First Week in Cali

With the weekend crowd, cooling off in the Rio Pance, and with a presenter from the local TV channel.  

Our first week in Cali was a propitious beginning to a new adventure.  We landed (at 3 am!) in a cheerful, comfy, light-filled, AirBnB apartment in Ciudad Jardin, the neighborhood where we are hoping to live.  It's a leafy, quiet area in the southern end of Cali, close to Universidad del Valle, where Kara will be working, and to the schools for the kids.  We had the first few days to catch up on sleep, explore around the neighborhood, eat ice cream, go to the shopping centers, and to imagine what it will be like to live here.  Even though walking isn't that common among Caleños in this part of town, habits are hard to kick, and we are managing to navigate the neighborhood on foot pretty well.

On Saturday, Kara's birthday, we headed out of town on a bus to the Rio Pance, where lots of folks from the city go on the weekend to cool down.  We ended up at the Ecoparque with hundreds of families enjoying the cascading swimming holes (enhanced by temporary bamboo dams) and restaurants along the river.  The kids were thrilled to have other kids to play with, although we were all surprised by how curious people were about us.  (Where are we from and what are we doing there?  What is that green thing in Simon's hair?  How do you say "rock" in English?  How do you say "James Rodriguez is the best player in the world"?).  A tricky balance between enjoying the genuine friendliness and being the object of too much attention.  We even got swept up in an interview by the local TV station, (that strangely enough was airing a special on Rhianna and we were just part of the babble between videos).  The TV crew had a puppy that they were using to maximize cuteness...