He stands 85 feet tall and looks down on Cali from a peak on the western edge of town. Our landlord recommended a bike ride there and suggested we use Benjamin, a friend of hers who rents out bikes and serves as a guide. No fixed price, you make a donation and he uses some of the proceeds to buy books for the local school children.
It's 5.5 miles with a total ascent of 1,500 feet. I was excited and the Dodo did her best to fake excitement too. She is a real team player.
We left San Antonio through the park and were out on the open road in minutes, with Benjamin leading the way. Interesting guy. French, worked in Paris for a while but had an itch to travel. He spent a few years in NY then a few in Mexico. He then found Cali and doesn't plan to leave - he clearly loves the place.
The ride was very steep in sections, we both geared down to the lowest gear and spun our way up slowly.
The city fell away from us after 20 minutes, we were surrounded by greenery and to our left the view grew more and more impressive.
After an hour, we caught sight of the monument. The end was near.
At the top we had a 360 degree view. This is looking east across the city. For the first time we could see the distant lower Andes, a view obscured by smog when you're at city level.
We got one with him as well.
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