I am just back from a week in Cali and had a ball........!
According to Wikipedia, they describe Cali as:
"The third largest city in Colombia. It is very famous for its plantations of sugar cane. Cali is known as the "World Capital of Salsa". In Cali there are many skillful salsa dancers and very important Salsa groups. Cali is also a very modern city. It is an industrial city and its airport is the second in Colombia. Near Cali is the port city of Buenaventura in the Pacific Ocean. Cali is located in a valley of the Andes. The name of the Valley is Cauca because it is crossed by the Cauca River."
DIFFERENCES TO BOGOTA
Cali is about 8/9 hours by road from Bogota (would only be 5 hours if the road was better) but it may as well be a different country.
Salsa, Salsa, Salsa, Salsa................God love you if you come to Cali and you don't like Salsa. Cali is the "World Capital of Salsa" and it is nearby impossible to find a bar or club that won't be playing salsa. They take their salsa very seriously and am told that the moves made by the dancers here are far more advanced that what you would see in another city. My only regret while there was not taking salsa lessons as you are lost on the dancefloor without it and everybody dances here!!!!!
Secondly, the weather. I went from c 10 degrees in Bogota to high twenties in Cali. It still rained a bit in Cali though but there are experiencing very strange weather here in Colombia at the moment where the entire country is getting hit with serious downpours. At least it's not snow though!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The people in Cali are equally friendly but everything is much more relaxed. Bogota is a huge city of c 9 million people where is Cali is a smallish city (by Colombian standards) of 2.5 million. Everything moves at a slower pace here and people never seem to be rushing. Bogota, like every capital city, is engufled by traffic and is the home of Colombian business. Cali on the other hand, seems to have all day and you do struggle to work out what day of the week it is when there.........!
You would need a few weeks to get a proper feel for Bogota but Cali is more compact and easier to get around. Bogota has more variety and more to do but what Cali lacks in this, it gains in its more relaxed and fun environment.
Despite all the differences, there are both contrasting but great cities.
MUJERES (WOMEN)
The women in Cali are a little bit easier on the eye than Bogota. It is common in Colombia to see the mujeres with fake boobies and would you believe fake asses! It was more prevalent in Cali than in Bogota to see this. The ladies like to catch your eye here and are more flirty than Bogota. It can be difficult sometimes to get chatting to the ladies if you don't dance salsa as this is the first question you get asked when you meet.......ie do you want to dance salsa!!! We met an Italian salsa dancer there who was getting serious attention from the Cali ladies. It was no surprize to then hear he had spent the last three months in Cali after only intending to stay a few days.
CHARACTERS
Cali has its fair share of characters.
You met great characters walking up and down the main streets every day. Most of them are trying to sell you something but even if you decline they will still smile and have a laugh with you. One evening when out, we got our shoes polished by Manual. Manual looked like such a funny character that we just couldn't say no to him. After he finished shining our shoes, he then joined us for a beer. He was such a jovial character that you couldn't help laughing even when looking at him. He was in great form until we questioned him about his family. He broke down when telling us about how his son is missing as they believe he has been kidnapped by Terrorists. They were still looking for him. This wasn't a sob story with Manual looking to swindle cash as he never asked for anything but it was amazing to think this man with this great personality has this ordeal to deal with every day of his life.
I can't finish this blog without mentioning the character of our hostel, a great Swede called Pontus. Pontus was my drinking buddy in Cali and we had many great night out, mostly down to the colourful antics of Pontus. He works as a chef on a type/sort of cruise ship so he gets long breaks which he takes advantage of to travel the world. Pontus is in his mid 30's but has the mentality and the enthusiasm of somebody in his early twenties.
There are many funny Pontus stories but I will leave you with just the one. One evening we were having good fun, if you know what I mean, with two Colombian ladies at a bar and when the night finished they kindly offered us a lift back to the hostel. This girl´s car was at least 50 years old and on its last legs. Well, we are only a few blocks from our hostel when it starts to lash and surprize surprize there is no air conditioning in the car and the window wipers are broken, so all of a sudden we can't see anything in front of us. Pontus, bring the resourceful guy that he is, proceeds to climb out the window while the girl is still driving and starts trying to clear the front window so we can see. This hilarious act had myself and my friend in the back in stitches.
Pontus is not getting much joy here so he then decided to go a step further and take one foot out of the car and attempt to take control of the wipers and physically push them from side to side while the car is still moving forward. All of a sudden the wipers reawaken and start going into overdrive while Pontus, half in and half out of the car, starts getting rocked all over the place resembling a computer about to explode!!!!!!
I don't know how he survived it but it made for great comical entertainment and made for a great story in the hostel. Pontus being the great character he is, always laughed it off. He reminded me of a mix between Morgan "Mongo" Tierney & Conor "Tanoy" Freeney and he was always up for a laugh!
I am currently back in Bogota where I am meeting a few old friends and tomorrow arrive in Medellin, which was the home of Pablo Escabor, Colombian's most famous drug-lord and also the current location of Pontus! Am sure will have a few more stories from there!
Hasta luego!
Hanbo
ps still have to put up me photos but they take ages to load but will do soon!
