Ladrilleros, Whale watching, and the Pacific Coast

( the trip and photos are from a month ago - just getting around the adding a bit of writeup) 


The first trip we had was a great trip to the Pacific Coast just west of Cali. I was really curious to see what the coast would be like, as there are hundreds of kilometers of coastline with almost no development or tourist infrastructure.  How could this huge coast be so neglected and untraveled, and seemingly isolated from the rest of Colombia?  Futhermore, by a terrific coincidence, the night before we left we went to a festival of Afro-Pacific music in Cali ( which is worthy of its own post) and we loved it and we were excited by the love for African-Pacific  culture at the festival.  

The first challenge to getting to the coast was the harrowing bus ride over the mountains. It turned out that we had a super crazy driver who drove the bus as if it was a Ferarri, and was trying to beat his personal record from the other hundreds of times he had done the route. Leaving Cali it was straight up over the mountains on a twisty windy road for two hours.  I got sick, Simon got sick, and even Oliver, unable to see over the seats out the window and lured into watching Die Hard, got sick as well.  One interesting part was after we made it over the mountain and rejoined the bigger road, it was an amazing construction site, huge tunnels and bridges and a super impressive four lane divided highway in progress.  Because it turns out the port we were headed to, Buenaventura, handles 70 percent of Colombias trade, and there is a major effort underway to reduce travel times between Buenaventura and Bogota and other major cities.  Once we got to Buenaventura, we didn't really stay to look around, but headed right to the ferry dock to get on to our destination.  I was curious to look around, but the view of a big steamy port city, at low tide on a muddy estuary, was not very compelling.  

The next part of our journey was from Buenaventura to Ladrilleros on a ferry,  basically a huge panga, with a roof, a driver up in a cockpit, and twin 200s.  A nice trip out of the estuary and a few smaller stops before getting to Juanchaco.  Juanchaco had lots of life around the pier, with the watching of ferries and sightseeing coming and going. But the beach was quite polluted and litter strewn and not inviting.  The exciting part was that from there we were to head to the next town over, Ladrilleros on motos, so it was a driver, Kara and Oly on one moto, and another driver, Eric and Simon and the duffel bag on another moto. One dollar from dock to hotel.  Drove  around a huge navy base and through the town of Ladrilleros to our hotel.

The kids favorite transportation

Our hotel (http://www.reservaaguamarina.com/ ) was probably one of the best in town, but seemed pretty simple.  A few acres along the bluff with amazing sunset views, a nice pool with hangout area/ bar/ hammocks next to it, and a nice restaurant on the bluff with great views of the ocean. Whales were spotted from breakfast more than once.  We had a little cabin, with beds for kids upstairs, and bed for us downstairs. Rainwater showers were just outside.  Kara couldn’t believe that the hotel does not supply any drinking water, and we had to go to a store down the street to buy anything bigger than a tiny bottle.  

The town of Ladrilleros was an interesting little town.  In the interior there was one main muddy street, with shops, hotels, and restaurants along, and a mix of Colombian tourists and locals.  On the beach side, apparently there used to be a broad sandy beach with palms, that a tractor transport brought you along to the hotels. However the beach has all moved away, apparently is a few hundred meters offshore in a reef, but along most of the town and most of the town the cliffs go down directly to the waves.  We did go along the the beach in town, and the waves and water were nice, but the water is very murky/ cloudy with sediment, probably from the rivers up stream, and quite covered in garbage at the tideline, probably from Buenaventura.  

Simon and the high tide line

A society full of sandals and water bottles

We really liked walking around in the town, stopping in the shops to chat with people, and seeing the village life.  The town is mostly African-Colombian, with a mix of upland mestizo Colombians, and a few residents of a local Indigenous tribe.  At night we went to a concert at a cultural center in town, with Afro-Colombian kids in a marimba band, and women and girls from the nearby indigenous village doing traditional dance.   

The highlights of the tip were the two boat tours that we signed up for, whale watching, and jungle exploring.  For the whale watching tour we got to start out with the fun of tripling on a motorbike, back to the pier at Juanchaco, where we got some information about the local National Park, from a small Visitor Center there. And then into the panga not very far off shore to see the whales. Basically we mostly followed along a pair of baby and mother who were swimming along.  The baby was a month or two old and already as big as the panga.  The fun was the baby doing lots of breaching and getting its body out of the water. The mom mostly stayed alongside and shepherded the baby.  Another hightlight for me was the Isla de las Palmas, an awesome uninhabited island just behind where we were watching the whales. Plenty of nesting sea birds and sea caves, and looks like an awesome place  to go back and do a sea kayak.

baby humpback breaching

The second trip we didn't quite understand where we were going, but we walked from the hotel through the town, past the indigenous village, and down into a landing in the mangroves behind the town.  We had a small group, with a nice local guide we had met in town at a store near the hotel, and a canoe with a small motor.  We set out and had an entrancing ride through the mangroves, and the surrounding jungle.  First we headed upriver to a beautiful swimming hole, with a great jumping off spot, a nice waterfall to play on, and spectacular jungle all around.  We shared the swimming hole with another large group of Colombian tourists, but it was fun.  Next we headed down river and into the mangroves and out to the sea. We went out through the mouth of a huge sandbar to a small Afro-colombian community eponymously named Barra.  We had lunch of fresh fish on the beach, played soccer and made sandcastles.  We had a fun swim out in the waves, much cleaner this time, and a nice shave ice out in the middle of the beach.  The water temperature was just perfectly perfect.  

