Once known by its troubled past of drug lords and street robberies, nowadays Cali is a nice stop for all those wishing to spend a couple of days learning about salsa and discovering the cultural panorama of this beautiful city.
After having watched the action Netflix series Narcos, it was hard imagining to leave out Cali from our route so after our time wandering every last corner of the Cocora Valley, we decide to head over and go back to some city life.
Thankfully, this time finding accomodation was not as confusing as Medellin. Here, the neighbourhoods near the center are the safest and nicest to see, no need to look for something on the other side of town! Our room was right in the heart of the San Cayetano neighbourhood, an area that ended up being the perfect place to stay to explore this interesting city from left to right.
Things to do
During our stay here, we kind of figured out that things to do in Cali are either very close or very far away. As far as the city center goes, pretty much everything can be reached by foot but as soon as you move out from that, then just allot yourself at least a 2h bus/walk to wherever you’re going.
WALKING TOUR
The easiest and cheapest thing to do in town is simply have your own self-guided walking tour (a.k.a. relaxed strolling around) around the neighbourhoods of the city center (San Cayetano, Centenario, San Nicolas). If you pop in at any info point (go to the one in San Antonio church if you’re staying in San Cayetano), you’ll be given a map where you can easily follow and already-made-route that encompasses all of the notable sights of the city.
These are the places we visited: Iglesia San Antonio, Colina de San Antonio, Museum La Tertulia (there are 4 current expositions), Gato by Tejada, Iglesia San Francisco, Paseo del Rio, Iglesia la Ermita, Parque Simon Bolivar, Centro Cultural de Cali, Loma de la Cruz, Parque Artesanos, Parque del Perro and Biblioteca Municipal. Give yourself a day to go through them all!
Church San Antonio and views from the Colina San Antonio
ENJOY THE VIEWS FROM CRISTO REY
Funnily enough, being able to reach this place is not quite the easiest thing to do. Whether you decide to walk, take a taxi or a colectivo there, the road you’re gonna be on is always gonna be the same. If the 2h30min walk to the top of the hill is too much of you, getting an Uber/taxi for around 10’000COP is definitely the way you should go. There are colectivos (the old jeeps with the back open charging 2’000COP/pp) going around but very few go toward that part of town. We’ve heard views from the top are awesome though!
HIKE UP TO CERRO DE LAS TRES CRUCES
This is a very popular hike among locals, especially on weekends. Even though the path up its pretty steep, getting to the top won’t take longer than 1h from the base of the Cerro. Make sure to ask for directions on where the path starts cause finding it by yourself can be quite challenging! From atop, views of Cali will be the much deserved reward.
RELAX IN SAN CIPRIANO
At a 2h30min bus ride from Cali you can find the small village of San Cipriano. Above of all, this village is famous for the special motorbike-powered wooden carts (a.k.a. Brujitas) that connect it to the outside world. Main activities to do around here involve waterfall hiking, tubing in lagoons and horseback riding all inside some kind of unofficial reserve. The trip can be done as a day-trip from Cali but also consider staying a couple of days and overnighting in one of the many basic hostels/homestays on-site. Camping is also a good and cheap option here.
DISCOVER THE SALSA AMBIENCE
If you want to know more about the salsa scene what’s better than discovering it in the capital of Salsa? After a certain hour, everywhere in town salsa will start to take over the usual reggaeton and people will start making their way to their favourite salsa place. A central nice place to see salsa dancers in action (and maybe give it a shot yourself) is the Topa Tolondra, a vintage salsa club located on the 5th Calle just off the 13th Carrera.
Topa Tolondra from outside
But if you find yourself in Cali on sundays, make sure to head over to have a drink at one of the famous viejotecas all around town. This strictly unique clubs of Cali are places where older people remember the time back then at the sounds of salsa! Make sure to try out the food of newly-opened local called La Salsita in San Cayetano, you won’t regret it!
Safety
Scattered all around town there are several police huts mostly stationed nearby famous tourist landmarks making sure everything goes right. On the same map that you get given at infopoints, are clearly marked the “safe”, “edgy” and “dangerous” areas of the city to help tourists like us have a better idea of where the boundaries are.
As far as we can say, we always walked around with our cameras on hands (the sin of street photographers) but even though some of the “green” areas where kind of dodgy we never felt being watched or in danger at any point during our stay.
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