Having fun in Cali

Cali, Colombia has a population of over 3 million residents with over half of the population being Afro-Colombian.  It is diverse, lively and of course they have SALSA.  Cali is known for having some of the best salsa dancers in the world.  As a New York born Puerto Rican, salsa was what I grew up listening and dancing to.  Whenever we tell a taxi driver or a store clerk that we are of Puerto Rican descent, we are given brotherly love.  Immediately they tell of all the great Puerto Rican Salsa singers and groups that come to Cali's salsa fest every year.  In a music store we saw the Puerto Rican flag on some drums along with Colombian drums.  Of course we took a picture.

On Saturday, we went to a park where artists sell their crafts.  Beautiful items.  I bought some things for Stefania to have from where her mother was born as well as from Cali which is where she was born.
On Sunday we were taken to a place for lunch where you order your food while your kids can play in a park and run around.

Then we went to the pool at the hotel where our girls wore their matching yellow polka dot bikinis courtesy of Iliana (of course).  Stefania didn't like being so matchy, matchy.

I love how Natalia wears her life jacket in the kiddie pool.  That is her father's idea.  He is scared of water.

Yesterday, we went to the Chipichape mall.  Very high end and expensive.  Didn't buy too much there.  We did find Exito which is similar to Walmart.  What I noticed about Exito, unlike Walmart, is that all of their clothes are made in Colombia.  Even the Disney and Hello Kitty brands and they are not knock offs but licensed real deal shirts.  They weren't cheap.  I appreciate how they are made here.  I would pay more to have clothes in Walmart made in the USA.    It's so sad how I was surprised to see that the clothes weren't made in China because I thought everything was.  It's only everything imported to the US is made in China.  I'll get off my soapbox now.

On the way home from the mall, our taxi conked out.  The driver, an older little man gets out and starts pushing the car to the side to get it out of the way.  Angel jumps out and pushes the car along with him.  The man does a few tricks, the car starts up, Angel jumps in and we get back to our hotel.  Very Dukes of Hazzard.  I think us being brought up going to Puerto Rico throughout our childhood and experiencing very similar things made this seem so non chalant.  We joked if it had been any of the other families from the hotel, they might have panicked.  (Most don't speak Spanish and I doubt their car has ever broken down ever.  They are very nice but very First World:)

Today we went to the Cali Zoo.  Beautiful little zoo.  Iliana and Natalia loved it.  They wanted to stay all day.  We will probably go back since it's 5 minutes by taxi and Iliana wants to see more animals.  She has the map and is telling me what we didn't see.

Natalia and Iliana giving their father his daily heart attack.

This last picture meant a lot to me because the orphanage gave me a picture of Stefania's bio mom on top of this iguana while she was pregnant with her.  I was able to take Stefania there and she will have both pictures when she is older.