Cali - photos 1

Cali:

- Santiago de Cali, often shortened to Cali, is the third largest city in Colombia with around 2 million inhabitants. Cali was founded in 1536 by the Spanish De Belalcazar (the one who founded Popayan too). It is the capital of the Valle del Cauca, department known as the Pacific Region and the city has one of the fastest growing economies in the country because of its geographical location.
In Cali, we went to visit the town center with various parks and colonial buildings but the town was similar to Guayaquil in Ecuador with a 1970's feeling. We also went to visit the main attraction of the town, the ZOO! Lee is not to keen on visiting zoos but this one was supposed to be the finest in Colombia and we have not been disappointed; the zoo was huge with lots of open air areas especially for the big cats, with aquarium, vivarium, butterfly area.... We decided to walk to the zoo along the river Cali. By the river were lots of figurines representing Christmas but also scenes of everyday life. During the night, the area should be all lit up and that should be very nice! At night, we did not venture on this area.

- In the Plaza de Caycedo, these big colourful figurines, similar to the ones found on the river, could be seen and were representing Christmas and everyday scenes,
- Lee photographed in the Plaza de Caycedo on his way to cross the bridge to reach the town centre,
- Saint Francis' square with the Iglesia de San Francisco in the background all surrounded by high tech buildings,
- The Ermita church, an icon from the city, was built in 1939 with an european gothic style. Inside this church there is the statue of the Señor de la Caña (Lord of Sugarcane) made in 1787. The clock on its tower was brought from Amsterdam,
- One of the numerous figurines seen on the Cali river.