Popayan -- Cali

i´ve literally just arrived in the sprawling, messy, dirty but real and lovely town of Cali. i was told its not worth coming here, but that just represents a challenge and so i had to come see it. there are many racists here as everywhere, and Cali happens to have lots of blacks and natives so the people say its dangerous. its always dangerous "over there". its great to see the diversity once again.

when i started rolling south towards San Agustine from Bogota it was inevitable that i was going to have to take at least one bus journey to get me back up N if i wanted more time along the carribean, and so I was ready to exclaim that I had now taken a bus on every continent in the world. today, about 40-kms from Cali I suffered my second broken spoke in 3-days and although i fixed it well enough to hobble, the rain made it tempting to catch a bus from where i had performed the emergency operation on my wheel. but then i decided that a "hitch" would be more exciting and i´d at least give it a try. within 5-minutes i´d secured a ride right to the heart of Cali and more importantly, a good bikeshop. and during this ride i got to thinking: I have now sucessfully hitched a ride on every continent in the world!

found an net cafe here to find a cheap room. haven´t hung with travelers in awhile so any cheap hotel won´t do... i need a hostal. and as i rolled through town i noticed a ton of interesting restaurants and cafes, its a smorgasborg out there, and so tonight i look forward to something different than my standby, comidas corriente. i´m sure i´ll be craving that again by morning, but tonight something different.

and on the way here i discovered a new fruit concoction (the great thing about this country and so many others is that every time you descend into a new valley they have a different specialty) called... ahh, i forget what he said, but its a soupy fresh fruit cocktail that you can drink with a spoon... bananas, pina, mangos, grapes, all syruped in a pint glass and served up with a big ladle.

this connection is good here, so if i can get these new spokes to work on my wobbly wheel, then maybe i can get back here to post some pics.

last night i stayed with the Hare Krishnas. pujas, prasad and pan integral!