Cali: getting to know the city

Since the CIAT campus is about 20-30 minutes outside Cali and there is nothing to do besides watching CNN, my colleague Stephan and I decided to hire a car with a driver to take us into the city before the conference participants arrive. We did some sightseeing, shopping, and eating (of course). Cali to me appeared as a typical tropical city with dirty and narrow streets, more outdated infrastructure and less well-planned urban layout than for example, Bogota, and lots of beggars (in this case, from Ecuador). It had some neat museums and churches, but on a less grand scale than the capital. However, it did have a huge and very modern mall. This was my first time at a US-style strip mall in a developing country. It had all sorts of stores, a food court, coffee shops, a very nice bookstore with a café inside, and even a Walmart-style supermarket. One of the most memorable parts of the day was lunch…I had a huge chunk of delicious steak served with rice, potato, fried platano, and salad for under $5 at a semi-fast food style restaurant.

Today, our participants began to arrive. It has been very interesting to talk to them since most of them are from different parts of the world and all work for the same network as me (Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, or CGIAR) but at different centers specializing in different types of agricultural research. Tomorrow the conference starts.