Metropolis Plaza Hotel Cali

... on vacation. After an hour we headed back to our Cabana. Almost all the soldiers had now left to patrol other areas of the forest. We headed for a nearby restaurant, there were few to choose from but we noticed other Colombians eating at one nearby. We headed there and we were rewarded with a nice Menu de Dia, I, of course, refrained due to my sensitive stomach. I missed out on a wonderful piece of fresh boneless fish.

Satisfied we returned and retired to bed. It was barely 7pm.

After San Augustin i backtracked a bit, north again. There were two ways from S.A. to Ecuador: 6 hrs on a bumpy road N.E. to Popayan, and then South (longer but more comfortable) or straight down (an even longer bumpy road). I figured the former would be better, with the added benefit that Cali was only 2.5hrs/$3.50 further on (and it was a Saturday).

So, here i am in Cali. The city of Salsa and plastic surgery, and supposedly home to some of the hottest girls in ...

... A solid night of sleep last night. I have a separate room from Mike so I am not required to listen to his snoring most of the night. We found a great spot for breakfast and had a hearty meal. We also stopped at the local Kawasaki dealer trying to buy a couple of oil filters. We then headed too Copa Airlines to confirm the bikes have arrived. We had to wait for a fax confirming the bikes are here. Fax in hand we then had to go ...

... other fotos-have no idea), even thou I spent a few days here and enjoyed it. But, the blog entries go faster without them, that's for sure. I walked el centro and across the bridge, as usual, and didn't do anything epecial. The folks at the hostel were really congenial and helpful, but a few days rests was all I needed. On to the Caribe!

... a bit worse) game so we took cover until it cooled down. The police were called in and all! The funniest thing is afterwards Bill and I seemed to be the only ones who stayed in the pub (oh.. and "happy" the local drunk who wanted to dance with us...). After the game we headed back to our hotel a little happier and having enjoyed our night... We had planned to go to the zoo the next day but ...

... cliff. The traffic ended up backing up 3km and everyone had to sleep in the buses and cars all day and night. Eventually a giant tow truck and team came but the dodgy truck drivers had no money to pay them. They ended up having to walk around with a hat collecting money from the cars and buses (of course everyone contributed because they wanted to get the hell out of there). Half the people in the bus I was on (a small mini bus) was full of rowdy and cheeky military type scamps who ...

... you're like these crazy Colombian women who wear heels everywhere! No, if you're going to walk, wear sneakers. They sell beautiful sandals over there for about $20 US dollars or more. Multiply that by 2 and you get the price in pesos. For walking, stick to the sneakers please. The side walks and streets are cracked with lots of holes and sometimes they get muddy. I use head and shoulders and although they sell it over ...

Sunday, a good day to arrive in Cali, as monday was holiday... Cali is the party town of Colombia, they don't really have culture or outdoors, they just go out and dance all the time. I was supposed to call Ingrid, contacted through couchsurfing, so that she could give me a first salsa lesson and take us out. I was too tired, did not want to call her and be a piece of slime. And after dinner I fell asleep ...

... salsa all their lives. Instead we just watched but this was entertainment itself. Of course as we were just sitting down and drinking, we didn't realise how drunk we were actually getting! We poured the last glasses from our bottle: Sam had drunk a lot more than me and I decided not to finish my last drink as I noticed Sam was slurring quite heavily......one of us needed to be alert enough to get a taxi back! It was after 5am when we ...

... 8221;

Of course I already knew that banks were closed on Wednesday afternoon, so I’m just buying time. Two hundred dollars is all I’ve got to my name. I need to know what’s really going on here before I can really assess a potential strategy. So we go to bank after bank, all closed, at one point ...