Sunflower hostel is run by Colombian man and his wife whose niece Lina also works in the hostel on reception. Except Lina, there is a cleaner Fanny who comes times a day. Rather than that the hostel is fuly run by volunteers. When I arrived there were two Aussies, Lewis and Anthony.
Sunflower gang
Lewis left a week after I arrived and was replaced by an American called Zach. Anthony was working in the hostel for months by the time I arrived. Also staying in the hostel for a long time was a Brasillian girl Bruna who took part in exchange program in a local University. These two collected quite a group of people, mostly foreigners who stayed in Cali for some months. Sunflower proved to be not the most popular hostel in Cali, sometime we did not have guests at all (that made our work easy), but it was always full in the evenings, which made this place alive and welcoming.
Here's who I met there.
Guaya, Spanish girl travelling in South America. She used to volunteer in Sunflower and was renting a room nearby, learning to salsa. Later on she had some troubles with Colombian Immigration and had to leave, but is coming back later in January.
Sergio, Guaya's black Colombian boyfriend who works in salsa school - that is where she met him. I believe he is also a reason for her comeback.
Alejandro, skinny Colombian, gringo hunter who is in desperate search of girlfriend (preferably gringa). Guyaya met him in salsa club and brought to Sunflower. Later on he met his (masochist) girlfriend from South Korea, we almost did not see him since then. Before even sandwich delivery guy thought he lived in Sunflower.
Ben, an American cycling around Colombia, he started in the North, cycled a week or so and ended up renting a room in Cali, he was there for a couple of months learning to salsa. How he met in Sunflower gang is unknown to me.
David, chinese american who knows LA style salsa, stayed in Cali for a month, went off travelling and came back later for La Feria de Cali. He was in Anthony's spanish class.
Sasha from Bahamas, another traveller who got stuck in Cali, working as English teacher. She used to stay in hostel nearby with David. She never learned how to salsa, but she does it well. It is her African heredity. Jealous!
There was another American David from Alaska, but he left shortly after I came. All I remember from him is that he was touchy.
There was also Jacky, Anthony's Colombian girlfriend, Alejandro's flatmate.
There was also some other random people who would come once or twice and I had no idea their connections to the group.
Jairo is an owner of the hostel, he started this business with his sister Liliana about 5 years ago, now when his sister went to live in Panama it is mainly his business and he runs it with his wife Gloria. Almost all sisters/nephews/nieces of Gloria worked in the hostel at some point of time. Then they would start hating Jairo and leave. Lina started working a couple of months before I came. She is Gloria's niece and lives with her mother few blocks away. She is of my age and is saving money to continue her study as a nurse. She has year to go. She is paid 15000 pesos for 6 hours shift, which is around 7.5 USD. Minimum wage in Colombia is around 250 USD per month.
With Lina and Anthony
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Bruna, David, Ben and Anthony
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Anthony, random person I do not know, Bruna, Sasha, Sergio, Zach, Guaya (lying down)
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So these are the people I met in Cali and spent over weeks with. Oh, wait! There are also my salsa teachers, Vanessa, always smiling, always happy; Andres, best dancer I met, strange guy though; and Luz, the owner of the school and a tough lady, I liked her teaching style and therefore lessons with her. Pupi, an owner of another school and director of National Ballet of Salsa of Colombia.
Sunflower day
I did not write much (well, at all) as all my days were similar: depending on my shift I would wake up traditionally early (ok, this is regardless of my shift), go to the market if I was out of veggies (I had my own stall where I'd buy everything and got some extras for free), go to the gym (I found cross-fit gym nearby, not official franchise and some of workouts were horrific, but I enjoyed a challenge and opportunity to do squats and kettlebells training), work, go to my private salsa class with Vanessa, rarely Andres (usually Vanessa would ask him to show me some moves), later with Luz, on Monday-Thursday there was another school that give cheap group leasons, we would go there as a group from the hostel, on Monday we would go to La Topa, Thursday to Tin Tin Deo to practice what we have learned during the class. These are two places where all gringo and Colombians alike go to dance fancy salsa with turns. Both of them are in the walking distance from the hostel. Another popular place was called El Rincon: outdoor space where people would sit down to drink with a small room with salsa music for dancing. The most democratic place in Cali: here freigners and locals would go to dance their different styles, there also would be hippies doing drugs and homeless people begging for money. All in one place.
Sometimes with work and all the classes my days for so full, I did not have time to relax: I would run from one place to another and then go out. I loved these days. I enjoyed being always busy. I guess I can never change it. I also tried to learn some Spanish and do Coursera course, but it did not work out well: with La Feria approaching we had more and more people staying, more and more work to do. Some days I did not have time to sit down and relax during my shift.
Trabajando
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Sunflower guests
We had all sorts of different guests staying in the hostel. First of all, of course, backpackers. Not as much as I expected to. Nothing really to say about them: same people I meet everywhere.
We had a whole football team staying. This was indigenous people football league, so teenagers from mountains area around Popayan were staying in the hoste with their coaches. As the oldest player was 21 yo, I had mostly attention from the coaches. A lot of attention. They miserably lost first game, have been out abd drinking a night after and suprisingly won the second game.
We had a group of actors from Buenaventura, one of them played in the movie which producer was Spike Lee.
We had a participant on Colombian version of The Voice, he rehearsed with another participant and gave interview in the hostel. He was staying in the saddest room though, more like closet we were full).
