Sereny and Leslie, who work at the same place, were taking me to Cali for the graduation ceremony and poetry reading at the Japanese language school they attend. Cali is the third largest city in the country after Bogota and Medellín and is famous for its salsa dancing. This time they took the least expensive bus, but it was a long 12-hour trip each way. The route took us over several mountain passes in the Andes Mountains and down more than 1,600 meters from Bogota, which is 2,600 meters above sea level.
The atmosphere at the bus terminal in Bogota was like that in Japan, and since it was the night before the start of a three-day weekend, many buses and people heading to various destinations were gathered there. The bus they were supposed to take arrived an hour late, but they had empanadas to fill our stomachs for the long trip. Since it was an overnight bus, they didn’t get to enjoy the scenery as much as they would have liked, but they slept well, so it didn’t seem that long. They arrived in Cali around 7:00 the next morning and headed for Sereny’s relative’s house who accepted them for a homestay.
In the afternoon, they went to the downtown area of Cali to see a poetry reading by Sereny-san and Leslie-san. The reading was “In Spring” by Shuntaro Tanikawa, a poem with which he was familiar. The content of the reading varied depending on the level of Japanese language study, with some people talking about Cali and Colombia, while others talked about more advanced topics such as the history of Japan and the appeal of the Japanese language. One person who compared special effects such as Kamen Rider and Hollywood movies, and another who spoke about his father who unfortunately passed away last year, were at such a high level that you would have thought they were Japanese. As a student of a foreign language, Ryoga really wanted to learn from him.
On the same day, there was a retirement ceremony for the principal, and although it was our first time meeting him, they could tell that he was a much-loved teacher by both students and teachers.
After leaving the Japanese language school, they were tired, so they had Cholado, a kind of shaved ice, and enjoyed eating Chontaduro, Lulo, Guanábana, and other fruits that they had never heard of or seen before.
He went to a club to experience the famous salsa in Cali. He was taught not only salsa, but also reggaeton, salsa Choquet, and many other dances. Each genre had its own way of dancing, and he moved my body as he saw fit. It was a club for young people, and by the time the sun went down, the venue was filled with the sound of many singing voices and a great deal of excitement. he was told by a friend who went with him, “In Latin America, they do a lot of dancing from a very young age!” He was told by a friend who went with him. He had never been to a dance floor like this before, but it was a wonderful and memorable experience.
A teacher they met at a Japanese language school was going to show me around Cali, so they went to see some of the tourist attractions in Cali together. First, they headed to a market. They were served sancocho de gallina, a soup with a whole chicken in it. The soup tasted as good as it looked. After that, they continued on to enjoy all of Cali, including San Antonio Park, where they had a panoramic view of Cali’s city center, and Cat Park, where they could see 24 cats placed along the river.
The returning bus to Bogota was a long one, taking 16 hours. They left Cali at 7:30 in the morning and arrived in Bogota at 1:00 in the morning the next day. Between Cali and Bogota is a series of 5,000-meter mountains called the Andes, so they had no choice but to slowly make their way along the winding road, repeatedly descending and ascending through mountainous towns. What was unexpected was that the bus was stuck in the pass for more than three hours due to an accident involving the vehicle ahead of us on a single road pass. It was a blessing in disguise that the place where they stopped was just near an observatory and a store selling snacks. Because it was the last day of a three-day weekend, they ended up getting stuck in another traffic jam about four times, which delayed our arrival considerably, but he personally thought it was a great experience because they were able to learn about Colombian cuisine through conversations with strangers on the bus.
