We headed to Cali where I was planning to stay for a few weeks to work in the hostel.
Cali is 'a capital of Salsa' in Colombia, so my real reason of staying there was to learn dancing salsa.
Liza had a friend of friend living in Cali, so she stayed with her. I found a hostel nearby. The hostel ended up being El Viajero, famous party hostel-salsa school of Cali. I did stay in El Viajero hostel before in Uruguay.
The hostel was expensive (for my judgement), but had free salsa and yoga classes, which I thought I obliged to do for a price I was paying. Yoga classes turned out to be interesting - I tried acro yoga, which is great fun (when done with someone you know, not a random people: too touchy).
Cali dances a special style of salsa, called calena, which is faster and has more steps (on one count) than any other salsa. There are 2 ways to dance calena: the one they teach you in school and the one colombians dance. Colombians do no like turns and they dancing is more like walking on one spot, they do not like gringo places where foreigners go to practice moves they learned in their schools. Colombian girl would always stop gringo who tries turn her around. They do not like it. They do not know how to do it. Saying that, I have seen a few really good dancers salsaing without turns. Still not in traditional Colombian places, but where gringoes go.
We walked around Cali on Friday and Saturday. The city itself is not impressive: it is just a city with narrow dirty streets in the center full of people, rich suburbs in the south and brown dirty river.
City Center
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On Friday night we went out with Liza's friend of a friend (it's been too long, I forgot her name) and her friends. We went to a traditional Colombian place with no foreigners, this was an interesting experience to see how locals party. Music was vallenato, raggaeton, bochata and salsa. They would drink bottles and bottles of Aguardiente (traditional Colombian liquor with anis), dance moving their bottoms (some of them improved via platic surgery) and sing especially loved songs. In many bars there is no entrance fee, but minimum consumption price, or to get seated a group should order a bottle of liquor. In many places groups of single men are not allowed. In Cali everything is closing at 3am, meaning that people should leave a place before that, so we were seen out around 2.45. There is a place just outside of town called Menga where Cali's law is not applicable and bars stay open until 5am, crowds usually go there when the city goes to sleep.
Colombians do not mingle with other groups: usually people going out as a couples and only dance with their partner, they do not invite girls/guys from other groups to dance, although pair dancing is mostly popular. This rule is however not applicable in gringo salsa places, where everybody dances with everyone: I do not even think that couples go there. For couples another places exist where one shall be seated with a bottle of Aguadiente and everyody dance on the spot.
Next day we visited a shopping center: huge European style shopping center with hush puppies, kenneth cole, zara and many many others well loved shops and brends from my past life. Did not buy anything that day. It was Saturday and what do people in the hostel do on Saturday? That's right, we go out. Well, like any other day really. So we went with big group of people from the hostel, lost most of them on the way, ended up in one of these couple aimed salsa bars, got rapidly bored and left early. Later I found out that it is hard to get in to this place: people in tennis shoes or t-shirts were rejected entrance. I was in my huge hiking shoes.
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Do no write on this wall
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Sunday was our day off when we went to river Pance where half of Cali goes on Sunday afternoon. After days of artying and sleeping less than 5 hours, I just swithed off on the river bank.
This was my inroduction to Cali, Liza left a day later and I moved to a hostel where I was going to work (yes! I finally got confirmation! - days and days later! I intended to stay there for 3 weeks, I had a list of movies that was on display in various cinemas I wanted to see, I had a dedication to learn to salsa. I planned New Year in Mexico. I have not seen a signle movie, I am not in Mexico as I spent over 7 weeks in Cali, but I do know how to salsa now.
Liza had a friend of friend living in Cali, so she stayed with her. I found a hostel nearby. The hostel ended up being El Viajero, famous party hostel-salsa school of Cali. I did stay in El Viajero hostel before in Uruguay.
The hostel was expensive (for my judgement), but had free salsa and yoga classes, which I thought I obliged to do for a price I was paying. Yoga classes turned out to be interesting - I tried acro yoga, which is great fun (when done with someone you know, not a random people: too touchy).
Cali dances a special style of salsa, called calena, which is faster and has more steps (on one count) than any other salsa. There are 2 ways to dance calena: the one they teach you in school and the one colombians dance. Colombians do no like turns and they dancing is more like walking on one spot, they do not like gringo places where foreigners go to practice moves they learned in their schools. Colombian girl would always stop gringo who tries turn her around. They do not like it. They do not know how to do it. Saying that, I have seen a few really good dancers salsaing without turns. Still not in traditional Colombian places, but where gringoes go.
We walked around Cali on Friday and Saturday. The city itself is not impressive: it is just a city with narrow dirty streets in the center full of people, rich suburbs in the south and brown dirty river.
City Center
On Friday night we went out with Liza's friend of a friend (it's been too long, I forgot her name) and her friends. We went to a traditional Colombian place with no foreigners, this was an interesting experience to see how locals party. Music was vallenato, raggaeton, bochata and salsa. They would drink bottles and bottles of Aguardiente (traditional Colombian liquor with anis), dance moving their bottoms (some of them improved via platic surgery) and sing especially loved songs. In many bars there is no entrance fee, but minimum consumption price, or to get seated a group should order a bottle of liquor. In many places groups of single men are not allowed. In Cali everything is closing at 3am, meaning that people should leave a place before that, so we were seen out around 2.45. There is a place just outside of town called Menga where Cali's law is not applicable and bars stay open until 5am, crowds usually go there when the city goes to sleep.
Colombians do not mingle with other groups: usually people going out as a couples and only dance with their partner, they do not invite girls/guys from other groups to dance, although pair dancing is mostly popular. This rule is however not applicable in gringo salsa places, where everybody dances with everyone: I do not even think that couples go there. For couples another places exist where one shall be seated with a bottle of Aguadiente and everyody dance on the spot.
Next day we visited a shopping center: huge European style shopping center with hush puppies, kenneth cole, zara and many many others well loved shops and brends from my past life. Did not buy anything that day. It was Saturday and what do people in the hostel do on Saturday? That's right, we go out. Well, like any other day really. So we went with big group of people from the hostel, lost most of them on the way, ended up in one of these couple aimed salsa bars, got rapidly bored and left early. Later I found out that it is hard to get in to this place: people in tennis shoes or t-shirts were rejected entrance. I was in my huge hiking shoes.
Do no write on this wall
Sunday was our day off when we went to river Pance where half of Cali goes on Sunday afternoon. After days of artying and sleeping less than 5 hours, I just swithed off on the river bank.
This was my inroduction to Cali, Liza left a day later and I moved to a hostel where I was going to work (yes! I finally got confirmation! - days and days later! I intended to stay there for 3 weeks, I had a list of movies that was on display in various cinemas I wanted to see, I had a dedication to learn to salsa. I planned New Year in Mexico. I have not seen a signle movie, I am not in Mexico as I spent over 7 weeks in Cali, but I do know how to salsa now.
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