor’s balcony.
Friday December 22
As I write this I am sitting at one of the 7 sowing machines in my ladies living room. You see she has a sowing business and specializes in Restaurant uniforms. I am looking at her now as she is ironing the shirts she made for me. The 8 years old is sitting on the large rolls of fabric a man just delivered, the fabric was due on Tuesday “nothing is easy in Caliâ€. I have not left the house today but my lady and two of her sisters went down town to get something for Christmas. I did enjoy a 2 hour siesta during the heat of the day.
Saturday December 23
Taking a 2 hour nap yesterday made it difficult to go to sleep last night. Even with ear plugs the sounds of the neighborhood were still strong at 1 AM. This is a very noisy neighborhood the only quite time seems to be 2 AM – 5 AM. Every morning at 5:30 the neighbor pushes his 2-cycle motorcycle out of his house and cranks it right in front of ours, then repeatedly revs the engine. There are way too many 2-cycle motorcycles in Cali all pouring out their smoke this combined with the black diesel from all the busses makes Cali a very dirty city. I don’t want to sugar coat my observation; Cali is a big, crowded, dirty city. But there is a life or beat to Cali that is very addictive, and the ladies are just super HOT and the reason for coming here. This morning I took the customary COLD shower, don’t know if I could even just accustom to a cold shower. You would think the city water would be somewhat warm but I guess as the supply comes from mountain feed rivers, it is COLD. Hot water is one thing I miss about staying at Cali Charm. The only way to get hot water at my ladies home is to boil it on the stove as we do for our drinking water. As Americans we take clean water for granted, as we do so many of the conveniences we have. I just watched my lady squeeze fresh “ORANGE†juice from “GREEN†oranges; I guess it’s true that our oranges are colored (orange). The fruit and meats are much more tastety here even the eggs have a different taste. I have experienced this in many of the so called third world countries; in the states I think we have way too many chemicals in our food.
Two of the 8 year olds friends just came over, both of the girls asked my permission to enter the home. Now they are standing beside me watching me as I type this report. They are looking at me as if I am from Mars. Today we again went to the Home Center to get more electrical supplies. There is a tremendous amount of new construction and remodeling in Cali. It seems to me that half the city is in some state of construction and this adds to the mood of this place. Even in my ladies poor neighborhood many people are working on their homes. Today I made the decision that I did not care what anyone thinks I am wearing shorts. I kind of took a survey of how many men I saw wearing shorts and I would say 10%. Of course you would not wear shorts to meet ladies or diner but for normal daily life, I see no problem. Tonight two young girls knocked on the door and asked my lady to do an alteration on a pink party dress. I would say the girls were 15-16 and cute. They paid $1.25 and left the dress, it took my lady maybe 10 minutes to re-size the dress. Then a lady dropped of 4 pair of paints and asked the leg length be shorted. My lady says she likes to do alteration as the pay is much better than making new clothes. I often forget just how poor my lady is and how little money many people here have.
Saturday December 24
Happy Christmas Eve!
This morning as I write this the neighborhood is louder than normal; I guess the party is starting. It seems there are 10 different radios playing in the streets and it is hard to focus on one song. Today was spent at home awaiting the Christmas Eve Dinner. At 8 PM the family met at a home and enjoyed the evening together. I don’t drink much alcohol so the wine made me feel very relaxed. We ate danced ate and danced more. At midnight I gave the 8 year old her bicycle, she was thrilled.
Sunday December 25
Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!!
Silence?
? I can not believe that this morning it is quite. I guess everyone is still sleeping after the all night party. I feel like tying my lap top into sound system and blaring out at top volume “blue grass musicâ€. But instead I’ll just enjoy the quite. The 8 year old is outside riding her bike, children play freely here much like I did as a boy in the states. All the little girls run in and out all day long or they come the gate and call out for Melissa. This morning she sat on her bike and asked me to pinch her as to her a bicycle was a dream. Times like this I realize how much we have in the states and how clueless the average American is to this fact. We have everything and for this most part we can only bitch about the few things we don’t have. OK I think this is one of the reasons I am here, I like to be with a lady who is thankful for what I offer.
