Aborrajado, bachata and Bohemian Rhapsody 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿

Another week of more of the same, but not in a mediocre way. Imagine trying to learn to be better at dancing and Spanish, and actually making progress (albeit slowly), sharing more time with friends, friends that you are getting to know better each day. Imagine eating good food and enjoying coffee and cake each day for a fraction or the price at home and sometimes having your morning coffee lying on a lounger gazing up at the blue sky with a few palm trees breaking up the expanse. Routine doesn’t need to be dull. It can be a perfect balance of all of your favourite things!

(This summary is apparently what happens when I try to write my blog to electronic music!)

15/4/22

So Saturday Laura and I went to my favourite group class in my dance school (Afro Cuban) in the afternoon and then got ready for bachata in the park again, in a square outside the museum. It’s a cute setup there!

Laura y yo llegamos alla por la clase a las seis y medía y encontramos mas amigos alla, Philly de Hong Kong, Mauricio y Rose de aqui y despues la clase tambien Felipe, nuestro maestro de español y ahora amigo. Yo pienso yo bailé un poco mejor que la semana pasada.

Un rato mas tarde, yo se encontré un amigo de mi escuela de baila y despues vamos a una lugar cerca Cristo Rey a comemos juntos. Yo comí una hamburguesa y la camarera dio mi guantos para comer!! Muy divertido! Tambien el mirador de este lugar es muy bonito. Tu pudiste ver todo el ciudad. Despues comimos, tomamos un moto a el Parque de los Perros y alla tomamos margaritas. Despues, regresé a mi hostel por dormiendo.

16/4/23

Sunday began early with a run along the river, my first (or possibly second) of 2023, eeep! After my run, I wandered through a cute square with a small art market in it and then found a gorgeous place for coffee. I asked for a strong cappuccino and rhe waiter recommended that I had a flat white instead but I explained that I had heen running and only had 10 mil with me (£2) and the flat white was too expensive for that. He reassured me and said he’d make me a flat white and charge it as a cheaper coffee – what a guy! And yes, the coffee was glorious (not just glorious for in Colombia, but really glorious!). Haaaappy Sarah! I chilled by the pool in the afternoon and ate cake, played a little on Ronny’s miniature guitar, and swam. In the afternoon, I went for lunch in the yummy vegan cafe Madre Selva with DeJean🇫🇷, Julie🇩🇪, Phillip🇦🇹 and a new Spanish guy.

In the evening, a few of us went to Septimarcielo, a salsa club to dance and to watch Nicole, one of the hostel dance teacher’s perform in a show. It was fun, and I watched a few different performers and danced a fair but with various folk before my stomach called the shots, and I had to go in search of food, missing Nicole’s show!!

17/4/22 – 20/4/22

Classes galore! Monday to Friday was back to five hours of classes a day. A few lunches and dinners out, an aborrajado (fried plantain with cheese and salsas) in the park wirh DeJean and Alex, a few nights of dancing, one early morning coffee date, one night of cocktail drinking, and of course a lot of cake!!

21/4/23

Happy Friday! Today, I had kizomba class followed by salsa class and then went for lunch with Laura. We ate a lot and then headed to Spanish class. Disaster! We were both sleepy post lunch, and Laura had a migraine coming on! We all got quite distracted many times what with Cali gossip, feeling full, and other things! After an hour, we called off the rest of the lesson and enjoyed sangria in peace!! Thanks Felipe!!

Afterwards, I walked back to my hostel with Felipe and chilled with Felipe and Alex a bit before going to rest. I was going out to Sofar Sounds Cali that night, so needed to be fresh! Laura and I had La Vaina’s infamous Signature cocktails (twice over, because happy hour) before we left for Martyn’s bar across town.

When we got there at around 21.30, it was super quiet! We said hi and bye to my friend Luiz, the organiser, and then went to get a drink in a different place. On the way, we walked past quite a commotion. There were lots of police vans and yellow tape, and when we got closer, we saw a dead man lying on the floor. No one was trying to help him so clearly he’d been dead a while. Laura said she saw two people in hazmat suit’s near him, so I’ve no idea what had happened. We walked past quickly and found a cute place with fairy lights for some strong drinks! I told the story of how I’d been told as a 21 year old nursing student in a hospice, that to cope with traumatic things (ie seeing multiple people dying each day), you should just shake it off by doing a couple of star jumps at the end of each day!!

After our drinks and some good chat, we got a taxi back to Martyn’s, where the snow was about to begin. We met a few musicians outside before and got our drinks in, and then we were off! There were fairy lights everywhere as well as loads of flags, with extra cute Welsh bunting. Turns out that the 9wner, Martyn with a ‘y’ is Welsh, from Flintshire and has been running an alternative rock bar in Cali for over 30 years!

Three out of four of the musicians were fab, one particularly, a guy from Panama, Master Monk Zero, had an insane voice, so pure and soulful! The other one guy, was like Eurovision gone badly wrong – his enthusiasm was 11/10, but he was to put it politely, tone deaf!! At times, and in my very tipsy state, it was a struggle not to outwardly laugh!! After the gig finished, Martyn put on his own music and while Laura and I were the only Gringos there, everyone danced as if it was a Propaganda or Snobs night! The dancing was super enthusiastic and distinctly average to look at and I loved every minute of it! At one point, Bohemian Rhapsody was played, and everyone went for it, with all the parts covered. It was glorious!! We made our way home after this, both in much need of sleep!