Cali, Colombia: Now This City’s Got Some Pizazz, Part One

Driving down the lush green mountains into the dry, dusty, sugar cane packed valley, I could tell that Cali was going to be a very different from the places in Colombia that I had visited.Different in lots of ways.  After seeing immaculate towns and cities through Central Colombia, Cali is…well….much dirtier..  And more crowded.  And louder.  And hotter.  The racial mix is different, it’s the first time we saw more than a smattering of black people.  The clothes are tighter and smaller (and in Colombia, that is really saying something!), the heels are way higher and the term “age appropriate” doesn’t exist.

The city has a few older colonial buildings in decent shape, there are quite a few that are crumbling and then lots of ugly, industrial looking cement blocks.

Here are some pictures that I took around town.

The main plaza is filled with the super tall wax palms…

In the old city section, San Antonio.

That same kit church that is in every Colombian town!

A pretty oasis just 2kms outside the city center (a $8000 COP taxi ride or about $5USD) is the Cali Zoo.

It’s a very cool (and manageable) zoo with a mix of animals native to Colombia and a few big “show stopper” animals from other parts of the world.  Here’s what I saw…

This crazy bird, the Andean Cock of the Rock.

There is a beak under those feathers…

Lots of beautiful parrots…

And flamingos…

And Cesar hatching from an egg…

Peak of that day:  Watching the baby monkeys monkeying around.

Pit of the day:  Men in Cali are aggressive.  Cat calling once in a while?  Flattering.  Getting shouted at non-stop?  Irritating.