My hometown Cali, Colombia.

date: Oct 18th, 2010.

Hmmm… I left my hometown so early when I was 19, and one of the best qualities/defects I have is that I got an elephant memory. It is really interesting how it does feel when you’re back to the place where you’re coming from after being abroad for a while (in my case it was 6 years since my last visit). And well, what I can say is that there are still many things that I feel identified with such as; borojo juice, green mangos (still ripe) and the chontaduros. My goodness, I miss it so much, eating a couple of chontaduros every afternoon with a touch of honey and salt is priceless, it has a very unique taste, this is my favourite fruit, unfortunately it can be only found in the tropic (caribbean area), It is a bit sad I’m nowadays eating fish and chips instead of chontaduros but at the end it really worth make an effort. Life is always about choices and sacrifices; the concept of paradise depends on how flexible you are.

Cali is so close to the Pacific Ocean, less than 2 hours driving, and because of where it is in the globe, near to the equator line the temperature is almost the same during the whole year (30 degrees Celsius average) we don’t have that concept of winter, spring, summer and autumn. We are in a continuous summer with some rains occasionally but the best thing is that the city has constantly a refreshing breeze all the time, there are coconut palms everywhere, people are normally so friendly, they really know how to cook and eat well, and also they know how to dance salsa since very young, I learnt when I was 4 I guess.

I'm not living there anymore

Well, not everything about my hometown is wonderful. One of the biggest disadvantages it has is that it is one of the least cosmopolitan cities of the country which makes everybody behaves the same and follow the same patterns (short vision, short projection). During the earliest 80s and 90s my city was hit by some of the biggest mafia organizations of the country (drug cartels) which destroyed completely the city in both senses economy and society. I still remember all this (of course I do), my ears heard some these bombs detonated by the mafia pushing the government to the limit, and at the same time there were jobs for everybody and it was so easy to have some spare cash in pockets every day. I knew about some people who paid mortgages (30 years fixed term) of properties that went down less than half price in less than 10 months. Let’s say you have spent your early life saving some money for one day buying your own property (an apartment in the 10th floor of a building) and then a “mafia man” just 6 months later on buy all the apartments of the floors 11th and 9th and sell them for less than half price, why? The answer is money laundry. So what happen with all these people who bought properties before? Most of them professionals and still students, they were all pissed and left the country and in that wave I jumped out as well. The easy money culture is not for me, it is a shame there is still a lot of this mentally in my hometown, easy money, easy live.

I hate cocaine

I think it is so clear why I hate this medicine “cocaine”, I don’t care if you use it, you can do with your body/brain whatever you want and nobody really cares about it apart of your mother, but the point is that every time you sniff a gram of cocaine what you’re actually doing is “feeding” the whole system behind where there are millions of Colombians facing a huge disgrace because of this. Did you know that more than 70% of the cocaine of the world comes from Colombia? Life is not about doing what we want when we want; it is about of what is right (fair). Stop being selfish.

My hometown youtube video

Anyway guys, I’m not here to speak about cocaine, I was talking about my hometown and I just wrote a song a couple of years ago speaking about it and I just felt inspirited the last time I been there (June of this 2010). I have published a quick video just driving on its streets. Take a look on it!



I hope you liked it, cheers!

date: 20 Oct 2010 - 16:03:50, published by ramon
lol! crazy video, and nice song by the way, lol.
date: 04 Dec 2010 - 05:05:12, published by MARCELO
colombiano clandestino!!!! hahahha qdo tu vai colocar alguma coisa de porto alegre ai meu????
date: 05 Dec 2010 - 20:50:54, published by Wilson
Curti. Aqui pelo menos tu admite tua colombianidade que tanto renega geralmente. Veio, precisamos ainda gravar algo juntos, abraco!
date: 18 May 2013 - 20:12:18, published by tatiana
I love your video and I Really love your song! it sounds like it belongs on the radio. Much better than Juanes....... I wish you a lot of success you have a great voice and poetry. Thank you for sharing.