Our Cali city guide, “Carolina” conveyed her story that was emblematic of what we heard from many Columbians. When she graduated from high school she left Columbia. Because of the narco crime, murders and corruption she was afraid and felt she had no future there. She was able to move to Washington D.C. where she worked and went to college. About seven years ago she returned to Cali to visit her family and found it had changed dramatically. Crime and corruption were reduced and the city was making massive expeditions on infrastructure. Most importantly she found hope and a plan for her future. She decided to move back to Columbia to start her tour business.

Everywhere we went in Cali there was music and dance. Cali prides itself on being the salsa capital of Columbia. One day in the park we came across these dancers doing local style dances. The dancers ranged from kids to older folks. In their steps there was much energy and intensity displayed.

What began as an exhibition to commemorate the work of painter and sculptor Hernando Tejada, whose El Gato del Río was a gift to the city as it worked to clean up its image in the late 90s has become an obsession. El Gato (the cat) is the iconic symbol of Cali. Symbols of cats are found throughout the city in both abstract and realistic forms.

 

Columbians are passionate about their number one sport, “futbol” or soccer and Cali was no exception. We could always tell when it was game day because of the number of team jerseys worn around town. Game day celebrations were held everywhere.

Columbia’s second most popular sport is cycling. The efficient city bus system dropped us at the impressive world class “Velodromo”. After a little walking and asking (in very broken Spanish) we finally found it in a grand sports complex including a bull fighting arena, soccer stadium, dance studio and roller blade track. It just so happens that evening a cycling competition was happening in the velodrome. We are not sure if was college or professional but they were very exciting to watch. There were team and individual races involving cycling strategy we did not quite understand. But, it sure was fun to watch.

We were so taken with Cali we stayed a couple of extra days to enjoy the people and the sites.