http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from South America , Colombia , Cali en-us Wed, 14 May 2008 02:14:07 BST Wed, 14 May 2008 02:14:07 BST When I went to meet the kids I was planning to volunteer with they were sitting quietly watching TV but I was immediately jumped on and hugged by 4 little monkeys called Jhon Yahaira Nicole and Cristian Duane. I clearly wasnrsquot the first foreign volunteer they had seen and without any further questions or introductions I was dragged out to the patio area where they had all their toys to pl http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-266901.html I arrived in Cali at the beginning of the month with exactly 31 days until I need to be back on the north coast for my lift out of here to central America. I wanted to work here for a while in order to improve my Spanish a bit more and to see a part of Colombia from a non backpacker point of view. I had chosen Cali as it is not really on the gringo trail but if I am honest the fact that it lists i http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-264843.html HOLA AMIGOSNow broadcasting from around the globe with bitesize clips is the new Dude Show called El Mundo and Its Peeps which you can watch on the following addresswww.youtube.comsalala1980 Once you go to the webpage you will see 6 videos that I have uploaded they are towards the bottom of the page on the right hand side. Click on any one to watch it. Once you have watched it go back to www.yo http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-262741.html Daniela and I have now finally met in Cali. Today together with a guy from Holland and a girl from New Zealand with whom Daniela had been travelling for the past couple of days we went to the zoo which is supposed to be one of the nicest ones of South America. Tonight we'll try out Cali nightlife which has a reputation for being wild. http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-247023.html Hola de nuevo a todo el mundo pues en fin de Ecuador llegamos a Colombia hace casi una semana. El primer lugar de nuestro recorrido por este hermoso pais fue Cali donde nos acogio Jose Francisco el padre de Juan un muy buen amigo de Ivan de la universidad. A pesar de su mala fama de antao por el carter de cali las cosas han cambiado bastante en los ultimos aos y es hoy en dia una ciudad muy http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-227090.html After a relaxing few days around the Popayan area it was time to get on yet another bus and head north again to the city of Cali.....home of famously good looking women salsa and apparantly the city is the world leader in plastic surgery. Luckily this trip was only a few hours on a paved road as my patience and enjoyment level of taking a bus ride is diminishing as the days go by. Cali itself I http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-212896.html Hello From The Salsa Capital of Sth America Of course I am here with Claire.So much to catch up on. But i will just stick to the last few days and fill in the gaps some time later... Colombia is amazing like a spainsh speaking brazil... Perfect ey. Funny to the accent is a little different to the andean perivain ecuasorean spanish that claire and i have been used to. But we are keen to conu http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-206474.html Cali has three museums three big churches and according to ldquothe bookrdquo not much else. It does have a very nice Mall Chichi Chape that can be reached on foot along a busy polluted main road. There are quite a few interesting shops that offer a wide variety of interior decorating designs. This is only from observing the show windows. One shop had very appealing furniture and figurine http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-206178.html Two hours from Cali on the heavily militarised Buenaventura road sit several uninspiring wooden shacks. Yet behind this seemingly dull facade lies the magical village of San Cipriano. Its just over the crystal clear river and down a set of disused train tracks.As we Mark Darragh and I got off the bus we were greeted by the young athletic Oscar who led us over a rope bridge to a set of train tra http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-197843.html I watched as the 8 year boy ran lithely down the slope with my bag. His mud covered feet deftly moving whilst I slipped and slid my way towards the bottom. I began to wonder if I was going to see it again. Months on the road had lodged a fair chunk of wariness and distrust in my psyche. Sadly I had heard too many stories of being ripped off held up and taken advantage of. But there he was pati http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-197489.html Well its been a very busy week We left San Agustin and got a bus to Cali which took absolutely ages as at one point we got stuck in a massive hole in the road and had to dig ourselves out. Well I didn't personally help but it did look pretty tiring We arrived in Cali which was so HOT we spent the afternoon relaxing and went out to salsa in the evening. The main strip was very deceptive as ever http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-179381.html pic blog from calinbspSouth America raquonbspColombia raquonbspCali By NilocMay 29th 2007Colin Newcomerheres a few pics from cali where I just had a few days but had an amazing time. Went there with my buddy Ed from NYC who ended up stayin there. Man it was crazy Full circle from California to Cali colombia.peacemay 2007la paz http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-163595.html From start to PresentAntonio MartinezVasquezI've been in Colombia for a few days now the first time was about 20 years agoI'm 53yrs. young it isnt as dangerous as the US State Department states. Just use common sense that's all. I'm from Puerto Rico so I'm a native speaker of spanish not to be confused with Spanglish. So I pretty much fit in....even in Morocco since I'm a muslim Stay awa http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-151561.html Hola amigos y amigasToday we went to a trip we were planing to go for a long time from a last time... go to the lake which supposed to be beautiful.So we wake in a cloudy day opposite of days during last week but we anyway went... we got on we our friend from company mauricio which also organized all thing talk to the driver chosse recreation ground...We drove rof about 2 hours in one di