What to see and do in Cali, Colombia

You hear Cali first, w hether it’s the infectious anthems that spill from its cafes or the hypnotic pulse of its golf equipment. A brief hop southwest from the Colombian capital, Bogotá, this tropical metropolis has been electrifying dance-lovers since Puerto Rican and Cuban musicians arrived through New York within the Seventies, mambo grooves in tow. Cultural cross-pollination has formed its meals scene, too. The town was based by the Spanish within the 1530s and its vibrant gastronomy attracts on European, African and Indigenous roots, a heritage showcased throughout August’s Petronio Álvarez music pageant when Cali’s streets vibrate with Afro-Pacific percussion.

In San Antonio, Cali’s oldest neighbourhood, aspiring salseros (salsa dancers) can good their expertise with lessons at SalsaPura, one of many metropolis’s many dance faculties. Put your strikes into follow at MalaMaña or La Caldera del Diablo, two underground salsa bars within the Centro district, the place sweat-soaked {couples} whirl in mesmeric synchrony not removed from the realm’s neo-gothic church buildings and churning golf equipment comparable to La Pérgola Clandestina.

Get the backstory on salsa caleña, the wickedly quick dance fashion born within the metropolis, on the Museo de la Salsa in Barrio Obrero, the place an all-singing, all-dancing tour explores how salsa rhythms handed from Cuba to Cali. Alternatively, delve into salsa’s fascinating historical past on a guided nighttime tour of town’s golf equipment with Cali Salsa Expertise — the most secure and most immersive approach of exploring someplace greatest traversed by taxi after darkish. Choose to go away dancing to the professionals? Seize a desk at El Mulato Cabaret, the place star-spangled bailadores (dancers) transfer so quick their legs develop into a scintillating blur.

All that dancing works up an urge for food. Inside considered one of San Antonio’s grand colonial homes, Domingo spotlights indigenous components cultivated by rural communities throughout Colombia’s southwest. Throughout the river, at Restaurante Ringlete, award-winning chef Martha Jaramillo recreates conventional Colombian Pacific dishes with a slow-food ethos, serving up encocado, a coconutty seafood stew, and crisp empanadas with dollops of zingy ají sauce. To seek out different native components, head south to Galería Alameda market, the place family-run Rellenas Carolina dishes up fermented-corn tamales and rellena, a richly flavoured blood sausage.

No journey to Cali could be full with out having fun with the mellifluous tones of famend Afro-Pacific musician Nidia Góngora or sampling viche — a liquor historically distilled from sugarcane by native Afro-Colombian communities. At Viche Positivo, Nidia’s intimate marketside restaurant, you are able to do each. Take pleasure in a glass earlier than looking for souvenirs at close by store La Linterna, the place clanking Nineteenth-century presses produce eye-catching posters that includes retro viche designs.

For a laidback day, head to the Cali River banks to select up a lulada — a drink created from ice, bitter lulo fruit and sugar — from one of many distributors alongside Boulevard del Río and wander in direction of Granada, a leafy neighbourhood studded with artisanal cafes and boutiques promoting Colombian-made garments and jewelry. Café Gardenia does a scrumptious vegan banana bread; take a slice out into the courtyard, the place lime-green parakeets dance between rose-apple bushes. Cali throngs with wildlife thanks partially to its proximity to Los Farallones de Cali Nationwide Park. Spiky iguanas sprint throughout lawns, wispy orchids wrap round bushes like scraps of satin and simply exterior town, within the Jardín Botánico de Cali, flamboyant bromeliads and shiny anthuriums bloom in a uncommon patch of dry tropical forest.

Again in San Antonio, Criollan Lovers serves adventurous cocktails with viches, mezcal and different Latin American spirits, paired with stirring music on weekends. At nightfall, wind up the hill of Parque San Antonio — topped by an 18th-century chapel — to look at the sundown and take heed to salsa anthems rising from town; siren songs attractive you again for one more night time in town.

Three highlights to not miss in Cali

1. La Pérgola Clandestina
This three-storey nightclub ranks among the many greatest on this planet. Celebration-goers get right down to a mixture of reggaeton, salsa, home and R&B earlier than heading to the roof terrace for contemporary air and photographs of aguardiente, Colombia’s firewater.

2. Cali Salsa Expertise
Mixing historical past and hedonism, these fastidiously curated excursions introduce Cali by its songs, with stops at museums and report retailers. Discover the golf equipment of Barrio Obrero or let an expert dancer whip you round La Calle del Sabor, a salsa social gathering within the metropolis centre.

3. Domingo
In a restaurant canopied by foliage, chef Catalina Vélez serves ingenious dishes that includes indigenous produce comparable to piangua, a mollusc harvested from Colombia’s mangrove forests. Domingo additionally hosts particular evenings in collaboration with high cooks from the area.