Cali, Colombia - Street Scenes

Many Ups and Downs
The city started at the foot of the mountains and slowly spilled into the valley.  The first thing you notice is the people; Cali is more a mix of African, mulatto and mestizo than northern Colombia, a vestige of the slave trade on the southern coast where the sugar cane fields were.

Our neighborhood, San Antonio, is a jumble of brightly colored buildings perched on steep hills - somewhat reminiscent of San Francisco.  The roads are so steep that you have to walk down them slowly and after a few minutes your knees begin to ache.

There are two small peaks on the northern and western edges of town.  This one, in the distance, is called las tres cruces (the three crosses), so named for the collection of white crosses at its peak, now shadowed by cellphone towers.  The legend goes that in the early 1800s, Cali was terrorized by plague, dengue, prostitution and bad crops - caused by a devil in the hills that had previously been run out of the city of Cartagena on the Pacific coast.  Some Spanish monks placed three crosses on the mountain peak to drive the devil out.

In the 20th century, that devil would return in spades.  Cali, the third largest city in Colombia after Bogota and Medellin, was a star-crossed and violent place.  Until a peace deal was signed in 2016, the FARC were still fighting with the government here and the largest and most famous drugs cartel in the world is named after the city.  I read in the newspaper yesterday that since the FARC signed the peace deal, the fighters have no useful skills to reintegrate into society so they're joining the Cali cartel.

You don't feel any of that history as you walk the streets.  Everyone is just as warm and friendly as the rest of the country, though the poor here do look a bit more desperate and are less shy about asking for a few coins.  The Cali river cuts across the northern part of the city like a green ribbon.  We walked along the shore on our first day here.

Cali loves their cats, they have a park dedicated to them on the river's northern shore.

There is a lot of public art - some are large murals, others interpret the chaotic history of the city.

Some are pure whimsy, like this house a few blocks from where we stayed.  Cali is known as the epicenter of Salsa dancing, there are dance schools all around. One of the most famous schools is two houses away from us.  It's closed all day long and only opens around 5pm, which is about the time the city awakens.  In the early evening a cool breeze flushes out the city heat and the restaurants begin to open, the street vendors begin to call out.their wares, the lights come on, neon begins to flicker.  It's a night city; at 7am if you're looking for a cafe or a breakfast spot, you've got to really search.

The further away from the river you go, down the hills onto the flat part of the city, the grittier and grayer it becomes.  This neighborhood is four blocks down a steep hill from us and gave Jean deja-vu - said that this store looked exactly like a Malaysian coffee shop.    We had breakfast, shopped at the local supermarket - inquired at a beauty salon about how much it would be for Jean to color her hair.  "Three dollars, but you have to bring your own dye."  The dye is sold at the local pharmacy, a two-step deal breaker for the Dodo, who was looking for all in one shopping.

Cali is not the most beautiful place, there is no stunning architecture but it feels like it has a lot of soul.  The Caleños have a saying that sums it up perfectly: "Cali es Cali y lo demas es loma, ois?  which means roughly that "Cali is Cali and the rest (of Colombia) is mountains, you hear?