City Folk

It has been some time since we have had internet so we will try to catch you up to date.  We are moving south but slowly.  If we find an interesting place we may stay a day or two. 
One of those places is Cali, a city of 11/2 million.  We stayed on the south side in a lovely park with pools and restaurants.  The owners invited us to a dance contest they were hosting.  They do the Salsa rhythm here and the dancers really get into it. We could not do it.
We did have our city experience though.  Our leader suggested we take public transport into the city center and be "among the people" and see the city.  So we flagged a bus during the rush hour.  Now these buses are on the move and they wait for no man.  There is a young man who puts life and limb in danger by hanging out the door as the bus is on the move and collects fares and hawks for business. 
We were about 7 K out of town and had to transfer.  As we were waiting outside on our bus a gentlemen brought me a chair and said "God Bless".  That is typical of the Columbian people.  We made it to city center and visited plazas with their venders and their pigeons and people were out and about.  The visitors center was staffed by young people.  They practised their English on us and were very interested in how we liked Columbia.  Bill decided he would like to find a new Ukulele.  We didn't think that would be possible but we saw a street with nothing but musical instruments.  He found one he loved and would return by taxi before we head home.  It's interesting the way merchandise is grouped.  For instance all sewing machines would be in one block.  Literature and books would all be together, blenders together etc.  So you could compare easily. We walked all day.  We happened upon a lovely restaurant that was hosting a guitar recital in September and had many of these beautiful guitars on display.  We were invited to look around.  When we went into the music hall an elderly man was practicing.  Turned out he was the professional guitarist to head the recital.  As we were wandering around he started playin" The Star Spangled Banner" for us.  He was charming and handed Bill his guitar to strum.  A great moment!!
Our feet were wearing out so we flagged a taxi to pick up Bill's Uke and to take us to a shopping center to pick up a few items.  The shopping centers are wonderful.  This one had stores opening onto an open air park like area.  I found an art store with colored pencils and tried to buy a blender for colored pencils.
Vera, You would have laughed.  I never could get it across what I wanted. 
We flagged another bus to go back to our casa and it was very crowded.  You can imagine the traffic in a big city.  It's wild !!  But with Norman's help we made it.
Bill and Gerry