Cali-ente!

My visit to Cali was too short, but very nice. I stayed with my friend and colleague Mauricio and his family, who were extremely gracious hosts. I received a nice tour of the city, which is situated right on the edge of the mountain range and the valley of the Rio Cauca. The temperature is around 85 all year, with a bit of rain every day but not as much as some places in higher elevations that I have visited. It is a very lovely city that reminds me a lot of Cuernavaca, Mexico. The first picture is Mauro and I at a 15th century church, the second is of an awesome chair that I saw at the Museo del Oro in Cali (much smaller than the one in Bogota, but still had neat stuff!).

I spent a bit of time at the library of the Universidad del Valle looking up some documents and books that are not available in the U.S. I had more luck than I could use, because I definitely didn't have time to read all of the books I wanted to. I photocopied some parts that were more important, and Mauricio offered to scan some others for me later. He is also going to help me track down a digital copy of a thesis that I would like to read. Muy amable!! After I get back home we are going to write a paper about the Guardianas de la Ladera program. He's worked with them before, and he is in fact the person who suggested the program as a case study. Photo 3 is a strange tree on the university campus with pretty flowers and coconut-like (but inedible) fruits growing all over the trunk.

We also spent some time just hanging out and eating interesting local foods. Off the street we had some not-yet-ripe mango with lime juice and salt, and some chontaduro with honey and salt. Chontaduro is a fruit from a very, very tall palm tree that has similar texture and flavor to sweet potatoes. Mauricio recently worked on a project to design and distribute a new tool for obtaining the fruit that is otherwise pretty dangerous (the palm is tall AND spiny). I also had a lulado, which is a drink made from a fruit similar to a kiwi but more sour. One of my favorite foods so far was a cholado, which is shaved ice covered in different kinds of fruit and a creamy sugar sauce. One of the more interesting food/drinks was chocolate con queso, which is hot chocolate with a slab of cheese that you put in it. Sounds weird, but it is actually pretty good! The fourth photo is Mauricio and his girlfriend Victoria in a random department store. I had a lot of fun hanging out with them and I hope to be able to visit them again when I return to Colombia.