Monday December 26
Today we went to the Christmas Horse Parade. This is a kind of a cowboy parade with hundreds if not a thousand or more of mounted horses. We took a taxi to Cali Charm to meet up with the staff and some other friends. What would normally been only a 10 minute ride wound up being almost an hour. There were dozens of large tucks unloading horses and everyone in the south of Cali was heading north to see the parade. We all met at Cali Charm and walked up to 6th street to watch the parade. We watch the parade from just across the street from Chipichape Mall. 95% of the riders were men but there were a few real hot ladies, when theses ladies would ride by all the men watching would whistle or shout. I could see some of the ladies really ate up the attention. There were tons police
and mounted armed Calvary in the parade. The Calvary wore different uniforms and I notice their saddle blankets had an emblem of a crossed M-16 and Saber. Half way through a thunderstorm poured rain, it was funny to watch the 4 ladies with me huddle under the one umbrella we had. As we were near the stating point the parade ended first at our location, at the end was a water cannon. We all then went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner; you got to wonder how a Chinese guy wound up in Cali. After this we returned to Cali Charm an talked. We then walked up to Chipichape to get a taxi, 30 minutes later we returned to Cali Charm empty handed, after the parade it was a total zoo. We then decided to walk toward 3rd street as this was in the direction of her home, BIG MISTAKE! The parade had looped around and was now coming down 3rd. It was now dark and the crowed was getting much more unruly. We walked a hell of a long way and finally got on the other side of the Parade and got a bus home. I enjoyed the parade but it was not worth all the work to get there and return home.
Tuesday December 26,
Today my lady and her employee showed restaurant table cloths. I did absolutely nothing; I did take a nap and studied Spanish but not much more. At 6PM we walked up to the local supermarket to purchase food. I pushed the buggy and just watched people. You know when you get away from the malls and club areas you realize that not all the ladies in Cali are hot. But it’s still nothing like going to Wall Mart in the USA were the attractive lady is the rare exception. You do see fat ladies here but not like the whales at Wall Mart.
Wednesday December 27
Again today the ladies are sowing and I am sitting here writing this journal. Last night it rained and I awoke at 3AM. I lay in bed and realized I could hear nothing, no dogs, no radios, no TV’s, no crying babies; silence is a rare event in this neighborhood. I am not accustom to having so much free time on my hands and to tell the truth feel a little bored. But this is real life in my ladies world and it is good for me to get a belly full of it. One week from today I’ll be back at my job and wishing I had a free minute. The 8 year old is up stairs watching cartons; she is a sweet little girl and loves her mama very much. A 14 year old niece and 2 year old great nephew just stopped by, this is one of the nice things about living here that is that family stops by. A man on a bicycle just dropped off a letter; I do not think he is the postal service. I am not sure how the postal service works here. There seems to be a lot of private letter delivery services which are men on bicycles. It seems their baskets will be full of the same magazine or letters/bills from the same service. As I write I can hear a man 3 houses down and across the street breaking up the old floor tile in his home. I see a boy caring out buckets of broking tile and dumping on the side walk. Now he is doing this with a hammer and chisel “nothing is easyâ€.
Thursday December 28
The Family Motorcycle:
This morning we walked up to the supermarket. As we walked the 5 blocks I made a note of just how many motorcycles I saw with papa, mama and 1 or 2 children aboard. As with many parts of this world, safety is not mandated or seems to be a concern. You often see a mother sitting her butt half hanging off the back of the seat with a baby cradled in her arms.
Signs:
PARE, this is a red octagon shaped sign that you would for all your life think was a STOP sign. From what I can see no one stops, traffic seems to be directed by ‘flow, until the flow is broken the other direction just waits. While I’m on this topic unlike in the states where many signs are in English and Spanish, none are so in Cali. If you can not read Spanish you are SOL and I agree with this. If a countries language is Spanish then the signs should be in Spanish and in the states they should only be English, nuf said!
Today I went alone to Cali Charm to get a dose of English and see if the world was still turning. The only English channel on my ladies TV is CNN international. Later my lady came over and we went to another parade on 3rd street. We were told there would be an old car parade at 2 PM but in fact it was at 1:00 so we missed it. I hate that because there are allot of neat old cars in Cali. After this people just stood around for more than 1 hour with no one seeming to know what if anything was next. Finally a parade of marching bands, floats and people caring large flower arrangements started. I enjoyed the parade especially the floats with the hot babes. After the parade again the streets were a total zoo. This parade was more family oriented and there were much less police.
