HIGHLIGHT OF THE DAY: Meeting a new friend
BUMMER OF THE DAY: Not doing a thing all day-but I am allowed right?
WORD OF THE DAY: Rosita is HERE
Heather and I were up at 7.30am this morning. For some reason I was just feeling wiped out and decided to stay at the hotel today to just watch TV and load my 6 blogs that I had written over the last few days. The girls caught taxis to San Antonio, a restaurant and café area, to have a few drinks and a farewell lunch to Heather who was on a 4pm flight to Lima that afternoon. She was due back to the room at 2pm, so I would have time to say goodbye to her myself. That ray of sunshine will definitely be missed.
I did do one productive thing today and I had arranged to meet a friend of a friend tonight. Ana was a Colombian and living in Cali, so I promised that I would catch up with her. I Facebooked Ana in the morning and we arranged to meet at 7.30pm at the hotel to have dinner there to make it nice an easy. I was a little nervous and it felt like I was waiting for a first date, but Sharon was also going to be coming with me, so if things got a little awkward she could help me out.
The internet plan pretty much went down the tube as the connection in the rooms was shocking, so I watched a few of the CSI shows, a movie and then had a LLD (little lie down) till 2pm when Heather returned from lunch. The afternoon was spent talking and helping Heather pack and then a final hug and goodbye that lasted till the taxi was out of sight, I wish Heather all the best on her G Adventure trip of Peru and know that we will be catching up again when I am in London in August. We got news that Rosita was out and had left the coffee plantation at 1pm. How the hell she got out I will need to ask Gray. They made great time and arrived at the hotel just before 7pm. It was great to see the boys back safe and sound and our BIG yellow friend parked out the front. What a relief.
Something about the city I didn’t see. Santiago de Cali simply referred to as Cali, is a city in western Colombia. With a population of 2.5 million, Cali is the third largest city in the country, after Bogotá and Medellín. It has one of the fastest growing economies and infrastructure in the country because of its geographical location. The city was founded on 25 July 1536 by the Spanish conquistador Sebastián de Belalcázar. Cali is the shortened form of the official name of the city Santiago de Cali. The first part of the full name honors Saint James the apostle (Santiago in Spanish) whose feast day is celebrated on 25 July.
The city rests approximately 1,000 meters above sea level and its topography is fairly flat. It is Colombia's third largest airport in terms of passengers, transporting 2,667,526 in 2009 and the city is located in a valley and the city is completely bordered by mountains to the West. It is normal in Cali to think of a shopping mall as a touristic place. Most of them are built like urban boulevards, with open-air walking corridors that look like a 'Main Street' side walk. With large facilities providing full amenities, Caleños love just talking walks in them, enjoying the fact that everything is at their hands. Tens of smaller malls are spread all over the city. According to recent Lonely Planet guides of Colombia, Cali has recently become famous for being a prime destination for people seeking cheap cosmetic surgery. Cali's surgeons are famous in Colombia for having shaped some of the country's most beautiful women. There have been no significant reports of problems in this area, but Lonely Planet advises proper research before pursuing such an idea.
I waited out at reception from 7pm in case Ana arrived early and our dinner group expanded to Marina and Steph as well which I was fine with. The more the merrier I say. Ana arrived right on time and it was great to meet her. The hotel restaurant was closed tonight, so after Ana worked out what we wanted to eat, we caught a taxi squeezing all 5 of us in one and headed to a shopping center that had a variety of restaurants to choose from. Not a food-court or eatery but proper restaurants, so we chose a meat restaurant, took a seat and enjoyed a lovely meal with new and old friends. We asked Ana a lot of questions about her family, job and country and she was more than willing to answer them all. After we had paid the bill we exited the shopping center to the taxi ranks where there we no taxis waiting. One of the security guards was walking past on his walkie talkie and spoke to someone and we were told that one was on its way. We waited around 10 minutes when we were all thinking the same thing and Steph said let’s just walk to the main road and hail one, but Ana told us in no certain terms, that it would be unsafe to do that, at this point another security guard on a motorbike and a sawn off shot gun slung over his shoulder stopped by to tell us a cab was only 5 minutes away. The cab turned up and would only take 4 of us, so Ana put us in the cab first and a second one was called for her. She got the taxis number plate and the drivers name and asked me to Facebook her once we got back home. So with a hug and a promise to keep in touch we made our way back the hotel just after 10pm. The internet was a little slow when we got back and I wasn’t able to get a message out to Ana till just after 11pm and she replied back that she had actually phoned the hotel when she hadn’t heard from us to make sure that we had got back okay. That was so sweet.
So that was my day in Cali. Not much, but apparently I didn’t miss much either, so I will take the rest days as they come and as we said goodbye to one friend and met another one it was still a good day all round.
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