Cali, the Salsa Capital of the World

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So Friday we left Medellin and took another bus to Cali to continue on Mission Good Salsa. The ride was only about 8.5 hours so we arrived in Cali at about 6 am, took a taxi to Kaffee Erde hostal, where we were greeted by an adorable older woman in an empty hostal that looked like a house. She served us coffee, but we were so tired that we went back to sleep.

When we woke up we met her daughter, Diana, and they drove us over to Chipichape, which is a huge mall at the end of Avenida Sexta, which is where are the restaurants and nightlife exists. We walked back to get our bearings and stopped to get arepas rellenos for lunch, which is a fried arepa filled with rice, chicken, and egg. Yummy!

When we got back to the hostel, our hostel mom fed us papaya and we met her other daughter, Claudia, who is a ballerina. We told her that we wanted to go dancing so she gave us a salsa lesson later on before we went out to show us how caleños dance. We had so much fun dancing with her and were surprised, yet happy about how similar the style was to NY style dancing. They were so warm and hospitable that I felt more like I was at a homestay rather than staying at a hostel.

After our dance lesson we cleaned ourselves up and put our party faces on. We took a taxi to a famous salsa club called Zaperoco off of Ave. Sexta and were a little surprised by how empty is was initially. Nonetheless, we took a seat at the bar next to some guys and ordered a drink. Sim broke the ice with Fernando and Eduardo and salsa dancing ensued. Mission accomplished. We ended up chatting and dancing with them until 12 at which point the club was packed, but another adventure ensued. Fernando called one of his friends and we ended up going to another crossover club called Titirifue. Fernando had an inside connection so we got in VIP style again cutting a line of about 30 people. The club was massive inside with a huge open floor plan and confetti falling from the ceiling. Needless to say another epic night until 4:30am, but Mission Good Salsa accomplished.

The next day we checked out the historic part of town, but there really wasn´t much to see. Cali is really only known for the rumbas (parties) so we´d like to think that we experienced the best of what Cali has to offer....

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