Friday December 29
Today we went to a private resort like club in the mountains south of Cali. It took about 1 hour by bus at a cost for each of us of 60 cent for each direction. I can’t say the bus ride was pleasant but the club was super nice. It is on the River Pance which I have been to before and is a very popular picnic area. It is a fresh swift mountain river with large boulders much like the rivers in the Great Smokey Mountains. The club had two swimming pools, waterfalls, park with swings, see-saws etc. The mountains surrounding the park were for the most part forested and were beautiful. On the bus ride back I made note of just how dirty areas of Cali are. Some areas are very clean and nice such as the area around Cali Charm. Then other areas look like the slums you see in the back ground of the “save the children†commercials. Many street corners especially in commercial areas look like street corners in New York City when the garbage haulers are on strike. I have only seen 1 trash dumpster, people just toss bags of trash on the street corners. The garbage haulers come by from time to time and pick the trash up by hand. Along the streets trash from cars is just tossed all over the place. This is sad because Cali could be a very beautiful city. I was talking to another American who lives here almost full time and he said Cali is like most other cities that 90% of the people are normal and the problems are caused by the other 10%. On the bus ride back we came upon a bus that had flipped on its side. I could not see another vehicle evolved so I can only guess the driver was driving like a maniac (as most do). I can not overstate just how crazy and lawless the streets are. We talk about safety in regard to street crime but I feel the most danger in a taxi or bus. So why am I here? T&A brothers T&A and that’s not toes and ankles.
Saturday December 30
5:30 AM. That damn neighbor and his motorcycle I’d like to shove it up his ass. He could easily push it out to the street as it is only maybe 100cc, but no he’s got to crank it and rev the engine at 5:30 AM. Tonight we are going to Cali Charm for a Christmas / New Years party. So today we have stayed at home watched TV and took a nap. Today the cable man came by and was repairing an over head line. Boy to work on the lines here is to take you life into your own hands. The lines are a jumbled tangled mess and look scary. To tell the truth I feel home sick, I’ve stayed in Cali for 2 weeks before but this time the grind is starting to get to me. It’s kind of sad that we can not make a combination of the best in Cali with the best in the states. I know that I’ll be home no more than a few days and I’ll be missing Cali. Maybe it’s just all the Christmas traffic and crush of people in Cali, I don’t like it in the states and it’s twice as worse here.
The PARTY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Arrive at Cali Charm around 9:00 PM. Numinous people had already arrived and were sitting in the house and outside. Things started off slow with finger foods and a good Rum & Coke punch. As more people arrived and the punch bowel got emptied (for the first time) the dancing started and things got lively. There were at least 100 people and the ladies out numbered the men 2 to 1. I love my lady but this would have been a good party to be single at. What was most amazing to me was that so many hot ladies sat around like wall flowers. It seems that here the tables are turned and an average guy has a real chance to meet a nice young lady. I drank way too much but it made me lively and the social butterfly, my lady did not seem to mind too much. She said it made her happy to see me so alive. We went home at 1:30 AM and the party was still going strong. As always Walter and his staff where top notch and threw a great party, I had a blast. A+
Sunday December 31
God why did I drink so much and who put sand in my eyes? And tonight we have a New Years Party. Needless to say today was spent recovering from last night. But I did not drink as much as the young man we found this morning sleeping outside our front door on the cement. He awoke around 10 AM and told us thank you and assured us he was not a thief. The reality of the fact that I am leaving Tuesday morning is starting to sink in. In a way I am ready to go home but as soon as I leave I’ll be ready to return to the center of the universe “Caliâ€.
Monday January 1, 2007
WOW last night was very interesting. We started off by driving with my ladies sister and brother-in –law to see my ladies mama. Mama lives in Silote which is a very bad part of town. Silote is a slum located on the side of a mountain. The road leading up the mountain is very steep and houses or shacks cling to the sides of the mountain. If you have a mental picture of what a Colombian slum looks like then Silote is close. After meeting and greeting we drove to the brother-in law’s mama’s home, which is a much better area. Here we drank and talked, the brother -in-laws sister lives in Orlando Florida and her and here 2 sons are visiting Cali. I had a nice conversation with the 18 year old son about his views of Cali Vs the states. He agreed with the fact that Cali was big crowded and dirty but had a life or sprit to it not easily found in the states. He also noted the big difference between the ladies in Cali Vs the states. There were also two teenage girls from New York but I did not understand who they were. We then left and went to a home of a friend of my ladies oldest daughter. Neither I nor my lady knew this family but we were welcome with open arms and before I knew it a plate of food was in front of me. Here I met a Colombian woman and her son from Toronto Canada. I guess this was my night to meet Colombia’s who have immigrated to North America. We then returned home at 11:30 and waited midnight. The street was very lively with fireworks and food on the open grill. At midnight a dummy was set afire, inside this dummy was fireworks and as he burned they went off. I was told this dummy represented the old year and by burning him you erased all the years bad memories.
OK guys I am leaving early in the morning and will post this when I get home. I hope you have enjoyed reading.
Please note: This report is only my observations and on some topics I may not fully understand how things work in Cali.
Tapeguy
