Cali

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So, we'd heard that there was a hostel in Cali that had a pool, Pelican Larry. It does have a pool but it doesn't have any water, ha ha. It was pretty ugly and the owner wasn't that friendly so we went around the corner to the much cuter Hostal Iguana. Cali was quite a bit warmer than Salento and San Agustin - hurrah! The first day, we went for a wander around town and found some giant busybody statues acting out scenes of Colombia gaining its independence from Spain. We walked to a pretty area called San Antonio, looking for a bar with some music. Adam asked a lady in the street (he liked her pink hat) and she took us to a place belonging to a friend of hers. It wasn't strictly open at that time, but the hostess welcomed us in and served us some beers. There was no music, though. There was some sort of workshop going on in the front room - apparently some homeless people were there to express themselves through the means of grafitti. When we got back to the hostel, we had a new roomie - Matthew from Atlanta - who was in town to find his biological family, and we took him out for dinner with us while he told us his story.

The next day, Adam, Anna and I went to the aquaparque and splashed about. It was great fun, but unfortunately for us, a bit cloudy. Then I managed to bang my head really hard whilst on one of the slides. I was a little dazed for a while, but no concussion. They closed the slide after that.

That night, I said my sad goodbyes to Anna and Adam as they boarded their bus to Popayan on the way back to Ecuador, and after, a delicious steak dinner with Matthew and another Matthew, I too took a bus to Bogota where I was to meet Anna (the London one). At the bus station, I got talking to a father and teenage son, and it turned out that the son's mother was Russian. So we conversed a little in Russian, then the son sat next to me on the bus and we chatted for a while in Spanish about languages, and in particular German. I woke up in the night when the driver put the radio on (why? WHY?) and asked him to turn it off or down, which he wouldn't do. I had to resort to sticking things in my ears. Still, nothing could dull my mood too much as it was only one day before Anna was due to arrive and before the start of the beach holiday (and last) part of my trip.

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