Sightseeing in Cali, Colombia

Of course I'm considered a "gringa" here in Colombia; I guess that's somewhat accurate. And as the good gringa that I am, I have visited some of the famous sites around the city.

El Gato del Rio- a bronze statue of a cat along Rio Cali

El Gato del Rio is one of Cali's icons. Behind this cat are other sculptures of cats, his girlfriends, which are follwing him.

"Gachuzo"

"The Nine Lives Cat"- I fell that day and busted my hand open, as you can kinda see in the pic

"The Cartoon Cat" I really liked this one because it had itchy (or scratchy) from the Simpsons

"The Star Cat"

"I don't remember the name cat"

Sebastián de Belalcázar- founder of Cali

Igelsia San Antonio

Week 2 in Cali, Colombia

I think my biggest accomplishment so far is being able to take the buses here all by myself. First of all, there are no published routes. You kinda just have to know which buses go where. All the buses have hilarious names like, Papagayo, Blanco y Negro, and Alfonso Lopez. The buses seem to have been built in the early 70's, not even exagerating about that. The bus drivers drive like maniacs, competing for the road. Each and every bus is independently owned and operated, therefore they compete for the passengers. You can literally see the buses trying to cut eachother off the get to the next bus stop. Actually there are no bus stops, you just wave them down from the street and they stop for you. kinda cool.

I went to my first bar called Guayusa. It was an Andean themed bar. I looked up what guayusa meant on wikipedia, and they gave me this quote-

“The Jivaro say guayusa is so habituating that before it is offered to a visitor, she is warned that once she drinks it, she will ever after return to the Ecuadorian Jungle” - Michael Harner.

Apparently its a drink Equadorian and Peruvian indigenous people drink to "sharpen their hunting skills". Now that I think about it, we were drinking a warm homemade brew that kinda tasted like theraflu with a kick...I wonder if that was it? They played music videos on the wall and people danced to it. I tried, but I probably need a little more practice. Basically, you just jump around in a circle and move your hips. Sounds easy, but it's not.

All in all, I'm very happy. Feels great to be with my family and exploring this beautiful city.

its offically been one week

today marks my one week anniversary here in colombia. i´ve adjusted well, and i really dont miss anything aside from TOTO and my friends/family. Today i´ll be taking a bus across town to my granny´s house, by myself. That will be an adventure in itself. People here drive like maniacs! on a 2 lane road, 3 car drive next to eachother, with motos zipping in between, and horse drawn carts holding up traffic. there is no such thing as wifi here, which sucks, but oh well. I havent done much except hang out with the family and eat.

next week i´ll be traveling to Pasto, which is in southern Colombia, on the border with Equador. All jungle and mountians! I cant wait, we´re going fishing in this famous lake where its suposedly really cold. pics to come soon! as soon as i find some wifi!