Staying with family of friends near Cali

Ginebra,near Cali, Colombia
15 -17 May 2010

   In Australia I am fortunate enough to have a few Colombian friends, and some of them have invited me to stay with their families. So in Cali I met with the brother of my friend Maria and he and his friend took me to see some sights of Cali and then out to stay in his mother’s house with Maria’s Mum and he, in Ginebra.
   It was a wonderful opportunity for me, although I didn’t ever have much of an idea of what anyone was staying (maybe it was an extreme country accent) or what was happening.
   I stayed 2 nights. On the Sunday when Mauricio (Maria’s brother) finally got out of bed at 2pm, we visited 2 local haciendas which I really enjoyed. The first was particularly beautiful and haciendas, being the big old country houses of years past, can be difficult to get to as a tourist. The first hacienda, Hacienda Paraiso, once had 12000 hectares of land!

One of Cali´s attratcions is a park dedicated to an artists decorated fiberglass cats. You can see some of the cats in the background.

I couldn´t get a goodshot of this,but I didn´t want to forget it either. A steep concrete driveway, and kids toboganing down it on milkcrates packed with stuff to sit into it. 

The beautiful Hacienda Paraiso

Nice....good country here.

Notes
Bus Popayan to Cali $5
Accomodation, Solento: Plantation House $8. Great hostel, friendly, good meeting place.
Bus Ginebra to Buga $1.50; Buga to Armenia $6.50; Armenia to Solento $1.60