Overall on the trip we were just feeling like being travelers again, being out there in the day to day adventures, and how fun and good it felt to be doing it with the kids.  Certainly every day the kids had some low point or tough spot, but in generally it felt great to be out in new places and little villages exploring the world.  We felt pretty lucky, we had good weather and calm seas to see the whales, we had nice weather at the beach.  The next day it was rainy and the seas were  rough and we headed home.  We got Dramamine, good seats, and a nice safe driver on the way back over the mountain and got home fine.  

Soy Capaz campaign - Lollipops for Peace

Soy Capaz - Branding and national reconciliation

This month we are in the middle of a campaign that has enlisted the private sector in the push for national reconciliation.  The name of the campaign is Soy Capaz, ( I am capable).  

There is the superstar song and Youtube with all the most famous singers

There is a lot of public push in terms of propaganda and messaging around Colombia needing to move on from years of war and atrocities.  Lots of memories, trauma, and bitterness to get over.  Last summer at Berkeley before we left I saw the new Colombian ambassador speak and he had lots of messaging around reconciliation, including  a moving story about his own daughter being kidnapped.  There is plenty of historical precedent, from South Africa, Rwanda, the Balkans, about how to move on. When we went to the circus in August, the clowns took a break from fighting and waved white flags and asked us all to get along.  

Here is a recent newspaper story, with three compelling stories of reconciliation:

http://www.elpais.com.co/elpais/judicial/noticias/tres-historias-perdon-y-reconciliacion-calles-cali#cxrecs_s

A photo of a woman who had been kidnapped hugging the guerrilla who kidnapped her, a story of someone who’s kid had been shot supporting the kids of the shooter (at BMX racing) , and a man in a wheelchair from gang crime who works with youth in a poor barrio.  

So we now have a Chamber of Commerce type campaign to get all the companies’ brands to message along.  You take the beginning Soy Capaz, and then you riff on it in some ways that has a pun between your product, and reconciliation, or some broad social aspiration

http://www.soycapaz.org/que-es

For Instance the local soccer club weighed in with their angle

http://deportivocali.co/el-futbol-ni-justicias-divinas-ni-rencores/

Here is a big banner over the checkout counter at our local mega market Jumbo ( I am capable of constructing progress) 

And note the huge paper cranes hanging around the store.  

Here is the logo of the restaurant chain , Crepes and Waffles, redone to be a Soy Capaz logo, in that way that you don't really see the rewriting because the font and design are so close to the original.  

And I went to buy eggs, and I had a choice of Soy Capaz eggs, or not.  I went with the Soy Capaz eggs because I would have bought them anyways  ( I am capable to feed a smile ) 

And Friday night we were out at and met some folks at a promotional event outside some stores and restaurants in the neighborhood.  I asked a guy I met who worked for the big candy company whether he was part of SoyCapaz, and he whipped out his Iphone to show me the product - a SoyCapaz lollipop

“Soy Capaz de ponerle sabor a lo que amo”  ( I can put flavor in that which I love?!)

“Soy Capaz de alimentar los sueños de todo un país”  ( I can feed the dreams of a whole country) 

You know you're living in the tropics when...

Your kitchen only has 3 walls!   The kitchen opens onto the washroom, which only has a partial roof, so it actually rains inside the house.  This morning we had our first hard, long rain (AMAZING), and it was just a tad chilly (66 F).  It was the first time it really hit us that we couldn't seal ourselves off from the outside.  On the other side of the kitchen we can sit on the covered patio and practically be in the storm.  It's awesome.

We went to buy cleats and end up touring the factory - Tony II

Tour de Tony II

The kids needed soccer cleats for Phys Ed class at school and soccer after school.  I asked around where a good and “economico” place to buy cleats would be. A neighbor recommended that we go in to the Centro ( downtown)  to a factory outlet called Tony II.   The center of town is a retail powerhouse - tons of shops and certainly a whole different vibe than going to the big malls or “centros commercials” that are here in the South of the city.  But I looked it up on google maps and could see it was right next to a public transit (Mio) stop, and looked at street view to confirm we could find it. So we headed off after school on Friday.

I was kind of excited because it turns out Tony II is a Colombian brand of cleats, and I was happy to be buying the local brand, and not another thing imported from China to a big box store.  We were attended super well in a small but nice shop, but of course I had to ask- who is Tony, and why is it named Tony II, what about Tony I?  And according to the women in the shop it turned out Tony himself was around, and hanging out on the sidewalk in front of the store, and so we go to meet him and ask the story directly.  

