Every year, the schools in Colombia that are part of SACS get together for Binationals, a several day sports tournament hosted by a different school each year. The high school, middle school and teachers all have different locations at different time of the year. As I mentioned at the end of my Panaca post that I went straight from Quimbaya to Pereira with three other 7th grade teachers for Binationals. As you can imagine, three days filled with activities with 7th graders followed by more traveling and a weekend of sports is exhausting. Good thing this was all followed by Semana de Receso.
Anyway, after the buses taking everyone back to Cali dropped us off closer to town, we wandered our way around asking how and where to catch a bus to Pereira. And by "we" I mean Christian, one of the PE teachers. Thank goodness for him because the collective Spanish of Durkee, Scott and I probably wouldn't have gotten us far. We found a helpful little old man who informed us we could just wait at this corner for a bus to come and he would flag it down for us. Sounds great. We grabbed something to drink and waited with all of our bags outside a little tienda for the bus to come, with no specific arrival time. After about 15 minutes, the man informed us that we in fact had to go somewhere else to catch the bus. I didn't actually catch what he said, but we had to get up and do more wandering so that's what I inferred. We wandered for about another 10 minutes until we found a bus place, where they told us we had to go to a different corner to catch the bus to Pereira. Five more minutes of wandering and we found the bus, ready to leave. Luckily it was the first stop so we all got seats after paying our whopping $5000 pesos (close to $3 USD) for our 1.5-2 hour bus ride. As is the case with most Colombian buses, the driver stopped anywhere and everywhere to pick up anyone and everyone along the way, which is why our trip was a little longer. It got pretty crowded and hot, but luckily I had grabbed a seat next to the window and exhaustion from Panaca allowed me to sleep the majority of the time. Even when an elderly gentlemen was jabbing his elbow into my side for about 30 minutes. Thank you sir.
When we got to the bus terminal in Pereira we caught a cab to our hotel and Christian got us all checked in. Then we went out to the centro to grab a bite to eat, at which point we realized that Christian, bags still in hand, wasn't actually staying at the hotel. His parents live about 30 from there and he was going to stay with them. So in other words, he went COMPLETELY out of his way to make sure we got to our hotel and found a place to eat safely and double and triple checked that we knew how to get back before he had more traveling of his own to do. Amazing. Yet another reason I love Colombia, my school and co-workers. Scott, Durkee & I grabbed some Italian food and looked around the mall a bit before heading back and waiting for the people from Cali to arrive. Their bus wasn't leaving school until 6pm so they weren't scheduled to arrive in Pereira until about 9:30-10:00. When I got back to the hotel I caught up on Internet, attempted to read before passing out around 8pm. Woke up when David knocked at the door and then pretty much went back to sleep until morning. Field trips are exhausting.
Volleyball and basketball games weren't until 1 in the afternoon the next day, so neither David nor I bothered to set alarms. Luckily we woke up at 7am to discover our bus was leaving for the school at 7:30 for the day and we would be back until midnight or later. Quickest shower and re-packing ever. We made our way to Licio Ingles, the host school for the morning soccer games. Still somehow exhausted and having little knowledge in the rules of soccer, I spent my morning sitting on a bench attempting to read/nap. Lunch came around and then it was time for volleyball and basketball. One of the other three schools didn't have a team and Bolivar had enough for two, so we split up. Not sure if it was A and B teams (in which case I was definitely put on B) but we both lost to the other two school playing, but I will say we put up a heck of a fight. I still have floor burns from all my awesome diving for balls sans knee pads. Three games in a row was exhausting and while it was fun, I was certainly fading and glad it was over. After our games, the basketball moved from the outdoor court to the covered (but still open-air) court. Good thing, because most of the players were sun burnt from playing outside for 2-3 hours.
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| Most of the Bolivar competitors |
After all the sports we showered and changed to get ready for our evening with all the athletes at a finca another school was renting out. Although finca literally translates as farm, it refers more to a countryside house or estate. After several stops along the way we finally got there and I got to enjoy my first ever lechona, a traditional Colombian meal consisting of a roasted pig stuffed with rice and other vegetables. Looks gross, tastes delicious. The rice from the pig is served with an arepa and some of the crispy skin from the pig. In general, lechona is made for special events or occasions, our co-worker had one for his wedding, and they can feed MANY people. Although I was originally very excited for a night of fun, the blaring music and onset of continued exhaustion (I'm telling you it was a LONG 5 days) and excitement wore off and all I wanted to do was sleep. Others agreed. While some partied and danced, especially when the live band came, many of us sought hammocks, empty couches or any open floor to rest on. Finally around 11:30 our friend Lyndi had had enough and called several cabs, since our bus wouldn't be going back until after 1am.
Sunday was meant to be another day of sports, but instead of school against school, we integrated teams and played. The day started a little later and there was one soccer game and then lunch and then a basketball game. No one who played volleyball had any interest in playing so we didn't. We're a bunch of bums. We packed up and boarded the bus for our trip back to Cali. After 5 days gone, getting back and sleeping in my own bed never felt so good, but I'd probably do it all again given the chance.
Oh and in case you were wondering, the school that hosted Binationals didn't have a softball field, hence, no softball. Bummer.
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