http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-135435.html Well hello againToday starts as normal day of course a day after saturday.... Breakefast was fine. Then me and Bojan decide to go to a hill behind the Cali. On top there are three crosses and its looked small... but as always no soup it's eaten so hot as it was cooked.Se we start from bottom the only way always around 9.30. And it was already bloody hot. First we were searching where to http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-135428.html WellAfter few months I am back to Cali Colombia. After a long trip from Europe Ljubljana we arrived to final destination for next 35 days at least so long. The plane here was quite good Air France is better then Lufthansa you get more drinks....Well 26 hours on planes and airports you're littlle tired but not for few more drinks of course we me and 4 other guys have to said hello to http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-131600.html Cali was what I would say the first experience Irsquod had in a long time of feeling that I could be at home. The third biggest city in Columbia not only had white brown black people with blue green and even yellow eyes but seemed to not have a stereotypical type of person. Then to top it off the shopping malls had supermarkets like Asda Diesel Dunkin donughts and many other shops you would http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-129100.html text and photos to follow.... http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-109222.html Up early to get to the bus station in good time. We'd done our homework and checked out the various bus companies' windows around the edge of the terminal building and we'd picked a bus for our trip to Ipiales a small town on the Colombia Ecuador border. They weren't selling advance tickets though so that's why we got there early.Anyway when we got there it turned out that the bus we wanted http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-93062.html Our eversohectic schedule gave us a single day to explore Cali. This city Colombia's 3rd largest is famous for 2 things the home of the infamous Cali drug cartel although many syndicate leaders were jailed in 1995 and where Isabel spent her 3rd year of university.Cali is in Southern Colombia and we had picked it mostly because of this fact. In other words we didn't fancy spending much time http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-93061.html 4th August 7th AugustCALI...possibly the worlds capital of salsa as soon as i step off the bus i feel the humidity of the place...a warmth that ive been longing throughout my cold adventures through Bolivia Peru and Ecuador We stayed at hostel Iguana run by a friendly swiss guy who fell in love with a Columbian woman and decided to spend the rest of his life in this tropical wonderland ru http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-79775.html Yeeh so now im in the fabulous world of shakira and i swear her country bloody love her thats all they friggin play ha ha but I love her so i dont mindWell ive been ok at the moment about the saftey issues of columbia but I can definetly feel the diffrence in the people its just beacuse of the way they have been brought up to defend themselves so theres lots of tension all the time in bars and t http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-67506.html The first inkling that it was going to be an interesting night was when I met Pablo at the entrance to the party and we started chatting and I told him I was from the US. ldquoOh reallyrdquo he said. ldquoI spent 3 years in the US.rdquoldquoWhat partrdquo I asked. ldquoFloridardquo he replied simply.ldquoRight on what did you do while you were thererdquoldquoI sat in j http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-60713.html I would have to say that this has been the lazy portion of my trip. I have spent all weekend here and done absolutely nothing. That it is because there really is nothing to do around here during the day. I lie around watching TV listening to music and taking naps. Luckily this is a great hostel for that. With cool tropical breezes and an open air lounge that makes you feel like yoursquore on http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-57763.html All my rivals will see what I have in store.This is a line from a Pearl Jam song that I like to listen to when I am traveling. It is kind of a I am the man so donrsquot mess with me kind of song. And that is the kind of attitude you have to take when yoursquore traveling by yourself especially when yoursquore going to a city in the middle of the Colombian jungle. Thatrsquos right I http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-57389.html Carnivalno wordscrazy crazy crazyyou become a child again http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-43058.html Popayan a beautiful colonial town 2hs sout of Cali with white washed houses can be a bit tranquilo. But at night when they turn on the lights the magic comes into the town. Not many people know that only 2 hs from Popayan there is a beautiful national park caled Purace with its hot springs and cascades.Colombia definitely has a lot of water resources.Enjoy the pictures http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-42072.html Cali is the capital od SalsaIf you love to dance salsa rum aguardiente fiestas fiestas and to see the best looking woman man in Colombia You should not miss feria de CaliIt was una locuraUrsula http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-41564.html Not with you but thinking about youThink about all great things that happened to you in 2005with a smile on your faceand in year 2006finnaly start doing and enjoing lithe simple things that are fulfill our everyday lifes. World can be small if only your desire is stong enoughdesire is just an desire if you dont make a first step.Wish you all the bestAnd remember to enjoy every single minute of http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-33537.html Tierradentro is magicSpending almost whole day to get there using all kind of public transport we finnaly reached Tierradentro. But it was absolutely worthy. We were being connected with a nature and making out theoris why how when more than 50 tombs were made. Doing some walking we refilled our bodies for the upcoming days.Tierradentro is definitely worth of visitAt the moment it is absolute http://www.travelblog.org/South-America/Colombia/Cali/blog-32883.html