I have some catching up to do it seems. Also, this post is late yet again. I realize there is absolutely no reason to be late posting a blog when the only other thing I have to do in my day is study English (which I am honestly not doing either…) and I have unlimited access to the internet and as much privacy as I could want in our new home.
Oh! Much more interestingly, we have a new home!! We moved in on April 1st and plan on staying here until G comes to visit at the end of the month (to celebrate my birthday, which I have actually committed to officially celebrate this year. I can’t seem to stop surprising myself these days). It is a group house in the old neighborhood of San Antonio, and we are settling into our college dorm-like setting fairly easily. There is the unnecessarily loud French guy down the hall who seems to be allergic to cleaning his own dishes, the hilarious and helpful English salsa dancer next to us (and her local boyfriend when he’s around), and the sick and studious German girl who is just starting her dreads upstairs, and a whole group downstairs that includes our salsa friend and new yoga teacher from Santa Cruz. I cannot imagine how we wouldn’t have stories to come soon…
Also, we are planning on enjoying the celebration of my birthday in Cartagena, our favorite spot here in Colombia. So if you have time and the means to get down here, join us on the Caribbean! We are looking forward to romantic sunsets, relaxing on beautiful beaches, swimming in mud, dancing salsa as often as possible, and possibly the best chocolate bread in the world… Who wouldn’t want to join in that fun, right?
But back to the recap I missed! Look at these nice pictures I took for y’all on our anniversary climb of Tres Cruces: 
This is (possibly) a picture of H climbing to the top of Tres Cruces. You see, it was a bit of a journey that we didn’t have a clearly defined route for and I was hot and lazy. So I choose to hike up a small portion, get a decent view, and sit and read my book (1Q84) while H tucked in and dragged herself to the top and see (all the random exercise equipment?) views from the very top. She is (possibly?) a colorful spot of rainbow on the path to the top…
That was my perch, under a nice wooden lean-to sitting on a bench away from the heat of the sun. (Mind you, this behavior does not surprise me).
We have also completed a personal record for salsa dancing in the week that has passed. We have now officially spent 11 days dancing every night, from the night of our anniversary (Wednesday, 20 March) to this last Saturday, 31 March. This happily included a little of everything, from going out all dressed up to new clubs with a large group of people, to dancing barefoot on the beach in our swimwear.
The beach? There’s no beach in Cali. True, but we spent Semana Santa with my boyfriend and a few of his friends on the Pacific. We took an entire day to get ourselves on the 3-4 hour bus to Buenaventura, stocked up at the local grocery store (which was completely packed with people stocking up using their last paycheck for the month) for veggies for a week, then onto a 90 minute launcha over the bay to Juanchaco, where we walked through the small town to find a tractor to pull us overland 30 minutes to Ladrilleros, where we began our “30 minute” walk (more like 80 minute) to our more secluded spot on La Barra.
The Pacific was beautiful, as we have always found to be true in other locations as well. We had a huge stretch of beach at low tide and enjoyed the crashing of the waves right beyond our tents at high tide. There was an excursion into a natural pool along the fresh water river in the mangrove forest, and quite a few walks down to enjoy peanut & coconut ice cream treats at the local store (which just so happened to also sell the strongest homemade liquor on the beach. We know this to be true due to thorough taste tests).
But mostly, we enjoyed the company of Colombians, with both our fantastic group of friends and all over the rest of the country. And sunsets, there were very impressive.
And now I think we’re all caught up!
We are yoga-practicing, English-learning, and dinner-party-throwing our time out here, hopefully joining a local pool tomorrow for daily swims! Life in Cali is actually becoming a life.
H
G
R:
Rule #2: Don't Die. 