Advertisement
Published: October 21st 2010
Cali
When I arrived in Cali I found that it is very different to Bogota. The hot, sunny weather gave the city a sleepy chilled out vibe. There were less cars, less crowds, and life seemed to move at a more leisurely pace. It's not just the weather that was warm. In the street the women made eye contact with me and smiled flirtatiously. A passer by when asked for directions actually took me to where I wanted to go, without asking for a tip.
During my first day in Cali, as usual, I walked around the city, chatted to some people, and started to get to get a feel for the place. I found that the city is a lot larger than I first imagined with over 2 million inhabitants. Unlike Bogota there's not that much to do apart from soak up the rays and atmosphere and enjoy the architecture.
In the evening I met some Couch Surfers for food and drinks in San Antonio, a bohemian district where the young people hang out in the park on a hill overlooking the city and in the sloping streets outside of bars.
At night the city wakes
up and the bars and clubs fill with attractive people dancing and drinking - la rumba (partying), dancing Salsa, and looking beautiful are the local obsessions. Cali is the self-titled Salsa Capital of the World, and they dance their own unique style featuring complex and rapid footwork and acrobatics. I'm also told that Cali is a world leader in plastic surgery and, to quote the Lonely Planet, the results are stunning.
I learned that the city hasn't always been quite so glamorous. It was originally a city consisting of a large percentage of slaves to work the sugar cane and mango plantations and farms in the region. Today, the African influence is apparent in the music, dance, and good looks of the Mulatto (African-Hispanic) population.
Before the government got tough, around 10-20 years ago, the city was embroiled in drug trafficking. It was home to the infamous and dangerous Cali Cartel. Now the city has been cleaned up a lot; although I'm sure the drugs trade still has some influence in the city, especially on the volume of women getting surgically enhanced.
I was lucky that this weekend was the final weekend of the
Festival of Salsa,
culminating with the finals of the World Salsa Championships (consisting almost entirely of entries from Cali) in the Plaza de Toros (bull ring). The standard of dancing was unbelievably high: groups of 20 plus dancers executing perfectly timed acrobatics, falls, and impossibly fast and complex footwork. This was Salsa at a whole new level. I had never seen any dancing as impressive or as difficult to accomplish. Something to aim for...well if I want to give up eight hours a day for the next eight years...
To give you an idea, I've attached a video of one of the groups. They were one of the early groups and the standard improved more and more as the evening progressed. I quickly became bored of videoing as it made it difficult to watch the show.
Also that weekend was a
Reggae festival at an open air theatre so I went on the Sunday night. I had not heard of any of the acts, but I know that several are famous in Latin America. There were Reggae, Ragga, and Dancehall acts interspersed with break dancing. The festival climaxed with Argentinian star Fidel Nadal, who I'm told is very well known -
he was excellent.
Popoyan
I met quite a few backpackers in the hostel in Cali including a French guy called Sam and an Austrian called Joshy. The three of us were heading to Popoyan on the same day, so for the first time since I left the coast I travelled with company. We got on well and it was a pleasure to travel in a group again.
Popoyan was an unexpected find - a beautiful perfectly preserved town of black beamed and white washed houses and cobbled streets. There are many colonial towns in Colombia but this is one of the most striking.
There's not that much to do in the town itself so the day after our arrival we took a day trip in the nearby
Purace National Park. The National Park is high in the Andes with several large active volcanoes, hot springs, and the source of the three of the largest rivers in Colombia including the Magdalena that spans all the way to the Caribbean.
After the expense of my trip to the Andean park near Manizales, I was pleased that this time we could go without a tour or a guide.
We simply caught a bus to the park entrance which took about 2-3 hours and then hiked another 45mins to the ranger station where we paid the park entrance. From there we followed the well marked trail to
Volcano Purace, which appeared to a long way off in the distance! We walked through farmland and woodland for some time before we reached the typical terrain of the high altitude Andes.
As we climbed the vegetation vanished and the rock and gravel grew. The air turned cold and thin and we had to stop more and more often. When we reached the steep shingle slope to the crater I was stopping every couple of meters. To my side (a safe distance), jets of sulphur escaped staining the rock yellow and mixing with the dense fog lingering over the summit.
After three and a half hours walking I finally reached the summit and walked the short distance to the edge of the bowl shaped gravel crater filled with either fumes or fog. The biggest I've seen so far at over 100m wide. The guide books unnecessarily warn not to try climbing in to the crater - the last thing on
my mind when my body was still trying to recover from the climb up.
The descent was much easier but still tiring due to the long distance and marred by my low level but persistent headache and chilled body, which didn't desist until the bus back dropped to a more comfortable altitude.
Different sources say that the volcano is between 4600 and 4800m high and that is one of the most active volcanoes in Colombia. It's high enough to make it an interesting and challenging climb but not so high that it's dangerous or torturous.
San Augustin
If it wasn't for the relative isolation of the town and the dangerous reputation of Colombia, San Augustin would be crawling with tourists. But we only met a couple of foreigners during our stay. The ancient indigenous tribes believed that the area had spiritual significance and was therefore a good place to bury their dead. The area is scattered with burial sites of stone tombs guarded by animalistic and humanistic statues. It is said to be one of the continent's most important archaeological sites.
When we arrived from Popoyan - after a very bumpy five hour bus journey
- I could understand what attracted the ancients to the area. The town is cradled in the Andes and surrounded by mountains, deep valleys, forests, rivers, and high waterfalls, and has a different serene feeling to it. Whoa man, it has great energy. The town itself has a friendly, peaceful atmosphere, and our hostel owner Mario (Hostel Maya) told us that visitors tend to stay longer than they expected.
To explore the area fully we took two full day tours. The first day we were taken by Jeep to several of the smaller archaeological sites and areas of outstanding natural beauty - the highest waterfalls in Colombia, valley vistas, and rocky rivers. The statues were interesting but the highlight was checking out the beautiful landscape, which was very impressive.
The second day we went by horse to a number of smaller, closer sites still embedded in their natural surroundings. For example, the Chakira statue carved into the rock on a promontory overlooking a mighty river gorge. The horse tour finished at the main site boasting a large number of the most well preserved statues and tombs which had been collated here. By the time we had finished exploring
the site I was over looking at statues. I'm glad that we finished with the best and biggest site after seeing some of the smaller and less impressive sites the day before. I would have got bored if I had seen the best stuff first.
We stayed three nights in San Augustin, but as predicted by Mario I could have stayed longer - it has to be one of the main attractions of Colombia. We returned to Popoyan in time to go out for Saturday night. However, the entire town was deserted and the bars were empty. Strange for a town with a large student population. A barman told us that week nights and Friday nights are the most popular for going out. Nevertheless we had a few drinks and a fun evening.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.133s; Tpl: 0.014s; cc: 9; qc: 54; dbt: 0.0664s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
anonymous
non-member comment
San Augustin sounds fascinating, I'd love to go and explore