Blogs from Cali, Colombia, South America - page 8

Day 728 (27.03.09) We'd come to Cali purely for the nightlife as we'd heard it was the centre of Salsa in Colombia and we thought this would be a great place to celebrate Chrissie's third birthday on the road. With only one or two large group lessons lurking distantly in our Salsa history we decided that we really ought to brush up on a few moves if we were to be able to hit the dance floor with the style that we'd like! We booked a lesson with Jason at Academia de Baile and turned up with our dancing shoes ready to learn. A few hours later we'd had a lot of fun, learnt lots of the basic steps and were beginning to be able to put them together. Jason said we'd all learnt very quickly ... read more

Day 1 (Wednesday) - Got into Cali early and the bus station was close to my hostel so I decided to walk. Bad decision. I walked on Calle 25 street for a few blocks then without warning found myself at the corner of Avenida 3 and Calle 34. I walked a few more blocks to catch my bearings and was still on the corner of 3 & 34. I found a police officer and asked him for directions. He pointed me across a main thoroughfare. I walked another 4 blocks and found a post, which said 3 & 34. I asked a lady coming out of her house for help and she could not point me in the right direction. I could not believe that for somewhere that should be within 10 blocks. She then asked ... read more

Teil 2 - Cali Die folgenden Tage verbringe ich mit Antons Mutter, einer resoluten älteren Dame, die in einem schmucken Reihenhäuschen in einem der zahlreichen condiminios, einer eingezäunten Wohnanlage, residiert. Sie ist bereits im Ruhestand (was ihr eine Vollzeitbetreuung hinsichtlich meiner Person ermöglicht) und kümmert sich rührend um mich. Allerdings hat sie ein äußert hohes Angstpotential - hinsichtlich ihrer Heimatstadt, den Menschen dort und natürlich hinsichtlich der Tatsache, dass mir etwas zustößt. Eine ihrer eisernen Regeln, die nur in absoluten Ausnahmesituationen gebrochen werden, lautet: „Verlasse niemals das Haus nach 6:30 Uhr abends.“ Bis auf ein paar wenige Ausnahmen verläuft die erste Woche genau nach diesem Schema. Zunächst einmal steht allerdings Einkaufen auf dem Arbeitsplan. Sie fragt mich, was ich denn gerne so esse. Ich möchte keine Umstände machen und e... read more

Apparently as a Black Man visiting Colombia, I could not have come possibly hailed from the United States of These Americas...I´d been told that I had to either be Costeño or Caleño. Or my parents were. Or My Grandpappies. Or something. When I told Colombians that my Mom and Dad were from Virginia and South Carolina respectively, they´d ask where in Colombia that was. Seriously when I relayed my truthful origins to various folk I WAS called ¨Mentiroso! (Liar!)¨ with venomous vitriol, and a couple of very sad looks that implored me to embrace my heritage. And so I decided to go to Cali to see what the heck they were talking about. Cali! - There's Black Folk Here! I´d been told Cali wasn't the prettiest city in Colombia. I can now attest that this is ... read more

After all the warnings of gringos being kidnapped or falsely accused of drug smuggling I have to say Colombia was almost a bit of a let-down. Apart from the style of salsa being different and maybe having a few more mountains, on first impressions, I can't say it struck me as being all that different from Ecuador. The scenery in southern Colombia as we crossed the border and made our way towards Pasto was certainly breathtaking and the caminetta decided to liven things up a bit by taking every turn (and there were a great number of these) at breakneck speed. No wonder caminettas can make the journey to Cali in three hours less than the buses! The only annoying thing about the public transport system in Colombia is, unlike Ecuador where the buses (generally) leave ... read more