Cali

Cali is quite a big city really, but we got a cheap place to stay (Residencial Chalet) in the livelier part of town (very near Avenue 6), but really there wasn't much to see in the city itself. The main art museum was closed for renovations, but the gold museum was impressive (the northern countries of South America all seem to have very impressive gold museums, or sections of museums, and to think I used to be impressed with the gold torcs and stuff in the National Irish Museum!).

We also visited the Cali zoo, apparently the best in Colombia, and it was very good (I do have the usual problems with zoos of course, but I still loving visiting the good ones). It was undergoing renovations too, but was still impressive, especially the big cats - the bengal tiger was quite active and would rest leaning against the huge thick plate glass viewing window, so you could be literally millimetres from his face. Also got to see a snake swallow a mouse, which was interesting (another, much bigger snake had a live rat in it's cage, but the snake didn't budge an inch so can't have been too hungry). Also got to see my first giant anteater (with a juvenile on her back), and they really are as mad looking as they appear on the telly.

As I was coming back to the end of the zoo trail it started to really rain hard. We waited for a break in the rain, along with a group of locals, but it didn't seem like letting up any time soon, so we just hopped in a taxi and got dropped off at the Intercontinental Hotel where I was hoping they'd have a bar showing the US presedential election. The hotel didn't have a bar really, just an open cafe space, but the waiter kindly put on CNN for us. After watching a bit of the election coverage we went and had dinner in the hotel's recommended restaurant, as I was keen to try their steak tartare. It was pretty cool, as the head waiter prepared it all beside our table, and so I got a cooking lesson into the bargain (and I was very surprised to see the amount of work and ingredients involved, I had thought it was just raw meat and an egg!). Anyway, it was very nice but still not as good as the first steak tartare I ever had, which was with Mr. Mullins in Slovakia somewhere.

The next day we got the bus to the village of Cordoba and then did what seemed like the most dangerous thing I've done on the trip so far - we rode the old railway line to San Cipriano. The tracks aren't used anymore by trains or anything, instead the locals have rigged up small motorbikes to ramshackle crates and boot it down the line - good 1 minute video on YouTube here. The poorer locals don't have motorbikes, they just push themselves along on flat crates, and when you meet someone coming the other way, one of you has to lift your crate off the tracks to let the other person pass, something we had to do a few times. The ride only lasts about 15 minutes, but the location is really beautiful, set in lush jungley forest.

The tiny town of San Cipriano itself is very rural and poor, but all the more charming for it. It's set on a nice river (but it was too overcast, dull and cool to have a swim unfortunately), and after a short stroll we hid from the short, but tropically fierce rain burst having a beer before getting our crate back down the line (it's the only access route to the village). The tracks cross over a few rickety bridges, and given the rickety state of the crates, the decrepit motorbikes, and the wobbly tracks sometimes, it really is a wonder people aren't injured every day. It's great fun though, and by the time we were heading back I was already far more relaxed - as usual it doesn't take much to overcome the usual paranoia.

I must say I loved the experience of the whole day, even though the bus took over 3 hours each way from Cali (there were major roadworks). For some reason the whole area is populated completely with black people, and I immediately felt like we were back in Africa (even the landscape was all very Ugandan). It was weird just how familiar the people seemed, with all the kids just as smiley, friendly, approachable and interactive as in Africa - I think I must be some kind of upside-down or reverse racist or something!

Anyway, after a final stroll around Cali to the nicely set San Antonio church we left in the afternoon for the 3 hour bus ride up to Colombia's main coffee zone and the town of Armenia.