19 July 2010, Cali

Finally, I have gotten back into my gmail account (well, it isn't working at the moment on Z's computer, but thanks to Michelle I was able to reset my password because she got me back into my lipmag account, which was the address my password reset was sent to). So, thank you, Michelle! This makes me feel so much better, having my gmail, my blog, my photos, documents, contacts(!!) back.

Hopefully this sees my mood pick up. I admit I have not been the traveller I would like to be. I am beginning now to recover from the flu thanks to the healthy food that Z keeps serving me and lots of rest. The rest is a problem, though, because I feel more like sleeping than doing anything else. Today I wandered around Cali, a big city of 4 million, and just kept thinking about how down I felt and how I don´t particularly want to be here. I feel at the moment like this trip is something I have to endure. I guess I am just not interested in being in big, non-beautiful cities anymore.

Cali is a party city but I haven't felt up for partying. I must get out soon, but I think Z likes having the company and she is another who is treating me so well. But I need to get to the north coast and its beaches. It will be well deserved. At least it is hot here and, today, sunny.

In Bogota I went to the botanic garden. The tropical greenhouses are very lovely, all palmy and orchidy and lily-paddy. However, it poured so I spent more time reading When I Was Five I Killed Myself (excellent book!) in the cafe than wandering the gardens. I walked from the Transmilenio stop (the train-like bus system), ate fried yucca and plantains while it poured, stopped in a big beautiful wood library while it poured again, walked through a huge park to the botanic gardens. I got lost on the way back in the big park and ended up accepting a ride from a military man to the Transmilenio stop. He asked me if I had a boyfriend and told me he loved me but dropped me off safely at the stop. Well, maybe not so safely: I had to walk along a tiny median strip between the Transmilenio, which has it's own lanes, and the highway in order to get into the stop, which felt very dangerous.

I also spent a day with A´s other couchsurfers going to the Salt Cathedral, a vast, vast serious of coves with crosses and halls with benches made in the salt mine. This is a huge attraction in Colombia, but I wasn't that impressed. Natural caves do it for me much more than a lot of simple religious crosses and a few detailed angels. The scale of the place was the most impressive part.