We had a group of IT guys from Popayan who worked on the project here. These guys never talked with foreigners and never stayed in hostels before. The oldest (and the bravest) left me his phone number and offered a company in my sofa bed during my night shift.
Sunflower gang
Lewis left a week after I arrived and was replaced by an American called Zach. Anthony was working in the hostel for months by the time I arrived. Also staying in the hostel for a long time was a Brasillian girl Bruna who took part in exchange program in a local University. These two collected quite a group of people, mostly foreigners who stayed in Cali for some months. Sunflower proved to be not the most popular hostel in Cali, sometime we did not have guests at all (that made our work easy), but it was always full in the evenings, which made this place alive and welcoming.
Here's who I met there.
Guaya, Spanish girl travelling in South America. She used to volunteer in Sunflower and was renting a room nearby, learning to salsa. Later on she had some troubles with Colombian Immigration and had to leave, but is coming back later in January.
Sergio, Guaya's black Colombian boyfriend who works in salsa school - that is where she met him. I believe he is also a reason for her comeback.
Alejandro, skinny Colombian, gringo hunter who is in desperate search of girlfriend (preferably gringa). Guyaya met him in salsa club and brought to Sunflower. Later on he met his (masochist) girlfriend from South Korea, we almost did not see him since then. Before even sandwich delivery guy thought he lived in Sunflower.
Ben, an American cycling around Colombia, he started in the North, cycled a week or so and ended up renting a room in Cali, he was there for a couple of months learning to salsa. How he met in Sunflower gang is unknown to me.
David, chinese american who knows LA style salsa, stayed in Cali for a month, went off travelling and came back later for La Feria de Cali. He was in Anthony's spanish class.
Sasha from Bahamas, another traveller who got stuck in Cali, working as English teacher. She used to stay in hostel nearby with David. She never learned how to salsa, but she does it well. It is her African heredity. Jealous!
There was another American David from Alaska, but he left shortly after I came. All I remember from him is that he was touchy.
There was also Jacky, Anthony's Colombian girlfriend, Alejandro's flatmate.
There was also some other random people who would come once or twice and I had no idea their connections to the group.
Jairo is an owner of the hostel, he started this business with his sister Liliana about 5 years ago, now when his sister went to live in Panama it is mainly his business and he runs it with his wife Gloria. Almost all sisters/nephews/nieces of Gloria worked in the hostel at some point of time. Then they would start hating Jairo and leave. Lina started working a couple of months before I came. She is Gloria's niece and lives with her mother few blocks away. She is of my age and is saving money to continue her study as a nurse. She has year to go. She is paid 15000 pesos for 6 hours shift, which is around 7.5 USD. Minimum wage in Colombia is around 250 USD per month.
With Lina and Anthony
Bruna, David, Ben and Anthony
Anthony, random person I do not know, Bruna, Sasha, Sergio, Zach, Guaya (lying down)
So these are the people I met in Cali and spent over weeks with. Oh, wait! There are also my salsa teachers, Vanessa, always smiling, always happy; Andres, best dancer I met, strange guy though; and Luz, the owner of the school and a tough lady, I liked her teaching style and therefore lessons with her. Pupi, an owner of another school and director of National Ballet of Salsa of Colombia.
Sunflower day
I did not write much (well, at all) as all my days were similar: depending on my shift I would wake up traditionally early (ok, this is regardless of my shift), go to the market if I was out of veggies (I had my own stall where I'd buy everything and got some extras for free), go to the gym (I found cross-fit gym nearby, not official franchise and some of workouts were horrific, but I enjoyed a challenge and opportunity to do squats and kettlebells training), work, go to my private salsa class with Vanessa, rarely Andres (usually Vanessa would ask him to show me some moves), later with Luz, on Monday-Thursday there was another school that give cheap group leasons, we would go there as a group from the hostel, on Monday we would go to La Topa, Thursday to Tin Tin Deo to practice what we have learned during the class. These are two places where all gringo and Colombians alike go to dance fancy salsa with turns. Both of them are in the walking distance from the hostel. Another popular place was called El Rincon: outdoor space where people would sit down to drink with a small room with salsa music for dancing. The most democratic place in Cali: here freigners and locals would go to dance their different styles, there also would be hippies doing drugs and homeless people begging for money. All in one place.
Sometimes with work and all the classes my days for so full, I did not have time to relax: I would run from one place to another and then go out. I loved these days. I enjoyed being always busy. I guess I can never change it. I also tried to learn some Spanish and do Coursera course, but it did not work out well: with La Feria approaching we had more and more people staying, more and more work to do. Some days I did not have time to sit down and relax during my shift.
Trabajando
Sunflower guests
We had all sorts of different guests staying in the hostel. First of all, of course, backpackers. Not as much as I expected to. Nothing really to say about them: same people I meet everywhere.
We had a whole football team staying. This was indigenous people football league, so teenagers from mountains area around Popayan were staying in the hoste with their coaches. As the oldest player was 21 yo, I had mostly attention from the coaches. A lot of attention. They miserably lost first game, have been out abd drinking a night after and suprisingly won the second game.
We had a group of actors from Buenaventura, one of them played in the movie which producer was Spike Lee.
We had a participant on Colombian version of The Voice, he rehearsed with another participant and gave interview in the hostel. He was staying in the saddest room though, more like closet we were full).
We had a group of IT guys from Popayan who worked on the project here. These guys never talked with foreigners and never stayed in hostels before. The oldest (and the bravest) left me his phone number and offered a company in my sofa bed during my night shift.
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