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Published: September 6th 2009
Cali was mine penultimate stop in Colombia. I only had Popayan to visit before I needed to leave for Ecuador. I planned to spend about four days in Cali. During my time here I have found that, especially in somewhere like Colombia, it is the smaller villages which have the most character, and definitely the best people. Whilst I Rio, I met a guy from Cali, Andres who told me to look him up when I was passing through, and also I met a guy from London, Faisal who was also in Cali, so at least I had a couple of contacts to hook up with whilst in Cali.
As a city itself, Cali itself if probably most famous for plastic augmentation, and this was very evident when walking around the town and shopping malls, both of which I did on a daily basis. I actually think one visit to Chipichape (a shopping mall near my hostel in Santa Monica); I came back with neck ache.
I arrived into Cali onboard a night bus from Bogota. Eleven hours sat in one seat, which to give the bus company credit, the seat did recline. The only downside to this is
that the seat in front also reclined and more often than not, the guy in front has it pushed right back, and it is always pushed right into your knees. Eleven hours seemed to pass without a hitch, and after getting about four hours sleep I felt fresh to explore what Cali had to offer. After checking into my hostel, I took a walk to the local supermarket and bumped into a couple that I had met in Medellin. After a quick catch up I visited the supermarket on an empty stomach which was a bad mistake. I bought far too much for one person, but it wasn’t wasted at I would be in Cali for a few days.
The first place on the to-do list was a visit to Cali zoo, supposedly the best in Colombia. The only bad thing about the zoo, and it wasn’t a reflection on the zoo, was that I went mid-week which meant whilst I was walking around, apart from the animals to keep me company I had mouthy school kids. There was one point at the lion enclosure that I thought about accidently/on purpose pushing a couple of kids into the pit
and see how they fared against the true king of the jungle. For obvious reasons it was only a passing thought, but the zoo itself was definitely worth a visit. There was once instance in the bird sanctuary, where one of the birds flew down and sat on my shoulder the whole time I was walking around there. All the birds in there were loose and it was hard to image if this would happen in England. Once I got to the end of the sanctuary tried to take him off my shoulder by putting my thumb out for him to stand onto, instead he bit me and flew off. It was a real sneak attack.
After spending a couple of hours in the zoo, which including waving a spare banana that was in my bag in front of a couple of monkeys, I grabbed a taxi into town and decided to do some sightseeing in the centro (central) area. On the way to downtown I passed the Intercontinental and Sheraton hotels, which didn’t help. I was trying to convince myself that it wouldn’t hurt to stay there for just one night. Nice king size bed, hot shower, room
service, but I knew myself that if I did stay there, it wouldn’t be for one night. After wandering around a few stalls in centro, I decided to grab some food. There was a place, just off the main plaza where all the locals seemed to enjoy so I decided to give it a go. The set menu was 5,000COP, so I asked the woman if there was any fish, she confirmed there was and then asked me a question I didn’t fully understand. So like I have done in South America in times when I haven’t understood the question, I said yes. I didn’t want to look like a complete fool. What is the worse that could happen right? I got my starter which was soup, which every set menu begins with, but then it took a while for my main course to come. When it did come it was as if I ordered Moby Dick. This fish was huge. It is the biggest fish I have seen on a plate. I thought to myself, no wonder all the locals come here, this is amazing for less that £2. Then, two minute later the waitress puts my bill on
my table, 20,000COP. Oh No. The fish on my plate wasn’t the only thing that got caught that day. When she placed the bill done onto my table a little thought inside my head said ‘you had better finish that, or at least give it a bloody good go’. Four set lunches worth of fish had just landed its way on my plate. I tried my hardest to finish Moby but alias it was no use. I think I only managed one side, and I didn’t know the Spanish for doggy bag, so I had to leave it. Even though the bill came to the equivalent of £7, the fish was good value. The fish would have been enough for three people. After having the ‘shirt taken of my back’ for lunch, I decided I didn’t deserve a taxi back to the hostel so I opted for the thirty minute walk back. On the way back I counted numerous restaurants which offered set lunches for less than 4,000COP. They do say a fool and his money are soon partied.
That evening I was invited to play football with Andres and some of his colleagues. The kick off was 10pm,
a little later than I am used to, but playing sport at altitude was hard especially for two hours. Afterwards we went for a beer locally.
