“El Peñón y el Gato”

This place is reconized in Cali, especially because is in front of the river and people like to visit it. There are a lot of diferent restaurants around “El GATO” and it is located at the neighborhood “El péñón”. Also this place is very  pleasent, the river refreshes  the surrounding area. People can have a great afternoon, talking with friends and family. In adition, when people want to relax themselves they can walk around the river and then go to eat something. It could be the perfect date!


Valentina Perafán:

I’m  nineteen years old,  
and I’m studying at ICESI university. 
I’m studying Accounting and Finances 
and I like my carreer a lot.Also I love to
 travel land know cultural places.

David Sánchez:

I’m tweenty years old  
and I’m studying at ICESI university.
 I like my career, that is Economy and International business.
 I love to play tennis and have fun wiht some friends
and spend time whit my family.

HOW TO GET IN?

HISTORY

With the passage of time the sculpture has become one of the most emblematic monuments of the city, along with the statue of “Sebastián de Belalcázar" and “El cerro de Cristo Rey".In 1996 began a beautification plan and recovery of the Rio Cali, which included the adequacy of a space for the monument donated by Hernando Tejada. The sculpture was cast in bronze on a large scale in Bogota in the Rafael Franco’s atelier.

The monument was located on “the river avenue” at the intersection with “Fourth Street”, in a site of high commercial activity and night-time entertainment. It was inaugurated on 3 July 1996.

"El Gato del rio” is a work of art of the painter and sculptor Hernando Tejada who donated it to the city ,which was installed on the banks of the river guardian of the city, in the northwest sector of Cali, known as "Normandia".

Ten years after the monument’s inauguration, on October 2006 the Cali Chamber of Commerce led a recovery initiative not only of the monument, but also of its surroundings.This initiative promoted the exhibition of a collection of fifteen additional sculptures, all with the same structural basis but painted and decorated by artists. The initiative called 'the cats of the cat' promoted in addition the adequacy of a park around the original monument. In the design of “las Gatas” were reconized artists like Maripaz Jaramillo and Omar Rayo.

IN ADITTION: 

The Cali River is one of the major rivers in the  Colombian municipality of Cali.  The river born in the high of the Ox in the Farallones. ts drainage basin covers 11,920 hectares of the northwest part of the municipality and its drains runs 50 km in the west-leading northeastern in the Cauca River. Its tributaries are, the rivers “Pichindé”, “Florida”, “Aguatal” y “Cabuyal”.

EXPERIENCE

” El gato ”  it is located by the river Cali, it has a big sculture of a cat and its fiveteen girlfriends but  only ten of them  are by the Cat, the other ones are in museums. It is a nice place to visit because it represent the culture of the city. Each cat has an explanation of what it represents in Cali . 

 

Whild you walk by the cat you hear the sound of the river and  it makes you fell relaxed, the climate there is cool and very windy. The cats are located at the neiborhood “El Peñon”.  This area of the city it is very crowded, because it has a lot of restaurants, hotels and night clubs around it.

At the place we can see that each cat is special, because each one represent something diferent.





As example, the cat " Gata Ilustrada"; it's a tribute to Hernando Tejada, which try to represent the armony of the nature mixed the wind and the ocean. It's a fantastic sculputure representing love.

" WALK BY "

We can find  plenty of things to do in this area, one of the most common one is to walk around the river. There are  many pubs and  restarurants that the visitor can find out near the big statue of  ” El gato ” .  

THE RIVER MANSION 

Everything began with a great vocation of “Noel Rodriguez”: culinary. This businessman has combined his culinary passion with the desire to give to Cali an emblematic place in the beautiful traditional neighborhood  “Centenario”. 

“Mansión del Rio” has born in the former “Casa Gomez”; an important architectural heritage of the city, a work of important neocolonial history, magnificently restored and embellished.

This luxury restaurant - bar can take you to fantastic flavors world, with three diferents areas inside it, for “Caleños” and visitors can enjoy the best Spanish food, Italian food and” the food of the house”.