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Published: October 5th 2011
From Salento I went to Cali, where I stayed 2 nights at Pelican Bobs, which although had everything required of a hostel, lacked a bit in atmosphere. I arrived with Chris in tow, who was killing a few hours before taking the bus overnight to Quito. We asked the owner, Gunter, what we should do in the few hours Chris had, and he advised us to go to a shopping centre and watch the local women walk by. Cali is famed for being the plastic surgery capital of South America and with ‘official’ tourist advice, eagerly headed for what we hoped would be an entertaining afternoon. Unfortunately there was not an abundance of female activity, however enough examples were on parade for me to establish that a fair amount of boob and bottom enhancements do take place in Cali and unfortunately I would not get to see them parade on a Friday or Saturday night. What made me laugh too, were the mannequins in the shop displays - they all had massive fun bags, supposedly representative of the local population.
The next day I went for a walk around to town, to realise that Cali has virtually nothing for the
tourist, unless you are there to party - again I got my timings all wrong! The most fascinating thing that happened to me was being offered cocaine and marijuana whilst looking round inside a church! Only in Colombia I guess! I then killed time watching the local people go about their daily lives, whilst enjoying cups of coffee from the cafes that lined the main street.
I left the next day and headed to Popayan where I only stayed one night before making the 15 hour journey across the border to Otavalo in Ecuador. I would have liked to stay a touch longer in Colombia but I am now on a bit of a time budget and felt as though I had seen everything I had planned on seeing and was satisfied with my time in Colombia. It really is an amazing country that offers everything; from big cities like Bogota and Medellin, fantastic beaches on the Caribbean coast, jungle treks in both the north of the country and the Amazon in the south, green hills in the coffee region and party places for long weekends. I hope I haven’t viewed it too much through rose tinted glasses, but
the people were warm, friendly and accommodating and I never once felt in any sort of danger. I wholeheartedly recommend this as a place to travel, even if only for a couple of weeks, where you really can do so much! Thanks for the experience Colombia…I hope to be back one day!!
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