Where To Sleep And A Model Shoot

I had met a guy called Jesus who had kept promising to find a place for me to stay but continually failed to contact me about anything. It was worth the shot though, and after 14:00 I had to leave the hostel if I didn't want to pay for another night. Therefore I left with all my stuff to maybe find Jesus. I wander the short way to the Plaza de la Paz in the centre of Barranquilla where we had met before but he is nowhere to be seen. I do see another artisan friend of mine that I had met in Taganga and who was selling some of his art on a street corner of the plaza. After putting down my luggage I start playing with his cute little black dog and as I do so a young woman that had been watching this from a distance approaches us. She starts looking at some of the jewellery and then turns to me. "Hello, what's your name?" She says and smiles. "Noah, your's?" I reply and look up from the little dog that had started chewing on my fingers. "Jessica. Nice to meet you, I just had a question for you: are you a model?" She says and briefly looks up to view the large screen that was hanging on the opposite street corner. "No, but thank you. I'll take that as a compliment." I reply and follow her gaze to the big screen, 14:54 it reads in big numbers - Jesus still hadn't called yet. "It's because I am a model - I have a shoot at four and well... ...if you want you can come with me." "I don't really have anything else to do..." I reply, quite happy to be able to wait in another way. Not the usual sitting on the ground watching the people pass by but instead sitting on a chair watching the models walk by. I follow her to the building where the shoot was taking place, admittedly not something incredibly grand just an empty class room that had been redesigned a little to function as a casting space. It was in the centre of the city though, which made it nice for me just in case Jesus wouldn't contact me at all so that I could just return to the same hostel I had slept in the night before. I watch some of the models put on their make-up and oil their bodies up for the shoot, in my head I was laughing a little and maybe I ended up grinning a little bit in disbelief. This world seemed so distant from the reality that I had been living in the past few days. "Noah, now you!" I hear Jessica say, shaking me out of the little thought world I had drifted into. "How do you mean?" I reply a little surprised. "I would like to take some pictures with you, just take your shirt off and I'll guide the rest. Just relax and try not to smile for the photos." She says and starts walking towards the white backdrop that was surrounded by different lights to provide the best shadows to show off the beautiful contours of the model bodies. Still a little stunned that I wouldn't just end up watching this I take off my shirt - now that I think about it though it should've been quite obvious to me that this was going to happen.

We leave after posing together and head to the main shopping centre nearby. It had started to get dark and so I decide to call Jesus who explained that he had been too busy to do search for a place. He was just trying to do a nice gesture of course but him not telling me that he wasn't able to find anything made it a little more difficult for me to plan my days. Jessica and I pass by a little restaurant while I am on the phone with Jesus, finding out that I didn't have a place to sleep yet. I see one of my artisan friends sitting on the stairs opposite side of the street, I wave to him and Jessica and I walk over to greet him. "Hey man, what's up? Haven't seen you around. Where are you staying tonight?" He says pointing at the backpack that I was carrying. "Not sure, that place you showed me and Kevin after the concert of Manu didn't work out in the end. Right now I am still looking for a place." I reply. "Ah ok, well why don't you stay with that beautiful lady on your side there?" He says and reaches out to shake her hand. I have to admit it had crossed my mind, but I must've forgotten to ask. He had just created a great window for asking though. However before I get the chance to say anything Jessica says: "Should be possible, but I have to warn you - my father is pretty strict." That night I sleep on the living room floor of her house, and not being awaken at 6:00 in the morning like at Kevin's place before was really enjoyable. This seems to be the norm of my travel life now, things like this just happen. All I can do is be grateful for the wonderful people that constantly cross my path and try to give back what I can by telling stories and sharing some of the wisdoms that I have learnt throughout the world.