Parque El Gato De Tejada

Our final stop of the day was a park in town with cat sculptures. We had fun traipsing from sculpture to sculpture.

By then, it was around 2pm and we were getting hungry. Across the street from the park, we saw an Italian restaurant called Il Gatto Che Ride and we headed towards it. In front of the restaurant, a man told us that the restaurant should be closing by now but he'll go talk to the chef. A few seconds later, he come down the stairs and told us that the chef had agreed to keep his restaurant open. He then walked off without asking for a tip. That done, we trooped up the stairs and sat on the verandah.

Our driver told us that this was one of the best restaurants in town (we bought him lunch of course) and he was not kidding... this was one of our best meals ever, and it only cost about $10 per person for good portions of very fresh food. This was when it dawned on me that the food here is most likely locally sourced and organic, unlike the mass produced food in the US. Maybe that was why everything tasted so different. I rarely eat meat because pork and chicken in the US smell and taste funny to me, but I would most likely be a carnivore if I lived here. The restaurant itself was a trip with lots of cat paraphernalia. We ate appreciatively and thanked the chef profusely for staying open.

Driving back to the hotel after lunch, we drove through Cali's famous food street known for its cerviche. I really wanted cerviche but I was too stuffed from lunch!

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