Like me, the Dutch couple - Cris & Kim - were also going from Popayan to Cali. Along the way, we met an American guy called Ben who was also headed to Cali. So the four of us got a bus for the short 3 hour journey, and later shared a taxi to Hostel Iguana.

The hard-to-spot Hostel Iguana

Later at night, when the battery of my netbook was running low and I needed to charge it, I simply could not find the power adaptor. I searched high and low, but it was nowhere to be found. I was beginning to get worried, because once the netbook died, getting on the internet would become quite troublesome. I did not even have a phone that could connect to the internet, because early on when I had just started the trip, I had traded my sleek-but-crappy blackberry for a simpler-but-functional phone. As I was sitting in the common area of the hostel deciding on my next course of action, I spotted the exact same model of netbook on a side table. Its owner turned out to be a girl called Sarah from the UK, who had been in Cali for more than 3 weeks already. Not only did she let me borrow her power adaptor, but also said that she’d leave it out in the lobby so that I could use it whenever I wanted - that was just awfully nice of her.

Pedro and I had agreed to meet in Cali if possible and our meeting was made tremendously easy by the fact that hostel Iguana was exactly where he was also staying. Later that night, just past 1 am, Pedro, Sarah, a few other guys from the hostel and I decided to head out to check out the nightlife in Cali. We were a bunch of seven guys and only one girl - a combination that I imagine would have a hard time getting into clubs anywhere in the world. But not so in Cali. Clubs were more than happy to let us all in, but the steep entry costs discouraged us poor hostel-dorm-sharing backpackers. Finally we settled for a slightly downmarket but nevertheless lively bar.

Here we met a group of Colombian girls who joined our group, and language barrier notwithstanding, started cozying up to some of the luckier-than-me individuals of our group. After a few drinks, the cozying up advanced to a rather high degree; so much so that it became a little embarrassing to even sit around the same table. When it was time to pay for our drinks, the aforementioned lucky individuals were more than happy to foot the bills of their new companions. Thereafter, our now even larger group moved to a nearby McDonalds for “dinner” (it was close to 4 in the morning by now). I noticed with some discomfort how the newcomers in the group ordered a bunch of stuff but once again made no attempt to reach for their wallets. The group split thereafter in order to make our way back to the hostel.

All of us were super surprised when the “lucky” guys also returned to the hostel a little while later, because we had all assumed that their night would end “happily”. Apparently, the local girls made some excuse immediately after the group split and had soon vanished into the night. Anyway, it was 6 am by now and I was dead tired and didn’t stick around to ask more questions. I stumbled my way to my bed in the dormitory only to discover that a girl was sleeping in my place. Someone more adventurous than I may have seen this as an opportunity to cuddle up next to her, but despite being totally exhausted, I managed to find myself an alternative bed.

The exposed roots of a tree near the hostel