Diary of a Wanderer

The country road The bus dropped us in the quaint main plaza and it wasn’t long before I had fallen in love with Salento. Narrow cobbled streets, artisanal shops and touristy buzz that filled the air. This wasn’t the Colombia I had known whilst being in Bogota, Cali or Armenia. A wander away from the town took us to our hostel, Yambolombia, 2 km away from the centre along a winding country road, amongst truly natural beauty with fresh Colombian air that our lungs had not yet experienced. Our two nights were to be Wi-Fi free and spent lying under a starlit sky. It never fails to amaze me how many infinite stars can be revealed when you take away the polluting, artificial light of man. Before the stars arrived however, we seized the opportunity to visit a coffee finca nearby. Finca El Ocaso was located about an hour’s walk further along the winding country road. We had picked up a companion along the way who had been slowly riding his bike when we were walking to the hostel. A...

As we have had the luck of having three weeks of school holidays before we even started work we decided to make the most of the time and took a trip to the coffee region. A luxurious coach journey, (with a film and wi-fi!) and we arrived in Armenia just under four hours later. We found our hostel and were greeted by the loveliest girl who seemed determined to ensure we had the best stay possible. She made us the nicest coffees (yep, that’s right, I’m slowly being converted to a coffee drinker, although only accepting the better quality stuff with sugar and milk!) and gave the place a warm feeling, full of positive energy. Our friend we had met during training in Bogota, Tom, is living in the city and so we met up with him. He introduced us to the glory of the Cuban sandwich and joined us in exploring the city. It was great to see another city and be able to compare it to Cali. Without a doubt it is less than half the size of Cali, with a completely different feel and atmosphere. A...

The secretary of education in Cali had its own welcome events planned for us, and on Monday we made our way, not without getting very lost, to Comfenalco, which would become an important reference point in my future navigation of the city. We had a conference where we attempted to danced salsa to a live school salsa band, with some very little kids showing us how it was done. It was here that I met my mentor and co-teacher-to-be, Edith and Leonor. Their eagerness when I introduced myself and announced my school was really quite overwhelming. They embraced me with open arms and dragged me outside to get chatting straight away. They were absolutely great, full of enthusiasm and passion. I left with a buzz, excited to start at school after their holidays came to a close in two weeks time.  Looking over Cali from the viewpoint at the Virgin We were also invited to a day trip, organised by the secretary of education, with the others on the program to a finca (farm) in the mo...

We couldn't believe the day had arrived to fly to Cali, the city that would be our home for the next five months. An early start saw us arriving at the hostel for around 10am and we headed straight to "migracion" to sort out our cedulas (Colombian ID cards). Unfortunately, Ramsey and I found ourselves at the end of a very long queue and spent over three hours waiting for our paperwork to be processed. In this time I confirmed I had forgotten my PIN number as I tried to pay for our cards and I also made friends with a woman who wanted me to hang out with her son, gave me her number and then proceeded to jump the queue and leave me waiting.  On our return from migracion we got our room, which we discovered was full of mosquitoes and had terrible plumbing that was to leave the bathroom floor drenched every time we had a cold shower. The view from the balcony is spectacular and enables us to look out over the city until the city skyline meets the sky. The woman at t...

Sunday morning brought with it our move to the hotel where we would stay for an unknown amount of time for our training. We are working on a bilingual program run by the ministry of education in which we support teachers at local secondary schools in English lessons. From the incredible standard of our rooms in this 5 star hotel in one of the nicest parts of Bogotá, it's clear they are pouring a ton of money into the program.  We were put into groups based on our location in the country and spent the rest of the week in lectures for 8 hours a day, in which we were tested on our ability not to fall asleep. We were talked at on the most irrelevant, dense teaching theory by people who have never experienced teaching in state schools. TEFL jargon was thrown around while some of the basics and useful resources were left out. I felt quite lucky that I actually have experience teaching so I knew what they were on about. Needless to say after 8 solid days with no break, we were q...

The perks of business class The dream when flying is always to be upgraded and sometimes it's hard to believe that such a dream actually even comes true. When boarding the plane from London to Miami, Ramsey found his name on a list of "special people" who had been chosen to have extra security checks before getting on the plane. 'How strange' you might think, however what you don't know is that Ramsey was blessed with a rather un-English surname (much like myself) with its Egyptin roots ensuring he is stopped and searched every time he's in an airport. Slightly annoyed that we had become the last people boarding the plane due to the hold-up, the blow was softened as we were directed to our seats, only to find there was far more leg room than normal and an air hostess was there to greet us and offer us a glass of wine before we had even made it to the runway. . .this was not the normal service we had experienced before! An unlimited flow of drinks, an...

As per, my time at home passed by like a whirlwind and it wasn't long before I found myself having my 'last sleep' before the next adventure was to begin. Finding time when all the family was together at the same time proved near impossible, with work, travel and the reality of life getting in the way! We managed a family meal on Sunday and there were some evenings with four of us around which still provided a great time to hang out and chill together. I also had time to visit both my Nans without too much pressure or need to dash off again. Although everyone is always hectic I managed to see most of my friends too. A wonderful cheese fondue and wine night with some of the girls from school, a dinner with uni friends and even managing to make it to one of their birthday's had me feeling like I had found the time for more than just a quick catch up for the most part. With a move to the salsa capital of the world on the horizon, I decided it was time to try my h...