Cali, Colombia

I woke up early not feeling well.  Carmen went on a early morning walk with the Hotel owner's dog, Pasqual.  He went ahead on the trail with Carmen and took her to the river and up the dirt road.  I stayed behind because the descend was too steep.  When they returned we sat to have breakfast.  I had half a cup of coffee and some toast bread.  Carmen had two easy over eggs and an arepa.  She said it was like eating at her aunt's house in El Rancho.  The hotel staff then called us a taxi to take us to Pereida, the town where we would take the bus to Cali.  When we got on the taxi I told the driver that my stomach was upset and I may be asking him to stop for me.  He said he would stop at a drogeria and I could get some medicine.  We stopped and I got some pills.  I like that we can go and purchase just what we need without having to buy a whole bottle of pills that will last and may go bad in months.  
We took a mini van to Cali.  We had a midway break for lunch about 3.5 hours into the ride.  We had many vendors trying to sell us items for eating.  The medicine worked for me as I was feeling much better.  Even after the passengers were back in the van, the vendors stayed in the van and tried to sell us items.  We bought ice cream.  We had a conversation with a lady that was in her 80s about traveling.  She shared that traveled to most of Europe including Lourdes in France.  She has traveled with her church.  
When we got to Cali, we caught a taxi right away to Intercontinental Hotel.  As we were getting off the taxi, the driver is asking for 1500 more pesos, even after I gave him a small tip.  I get fed up with him and walk away into the hotel.  Our hotel tonight we get with an anniversary freeby for IHG points.  Our room is on the 6th floor.  We clean up and head out walking to a park nearby in the San Antonio area.  We climb the big hill to get to the San Antonio church.  It is locked at first, then they opened it.  We walked around and admired the many birds hopping around and sitting on the grass as well as the trees.  So many yellow and blue birds.  As we walk back to the hotel we found a restaurant, it was my turn to choose.  I chose the seafood pizza with clams, scallops and squid.  Instead of pizza dough, it was a thick bread with curry sauce.  I was afraid to eat too much so was not able to eat more than one slice.  We took it back to the hotel to eat later, but did not even eat it.  We went to the pool but it was closed and Carmen said we could try the next day.  

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