Cali

Oh Colombia, what can we say? We are in love with you already.
Arriving in Cali, we didn’t have great expectations and thought there’s nothing more to do than salsa and a great nightlife. On top of that, we heard stories about a high number of crime there and lots of pickpocketing.
We were completely proved wrong!
Cali has some really beautiful barrios (districts), some interesting street art, that deals with corruption, domestic violence against women and -of course- Colombia’s bitter past with drugs.
And it’s true, you see a lot of poverty in Cali, but if you use your common sense, than you‘ll be fine.
We had an awesome street food tour, tasting crazy fruits and drinks (footprint in the making!) and learned a little about the everyday life in Cali.
We also did a salsa lesson, which was.... difficult! Haha. Salsa is actually pretty fast and we felt super stiff. But we were proud, doing something completely out of our comfort zone.
We strolled around in a park full of cats (an artist from Cali created the first one and other artist created more cats as a tribute after his death), we ate delicious empanadas, saw nice churches with beautiful views, had crazy artisanal beer (with pumkin) and ice cream (there was an avocado-nacho-bacon one!) and learned most of all one thing: Colombians are really the sweetest people.
It starts with a police officer shaking your hand to welcome you, there a people paying for a local sweet at the market so you try something typical and a guy on stage greeting us at a local celebration (through the microphone, we were a little overwhelmed, haha). One night, we also ended up in a garden of an alternative artist group with an acoustic guitar concert. We were accepted immediately. A pianist from Cali gave us some empanadas, which he was eating with his family. An older women sharing her joint with us... it goes on and on.
Of course, you‘ll find dodgy people and first thing in Cali was getting ripped off by a taxi driver, but in general, we are overwhelmed.
More stories will follow for sure!Read more