Our Great Adventure: Cali Day 308 23/07/2015

We were planning to head to Cali today, 140km north of Popayan and along the Pan American highway towards Medellin. We had read that the journey would take c2 to 3 hours dependent on mode of transport so decided to travel in the morning and spend the afternoon sightseeing before heading on to Medellin the following day. We had breakfast at La Plazuela, packed, checked out and got a taxi to the bus station just after 0800. When we'd previously asked one of the bus companies about bus times to Cali we were told that they go every hour on the hour. We planned to get the 0900 bus only to find out they went at half past the hour and there wasn't one until 0930! So instead we bought tickets with Velotax for a minivan scheduled to leave at 0845. We left at 0830 with the minivan full. The one downside of the minivan is you can see out of the front window and witness the drivers road tactics. Clearly double yellow lines don't have the same meaning as they do back in the UK! As we headed north the mountains receded although we were still at c1500m. Sugar cane crops where in abundance in the surrounding fields. We arrived in Cali, Colombia's 3rd largest city, just after 1100 and after buying our tickets for our onward journey to Medillin, headed to our accommodation in the old colonial district of San Antonio southwest of the centre. We checked in at the Posada de San Antonio and were provided with info on local cafes and restaurants and also the local attractions which we could visit by foot. We decided to head out to get something to eat at a very pleasant local bakery/cafe and then walk around the sites. We headed first to El Gato del Rio on the banks of the Rio Cali. It appeared to be some permanent exhibition to cats although we weren't sure of the significance of it! We walked along the river to reach the Iglesia La Ermita which looked from a distance like it would be more fitting in a Disney movie. From here we passed the Teatro Jorge Isaacs into Plaza de Calcedo where Catedral San Pedro is located. Across the road from the cathedral 3 old guys were playing salsa music, which Cali is famous for, from a street cart. We continued on to Iglesia San Francisco before wandering back towards the old town, passed several museums and Iglesia de la Merced to return to San Antonio. We'd been told that the walk up the hill behind the guesthouse was worth it for the views over the city, even in the heat of the day, so we headed off and reached the top and Iglesia de San Antonio. The views were excellent overlooking the terracotta roofs of the old district of San Antonio before it merged into the new city centre landscape which was a mixture of 18th and 19th century grand buildings and 20th century modern (and less glamorous ones!). On the way back we stopped off for drinks (a german type beer for Simon and another frappaccino for Diane) at a bohemian cafe, Maconda. We spent the rest of the afternoon chilling out at our hostel's courtyard which had a pleasant and lively fountain in the centre. That evening in search of something different we headed over the road to a Lebanese restaurant called Pita Majita, which was a good recommendation from our hostel as we had a very tasty dinner. Back at the hostel we were pleased that they had turned off the fountain as the noise may have kept us paying a visit all night which wouldn't have been good as we had a 0600 start. We enjoyed Cali, it's a pleasant enough city and worthy of a stopover but were glad we had only stayed the one night as we felt we had seen everything there of note.