The following day was a holiday in Colombia so most of the shops were shut. It turned out to be a day of DVD’s and relaxing in the hostel. In the evening I met up with Faisal, and also a couple of people from my hostel, Danny and Jo and we visited the Igelsia de San Antonio church which looks out over Cali. After walking around and listening to some of the Colombia story tellers that were out entertaining the crowds (not that I understood a lot of what they said) I headed back to the hostel to get ready for a night of salsa dancing. Faisal had recommended a small place about ten minutes away from where I was staying called La Fuente. It was supposed to well known for its salsa dancing. We were entertained by a homeless guy who was dancing outside the bar. Then Faisal arrived with a couple of friends and the night was spent chatting, drinking and trying to salsa. Maybe due to the beer, but the
later it got and the more beer I had, the more confident I felt when dancing.
For a big city like Cali there wasn’t much here to explore so I didn’t spend much time there. Instead I headed down to Popayan with one of the guys from my hostel, Danny.
Popayan was not on my original agenda, but I had met a couple of people who were going there on my travels, so I thought it would be worth a try. If anything it would prolong my stay in Colombia, and was only good. Danny and I arrived at the bus station the driver said fifteen minutes and he would be leaving. One hour and ten minutes later we eventually left. Like any other bus in South America, it doesn’t leave on time, it leaves when it is full. The bus driver was making up for lost time and got us into Popayan in about two hours and a half. Danny and I had decided to walk to the hostel from the bus station. It didn’t look far. Whilst we were walking up to the hostel we noticed a group of two girls and one guy walking towards
us. Just as this group was about 2 metres in front of the girls lifts up her top. I wasn’t sure if this was a local custom which they extended to foreigners, as I didn’t come across this when I arrived at any other Colombia city. Both Danny and I were completely shook and that incident did get brought up about twenty times a day without fail.
My friend, Julien was also meeting us in Popayan. When arrived we spent a day looking around the sights of Popayan. The main reason people come to Popayan is to visit San Agustin and Tierradentro. These are archaeological sites about five hours from Popayan. After looking at my schedule, I realised that I wouldn’t be able to give the three days needed to explore both areas, as I needed to be in Buenos Aires by 2nd October.
That does seem like a long time away, but I needed to work my way through Ecuador, the Galapagos Islands, Peru, Bolivia and finally working my way down to Buenos Aires. After sitting down working it out, I needed to get a move on, so the following day when Julien and Danny were going exploring,
I was going to head for the Colombia/Ecuadorian border. I wanted to try and get to Otavalo, as they have a famous market, and from there on to Quito.
To get down to Otavalo I needed to set off early. Half past four the alarm went and I was onboard the five-twenty bus heading for Pasto. This part of the journey would take about five hours. From Pasto I got another bus to Ipiales, well it was a people carrier not a bus, which meant the journey was a little more comfortable. From Ipiales, I jumped on a colectivo to the border. I headed to the Colombia DAS office, get my exit stamp so they wouldn’t come looking for me when my 60 days had expired. Then it would be a two minute sprint across the bridge, avoiding any shady people like the plague, cross the bridge and then into the Ecuadorian Immigration office, get my stamp into Ecuador. The collective dropped me off on the Ecuadorian side to begin with. The journey from Ipiales terminal Terrestre was supposed to be 1,500 COP, however I only had 50,000 COP notes and about 900 COP in change, so the bus
driver had to make do with the change. After walking across the bridge, one of the cambios who changes COP into USD and vice versa suddenly took a liking to me. Probably because of the big sign that said westerner with money on my head. He was actually quite useful as he told me the whole scenario which you have to go through and got one of his mates at the Colombia DAS to see me straight away. After getting my stamp, I changed some COP into USD with him. After I declined his rate twice, and then he said to me that I should suggest a rate, and then he declined that, so we spent ten minutes deciding on a fair rate. Eventually we came to an agreement. It was a quick stop for my last meal in Colombia, then across the bridge-border to get stamped in on the Ecuadorian side. After my papers were all done it was another minibus from the border to Tulcan and then a bus from Tulcan to Otavalo.
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the Shref
non-member comment
nice
Once again mate i read about Colombia and am sure it is a bit of me!!! Would love to head out to BA again, you need to make a booking at that Cow restaurant we didnt manage to eat in and visit that waiter who spoke better English than us! any ideas where you are going to stay yet???