Well, we’re still in Cali, obviously! That’s not a bad thing, though we are struggling to get out and check out nearby places to settle like Manizales and Santa Teresita. A and I have each had personal things to attend to, and now Cali is hosting the UN COP16 Biodiversity conference. [Most people have heard of the upcoming COP29 – Climate Change.]

Biodiversity is actually considered a bigger deal than climate change. The changing climate causes biodiversity loss, and so do deforestation, pesticides used in farming, etc. Humans are causing the sixth great extinction while thinking we’ll live through it. This conference is a big deal and has not been captured by powerful interests the way the COP – Climate Change conferences have.

Back to more positive news!

All levels of government have cooperated to make sure everything goes smoothly, and so far it has gone brilliantly. There is a Blue Zone where the negotiations take place, and Cali decided to create a huge Green Zone for regular people. It’s a first for COPs and I’m sure will become a feature given its success here. I visited one area where there where dozens of vendors from all over the department [i.e. province or state] had booths to show their wares. That was Tuesday daytime and it was busy. Then Adriana and I went to a different area (Bulevar del Rio) on Saturday and my god it was packed. The video below is from a less-crowded area.

Every year for Christmas, the Bulevar del Rio gets decorated with lights, music, and displays, and there are many street vendors selling everything from food to bracelets. It gets really packed as Caleños come out and walk up and down the boulevards that flank the river. COP16 – Biodiversity was. more crowded than that. It was crazy. We did not take Sanji and thank goodness we did not. We would have had to carry him. Some areas we shuffled through, shoulder-to-shoulder with masses of other people.

Here’s a video of the Bulevar del Rio. You can see vendors have booths here, including Meta trying to look green. The river is behind the vendor booths, and there are more on the other side of the river as the Bulevar goes on both sides. Check out the shrubs and vents in the middle: the road for cars is underneath.

Talk about successful! The vendors in the area are ecstatic, Hotels are at 100%. (One important thing the governments did was talk to the major hotels and ensure they would charge their normal rates – no price gouging.) 12-15,000 conference-related people were expected and it is estimated 23,000 are actually here. The hotels are full, but Cali has… Romance Hotels that are normally booked for fours hours. Those are now being used for UN delegates.

Nobody seems to be complaining:

“We are enjoying ourselves here, it’s a nice hotel,” he said, with colleagues commenting that the rooms are “more comfortable” than many traditional hotels.

You could easily spend days wandering the exhibits, public lectures and forums, vendors, and entertainment, and it appears many Caleños are doing that. As far as we could tell, the masses of people wandering around were locals. Pretty amazing support from the people of Cali. If I were an organiser of eco-conferences, Cali would now be on my map.

The other reason for Cali to host the COP – Biodiversity is because Cali is very biodiverse, among the most in the world. Many people are hoping this will lead to an increase in tourism as people realise that Colombia is much safer now and has a lot to offer in terms of culture and climate. We are hoping it doesn’t cause an immediate influx of foreigners buying property, at least until we have ours!

That’s all until next time….

And the Sanji fix: