Favourite Photos (Part 4 of a gazillion: Colombia)

Sometimes, life hands you a glorious and rare opportunity on a platter - right out of the blue. I love it when life does that.

In 2008, I had such an experience - the absolute privilege of traveling to Cali, Colombia with my brilliant friend and colleague Tasha. Here she is, about three months pregnant at the time. She is as beautiful in spirit as she is in this photograph. She glows.

I went as part of a creative support team to help with a workshop production of an interdisciplinary performance piece. (If I've lost anyone here, let me say that we were working on a theatre/dance piece with slides and video). The piece tells two parallel tales about missing women from 2 different parts of the world.

In BC, a young woman travels from the suburbs to the infamous Downtown East Side in search of her sister who has dissapeared. If you don't know a lot about what's happened in BC regarding dozens of women who've gone "missing", you can read up here. Be warned that it's not a pretty story.

In Colombia, another young woman waits by the Magdalena River for her sister to come so that together they can escape the voilence that was marked by the struggle between FARC (the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerrillas and the Colombian Military.

Much of the voilence that happened in both places was towards indigenous people. First Nations women. In any event, my brilliant and talented friend was collaborating with a dancer from Colombia on a piece about the violence, the lives, the collilding stories of these two women from different Americas....

In between the time we spent in the theatre and working at our hotel, we were able to stroll the streets by day. When darkness falls, people tend to roll up the sidewalks and shut themselves inside. But by daylight, Cali is a beautiful city. I wanted to share some of the photos I took with you. The colours are beautiful, and people take such pride putting unique touches on their homes.

I have more photos, but I think I'll save them for another rainy day. I'll leave you with the one night time shot I have. This one was taken from the roof of our hotel.