Tony was the ultimate classic character - immediately apparent and perfect in every way. He has been making cleats in Colombia for 40 years. It turns out his older brother was called Tony, because back in the 60s, guys who greased their hair and dressed up fancy were called “Tony” after the US star Tony Curtis.  His actual name was Benjamin, but Tony stuck.  And the younger brother was called Tony II ( Tony the second) because he followed his older brother around. he had a wonderful florid description for what a Tony was, and we even learned a new expression “pipiripau”  for someone who is elegant - who is “the man”.  

Simon, looking through every color in his size, finally found one he likes but the insole was a little uneven. So I ask for another, and they send it upstairs to be fixed. So we have to wait a while and it occurs to me to ask - where is the factory of Tony II, and they say its upstairs.  And indeed I have to ask for a tour of the factory, which we ended up getting, with Super Buena Onda, from Tony II himself!  

First stop was wear the leather gets punched out by a huge hydraulic press, some delicious combo of machinery and the art of using the leather carefully.  The black and blue U shapes on the table are the toes of cleats...

Here are the aluminum punches  - that must be made different for each size or model of cleat

Then the leather is taking to the sewing and gluing room, where they pieces are stitched up and glued together.  Sweatshop? Toxic fumes?  or a small company working hard?

Tony is demonstrating this huge heat and pressure machine that molds the front of the shoe around a foot mold

Here are the molded uppers on the "assembly line" going past the stations of machines on their way towards the soles..

 After the glue and the nail, the sole is sewed on by this super huge sewing machine, and the guys is pushing the two pieces through.  This was impressive to watch.  

Discarded foot molds, in bins for every size 

End of the line is gluing in the insoles...

Great guy, and great to meet him, super timeless and classic

 Awesome old school look, bright primary colors, and nice real leather and stitching, pretty good shoe for US$30

No E. coli!

Simon and I did our first tap water test today - no E. coli!  Which is reassuring, given that we have already been drinking our tap water for a full month, knowing that Cali's tap water is supposed to be good quality.  But there was no water yesterday for about 4 hours, which made me suspicious, because my research group has previously shown that water stoppages can result in dirty water getting sucked into the pipes when the pressure drops.  To test the water, we used a cool new test kit - the "Aquagenx Compartment Bag Test".  Developed by researchers at UNC, it is designed to be the simplest way to test directly for E. coli and get an actual concentration instead of just a "yes" or "no" answer.  You don't need any special equipment, and they claim that you can incubate the sample anywhere between temperatures of 25 C (77 F) and 35 C (95 F).  Other tests require incubation at 35 C, which requires an incubator in most places in the world, something most people don't have sitting around in their homes.  In fact, many laboratories don't even have incubators.  Instead, we incubated the sample at room temperature during the day (~ 27 C), and then Oliver and I took turns sleeping with the sample at night.  On the second day, just to make sure we gave the E. coli sufficient opportunity to grow, I carried the sample around on my stomach all day.  So far so good.  

Unfortunately, at a research meeting today I learned that the main water source for Cali's drinking water, the Cauca River, is horrendously polluted with agricultural chemicals due to the massive sugar cane industry, coffee, bananas, and cattle and pig farms.  I am hoping that our district receives its water from a smaller river that is less impacted, but am having a hard time confirming this.  Anyway, that wouldn't help the rest of the city.  It's disappointing, because the public utility here seems to be doing so many things right, but they can't control upstream pollution in the river.

First Day of School

Today was the first day of school. It had been much anticipated and many days of dealing to get ready. There was finding the school, visiting, applying, orientation, and something we aren't used to, paying. The kids area going to the Colegio Bennett - a friendly and nice bilingual English-Spanish school, about five minutes away. In many ways the cultural adjustment is mostly an adjustment to private school, which is new to us.  Everyone is both nervous and excited about meeting new kids, getting by in Spanish, and we are all optimistic it will work out well.

 The kids have two uniforms, a formal one and one for days with sports:

If you look in the background of this picture you can see Kara popping out of our garden of our little brick condo.  The kids are out of the house and headed up to the gate.


We signed them up for the bus, as we don't have a car.  But it is a bit expensive as the school is so close by, so we will have to see how it goes:

Here they are about to get into the bus. There is a person who rides in the back of the bus with the kids and a clipboard, and who runs in to ring the buzzer or talk to the doorman while the driver stays in the bus.



We followed to see the kids in their classroom, and to carry the big bag of school supplies that the school has asked that we purchase. They seemed to be doing fine, and we stopped by Oly's class just as he was introducing himself:

It turns out that on the first day they could wear either sports or formal uniform and everyone else had chosen the sports uniform.  Except the other new kid next to Oly who had no uniform.

And as we were leaving there was a huge racket out in the street. It was the seniors all hanging out of their cars and honking horns and throwing streamers, etc,

It was quite cute.