August 5th

First thing in the morning. Daddy is starting to look a little worse for the wear...

We had a really nice walk this morning with Magnolia. She took us to the old part of the city, just a ten minute walk from where we are staying. It looks like an old Spanish village, which makes sense since the Spanish conquered this area.

This is the oldest church in Calí. It dates from the 17th Century, so sometime in the 1600's.

The courtyard.

Kristin, Dan, Xander and Magnolia.

Inside the church, a 12 inch crucifix on the oldest wall in Calí. I think the guide said this wall was from the room that a monk lived in?

The tour guide was explaining that the silver ornaments coming out of Christ's head are common in Hispanic versions of Catholicism, they represent knowledge, wisdom and remembrance.

All these artworks were created when the area was called New Granada and encompassed what is now Colombia, Venezuela, Ecuador and Panama.

Burp time in the courtyard...

Cool tiles on the stairway.

After that we went to the Archeological Museum which consists of one room which has artifacts from the indigenous Indian tribes of Colombia. The schematic here is a representation of Colombia in relation to sea level. Magnolia said that Bogotá would be at the apex of the tallest mountain and Calí would be in the valley at the very far end of the map.

Some cool graffiti on the walk back to the hotel.

As the days go on I'm learning that Calí  is a city like any other, it's mostly vibrant and interesting with some bad parts to it. Perhaps I'm being naive but I think Colombia has gotten a bad rap. Sure there are some pretty crazy and atrocious things going on but there are far more wonderful things.


We are still hoping that we will go to court tomorrow but probably won't end up going to Bogotá until Monday. Our new friends Lee and Manuela didn't find out that they were going to court today until about an hour beforehand. I still don't understand why things are working this way but all we can do is be patient and flexible.