Feria de Cali, crazy event that lasts a week before New Year, full of salsa dancing, street parties, concerts, parades and beer. Many people from all over Colombia and the world come to see it, all hotels/hostels/rented appartements are full. We were not different. Feria proved to be fun, but also hard work.
So, as I already told, we had staying with us Dutch Ron and his Norwegian friend Sjur (no idea how it is pronounced). They would meet new Colombian girl they found on Tinder every day and next morning they would complain to us that Colombian girls are not so easy to get. They suffered, poor guys.
Merlin and his sister May from Wales. Merlin lives in Colombia for 5 years teaching in school. He speaks fluent Spanish with Colombian accent. He gave me some insight on Colombian culture.
Masa, not a typical japanese who traveled the world for years and now has his own business in IT, dances Cuban style salsa and knows all performers (and their songs!). I have to say in months of heavy Latin music exposure I started to recognize different styles (Peruvian cumbia, Andean orchestra music, reggeaton, bochata, etc), but I knew very few names, Corazon Serrano being my favourite. I could recognize a song and describe how much and why I detest it, but I would not know who sings it. Same with salsa: it was all the same music in classes and clubs, so I could say 'oh, I love this song', but I never knew who sings it. Masa knew everyone and everything. Amazing.
NB The most famous bochata singer is Romeo Santos from New York, of Latin descent, living in Miami now. He has voice as if he was castrated, hate it.
Three brothers: Dutch, Japanese and Norwegian
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Merry Christmas crowd
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With Carlotta and Ron
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Feria for me was a crazy mixture of salsa, work, partying in all the different places, foam wars, dancing in the streets and... a lot of sleeping. It started with celebrating Christmas on 24th of December. I was working night shift that night: I had to do one night shift a week, Feria would start next day.
Aftermath of Salsodromo
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We had guests, the owner and his family, all volunteers celebrating, we danced, sang, listen to live music performed by owner, then everybody went out leaving me in charge opening the door all night long. Fun.
Hate night shifts.
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Btw, I did not say anything about hostel owners. They are brother and sister, sister now lives in Panama, so she is a bit away from the business. The brother is the one who runs it now. Jairo and his wife Gloria. I could not make up my mind about him. I guess he is a good person, generous with his volunteers, but a bit lightminded. Too Colombian I guess. In some situations he would just be too careless: when police came in the middle of the day to check documents and he had a volunteer attending reception (which is illegal to work without working visa), or when we had a roof leak in the middle of the night and he did not want to come... He also would bore/torture everyone playing music for hours and hours, louder and louder so nobody could talk. Nevertheless, we was fair (in his own terms) with us, so I cannot complain really.
More of La Feria
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So, as I already told, we had staying with us Dutch Ron and his Norwegian friend Sjur (no idea how it is pronounced). They would meet new Colombian girl they found on Tinder every day and next morning they would complain to us that Colombian girls are not so easy to get. They suffered, poor guys.
Merlin and his sister May from Wales. Merlin lives in Colombia for 5 years teaching in school. He speaks fluent Spanish with Colombian accent. He gave me some insight on Colombian culture.
Masa, not a typical japanese who traveled the world for years and now has his own business in IT, dances Cuban style salsa and knows all performers (and their songs!). I have to say in months of heavy Latin music exposure I started to recognize different styles (Peruvian cumbia, Andean orchestra music, reggeaton, bochata, etc), but I knew very few names, Corazon Serrano being my favourite. I could recognize a song and describe how much and why I detest it, but I would not know who sings it. Same with salsa: it was all the same music in classes and clubs, so I could say 'oh, I love this song', but I never knew who sings it. Masa knew everyone and everything. Amazing.
NB The most famous bochata singer is Romeo Santos from New York, of Latin descent, living in Miami now. He has voice as if he was castrated, hate it.
Three brothers: Dutch, Japanese and Norwegian
Merry Christmas crowd
With Carlotta and Ron
Feria for me was a crazy mixture of salsa, work, partying in all the different places, foam wars, dancing in the streets and... a lot of sleeping. It started with celebrating Christmas on 24th of December. I was working night shift that night: I had to do one night shift a week, Feria would start next day.
Aftermath of Salsodromo
We had guests, the owner and his family, all volunteers celebrating, we danced, sang, listen to live music performed by owner, then everybody went out leaving me in charge opening the door all night long. Fun.
Hate night shifts.
Btw, I did not say anything about hostel owners. They are brother and sister, sister now lives in Panama, so she is a bit away from the business. The brother is the one who runs it now. Jairo and his wife Gloria. I could not make up my mind about him. I guess he is a good person, generous with his volunteers, but a bit lightminded. Too Colombian I guess. In some situations he would just be too careless: when police came in the middle of the day to check documents and he had a volunteer attending reception (which is illegal to work without working visa), or when we had a roof leak in the middle of the night and he did not want to come... He also would bore/torture everyone playing music for hours and hours, louder and louder so nobody could talk. Nevertheless, we was fair (in his own terms) with us, so I cannot complain really.
More of La Feria
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