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Wednesday 3/7/13
So, this week I got my head down at work a lot more and we managed to get the kids to talk about what they wanted to do jobwise in future. It was touching really. Some talked about police and how they are here to protect them (particularly relevant in their situation) and others talked about teachers. I got a few more "que linda" comments from Jorge (the boy who used to be a prostitute on the streets. He likes to dress as a girl these days.) Jorge always calls me linda ( it means pretty) and loves to talk about clothes, make up etc.
On the wednesday I did a few blog updates and some of the girls from the restaurant drew in my diary and we talked about life at home and stuff. It was really nice, especially now I can commincate better. I went to salsa class in the evening with Christelle and then naturally we all went to Parrillion for a beer.
Thursday 4/7/13
Well, Thursday was an interesting evening. The colombian weekend basically starts on Thursday (it's seen as a warm up). So James decided to throw a Fruit Party in celebration of all Colombia's weird and wonderful fruits. There were granadillas, watermelons, mini-bananas, pineapple, mango, starfruit and many others that I had never seen before. It was great fun and we pumped out the english classics, which the colombians loved. Things like.. spice girls and robbie williams. We later headed to estancodomos (a local club) and Santiago got me and christelle in free simply because he knows the bouncers in EVERY club! We drank mucho Aguardiente and salsa danced the night away. I danced with santi quite a lot and christelle was SO drunk. It was hilarious. Me and Dan walked some way before we found a taxi and went home.
On the Friday I think I was pretty hungover and didn't do much other than the AIESEC meeting at 3pm
Saturday 6/7/13
So, on the saturday we all got in a bus and headed to the Eje cafetero region of Colombia. It's famous for it's coffee. Many of the boys were hungover and I got some good photos of george and Rob asleep on the bus, Rob's mouth hanging open. We stopped on the way to Salento ( a touristic place in the Eje Cafetero region) and got to stretch our legs a bit. Here the clouds simply rested on the mountain tops like a sheet. It was weird to see but really quite breathtaking. The scenery in Colombia never ceases to amaze me. It can change so drastically.
We got halfway to Salento and stopped off in a coffee-producer place. The coach drove through fields upon fields of coffee plants until we reached a little courtyard where we parked up. It was so hot as the sun was fully beating down. We walked into this olde-type coffe production place and joined the tour. First we got to taste some tinto coffee (black coffee with lots of sugar in tiny cups). It was absolutley gorgeous. I usually don't like black coffee and prefer it with milk, but this trip has changed my mind about that.
In the tour we got to dress in traditional colombian clothes for the armenia region. I had on a long blue dress with a white headscarf and apron. We were quite a sight. (pics in the album) The boys got to play with knives (obviously they loved that) and got some hats and stuff. We were shown a traditional fighting dance which Dan took part in with the slightly scary colombian guide. After that we went on a tour of the coffee grounds (it was SO hot and sunny and I could feel my skin burning haha) and some of thr group got dressed in tradiitional coffee picking gear. They looked such a state. The lads found some black spicy berries and tried them which was SO funny! There were red faces and lots of coughing. After picking some coffee beans in huge buckets we finally got to eat. We had some delicious bean stew with kidney beans and potato followed by the usual rice and avocado scenario. We fed some stray cats at the table - they know I'm weak aha. After that we did more coffee tasting and got to see how the beans are dried and made into coffee. It was interesting. After a browse of the gift shop we headed to Salento.
It was very different to Ibague, much more geared tpwards tourists. We tried to find a hostel as it was getting dark, which was an absolute nightmare. All of them were full but eventually some of us split off and found a garage room that we stayed in, it was actually alright.
Then we headed out to browse the street shops and stalls. Christelle ate a traditional street dish for Salento at one of the stalls. It was fish bake - Trucha- and a fried platano. It was really nice and cheap. (in the picture on the cover of this section of the blog)
It was so nice to just sit and relax outside, surrounded by the laughs and chatter of the colombians. Music was pumping from the bars and some couples were salsa-ing on the street. By now the artisan shop owners had shut their stalls and were sat in the bars. Stray dogs wandered around in the park and mixed with the tourists and travellers. We had split off from the group and decided the best thing to do was to get really drunk. We went and bought some aguardiente and shotted it from my deodrant cap in the hostel whilst watching bizzarre colombian music videos on the tv. Then we set out to find the others and we were just laughing about being drunk and kept going to the toilets to drink it. It was so funny. Then we moved to the park and got drunk there. It was such a laugh. Back at the hostel I don't really 100% remember but I ended up passing out and Christelle passed out on the boys bed, and they delightedly rose to the challenge of taking funny/embarassing pictures of her with things in her mouth and pen on her face etc. It was a messy night but it was so funny.
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