Windsor Plaza Hotel Cali

... nights and we basically just roamed about. We went to see the old churches, the modern mall, and the pretty, hill-side suberbs. Cali is said to be the best city in all of South America for salsa dancing but unfortuantly the night we tried to go out it was dead. I guess we didn´t know where exactly to go. That´s okay because we are returning in about a week to stay for 5 ...

10th August 2009
Guest House Iguana, Colombia
Very warm indeed


We have finally made a decision about moving on. For the first time since we've been travelling we realise we have to make some (gulp) plans with regards to timings. We don't want to just keep merrily cycling along and then in January find ourselves running out of time and have to rush the last part. We were going to take a bus from Cali to Ipiales (Ecuador border) but it is a 10 hour ...

... our way there. It cist about 20000 pesos, or 7 pounds for the appointment, which is not bad as this is a private clinic, although unfortunately there was still a long wait to see the doctor. SO we were checked over speaking in Spanish to the docotr, as they did not speak much English, the doctor said we should have a blood test, then after the test, it was another 2 hours of waiting before the results were ready. On ...

... Tage bevor ich angekommen bin die Fussballmeisterschaft Kolumbiens gewonnen....wurde natürlich gefeiert...naja Ende vom Lied es gab Ausschreitungen bei denen 3 Menschen gestorben sind! Ich dachte mir : wow, echt krass! und hab das auch unserem Hostalbesitzer gesagt der hat darauf nur gesagt : ¨ja ist traurig es hat sich aber schon um einiges gebessert...als Cali die Meisterschaft letztes Jahr gewonnen hatte sind bei Ausschreitungen 17 Menschen gestorbenen!....naja man ...

... the final tightening of the race, the upsets, the own goals, the comebacks, and a stragety that would put any winning football manager to shame. I keep asking fellow travellers the latest score......"wrong game I tell them", "Which game are you talking about?" they ask..... "The only game that matters"....... There´s your next Fox News slogan, right there... now there is a bunch of facists if ever there were!!! This US election has all the ...

... city blocks. The truth of it is though, everyone seems perfectly comfortable with that. They know what Cali is, they know what Cali isn't and the beauty of a city to them is measured by the happiness of its people. Probably why they go out every night. What's important is that they look good, their happy because of it and they enjoy their lives as much as possible. Not a bad way of living in some ways I guess... In actuality, the think they live in the best place ever ...

... sleep outside in the cold. So curling up in the hammock I attempted to sleep in a hammock outside in the garden. It was near impossible with the amount of shivering to get any sleep. Dec 24th San Augustin to Cali At 5.30am, as it was getting light (well, at least I caught a sunset...rare for me) I continued the door banging and shouting. Then noticed Javier curled up outside the room door (poor fella just had a pair of shorts and a Tshirt on). Woke him up too as we had a 6.30am bus to ...

... soup and well, they put the whole chicken in there. I have video and pics of how the chicken actually looked. There were eggs still inside!!! Supposedly that is the best part. Yet, rice and salad was my meal that night LOL! Let's see what else? Oh yea I think I ate tripe soup like 4 times over there. One time, they put heart in it. Yes, heart. I ate the tripe and flicked aside the heart. I just couldn't bring myself to ...

... I promise I will not fire it." He laughed and told me no way... Day 6 This was an uneventful day besides the continued bombing in the distance. We also came across a few dangerous snakes that the cooks beat to death with sticks. I was supposed to have a mule to take me down the last stretch, but upon awaking discovered there was none to hire, so I´d have to endure another rough day, though it wasn´t nearly as bad as the previous day´s hike ...

... good but to have the opportunity to go behind the scene and see them (and the team) getting ready and doing a performance was a fantastic experience! So why did I decide to come all the way out here to Colombia??? The answer is right here: http://grouper.com/video/MediaDetails.a spx?id=1953505&ml=fi%3d%26fu%3d2226832 It's only three minutes long and I have to apologise in advance for the poor lighting (not my fault!) and the amateur ...