Cali, what can I say about Cali?! I planned on staying about
3 days in Cali but ended up staying nearly 3 weeks. Too many distractions; The
World Games, The International Salsa Festival, pretty girls and some great bakeries
to name but a few. The last few weeks of my journey could be more accurately
described as Billy’s Big Salsa Class and obviously no better place to do a
class or 12 than Cali, the world salsa capital.
My arrival into Cali on a Thursday evening coincided with
the last few days of the World Games which are the Olympic's little brother. I
was in a rush to meet Andrea, a local Caleña who I had met through
couchsurfing. We met downtown at about half past six and she gave me directions as to where to meet near her apartment while I cycled and she caught a taxi across
town. While making my way to our meeting point with my packed bike I stopped to
ask directions at a street corner. After a few questions along the lines of
where I was from and what I was doing with all the gear on the bike I noticed
that one of the guys had a large television camera. A few minutes later I was
doing an interview on Colombian national television about my trip with a crowd
of about thirty people around me taking photos. It's amazing who people will
line up to have their photo taken with once there is a TV camera in front of
them... I didn't even have my Trocaire t-shirt on?! There was a big cheer from
the crowd when I waved a Colombian flag that had been thrust into my hands! In
the middle of the interview I could feel my phone vibrating with Andrea
ringing, worried as to where I had disappeared to! She quickly forgave me for
my late show and was laughing as she over heard a passer by exclaiming that I
was the cyclist from the television!
The World Games feature lots of sports that haven’t made it
into the Olympics such as Tug of War, Lifesaving, Sumo, Latin dancing, Heavy
Ball and Artistic Roller Skating to name a few. Once I heard it was not sold
out and that some of the tickets were quite cheap I was very excited to go off
and check out a few sports that I had never heard of twenty four hours
previous. First up was Beach Handball in the city bullring. I got to see the
local Colombian team get cheered on to beat Australia. Later that day it was
off to see the rugby sevens which seemed to be a lot more popular and was being
held in the main stadium - Estadio Olimpico Pascual Guerrero.
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| Colombia Vs Australia in the beach handball |
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| Brazil Vs Hong Kong in the rugby sevens |
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| The Colombia rugby team get great support from their home crowd |
The following day I went to see kayak polo with Andrea and
her boyfriend Egor. The outdoor Olympic pool was only a short walk from her
apartment. Amused to see what kayak polo was all about, it actually did not
take me long to become quite absorbed in the matches. When it comes to kayak polo
the Germans appear to be a pretty difficult team to beat. They are very efficient at
scoring goals.
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| France Vs Holland in the kayak polo |
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| Taking a break from the kayak polo and the baking hot sun. No better way than with a cholado, a delicious, refreshing fruit, ice and syrup mix. |
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| In the packed out, very warm gymnastics hall |
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| Athletes in action on the floor |
Thinking that was me done, Andrea and Egor kindly invited me
to the gymnastics which was sold out. There was a fantastic atmosphere in the
large arena. We later finished the day off with what I surprisingly found to be
the most impressive of all the events witnessed, the climbing. Not being a big
fan of heights climbing is not something that had ever caught my attention but
to see these athletes sprint up a 30 metre climbing wall à la spiderman was a
sight to behold.The competition involved two athletes race up identical
climbing walls in a matter of seconds. There was usually only split seconds in
the difference.
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| On a Sunday bike spin with Andrea we passed this river that's popular for a dip on a warm day. |
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| Downtown Cali which becomes a ghost town after dark |
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| A day trip to a waterfall on the outskirts of Cali |
As if the World Games was not enough excitement for one city
The World Salsa festival was on the following week so I couldn't hop back on
the bike without checking that out. Before heading off on this trip I had
always hoped to take some Spanish classes and a few salsa classes if the
opportunity arose. Having done a weeks Spanish class in Guatemala it was time
to tick the salsa box.. in the world salsa capital on the same week as the world salsa festival!
Cali is considered the salsa capital of the world due to it's complete
dominance over any other type of music in the city... go into a supermarket and
salsa music is playing, hop in a taxi and the driver is listening to one of
numerous salsa stations. There are over a hundred salsa schools and I heard
there are around seven thousand professional salsa dancers in the city.
Needless to say, most bars or clubs you visit have salsa
playing with locals and tourists spinning each other around to the catchy
tunes.
I thought this was great but I wasn't the only Irish man to
be enthralled by this salsa city. Richie Kirwan
(http://thedancingirishman.wordpress.com/) is a guy from Waterford who I met and is a dance
instructor living here for the last two years. I was happy to take Richie up on
his offer of a free dance class for every Irish person that passed through. He
also had a great bunch of local and international friends who all loved their
salsa, so I spent several nights out in different venues attempting the
difficult task of putting into practice the rehearsed moves that I had learned
earlier in the day. Things seemed to go from bad to worse with my salsa
"skills" over the week with some poor girls
receiving elbows to the head or body with the occasional kick in the chin to
keep them guessing. There was an Australian friend who was a very good dancer who
downright refused to dance with me despite being good pals over the week. She
had had laser treatment on her eyes earlier in the week and wasn't taking any
chances with flying elbows. She told me that she had actually ended up in
Accident and Emergency one time due to a salsa move gone wrong. It was not all
one way traffic however and I was on the receiving end of a choice elbow to the
head one evening in Tin Tin Deo nightclub.
(http://www.tintindeo.com/nosotros/) She must have been warned.
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| Spot the Irish lads.. |
On my last Saturday
night out Richie, myself and some of his pals went to
Chango's, one of the better known salsa clubs in Cali, located on the outskirts
of the city. It was one of the original late night Salsa clubs and it was like
walking into a nightclub from the 1970s. It was a great venue with salsa
playing nearly all night. Watching the locals in action with all their
impressive rhythm and spins was captivating. So, after hours of classes during
the week it was time to put some of my new moves into practice. I shudder to
even think about it. At one stage I asked a Dutch girl up to dance who was a
very good dancer and thus followed probably the worst two minutes I've ever had
on a dance floor. (One of the problems that I had acquired in Cali was that I
sometimes found it difficult to identify the beat, thinking a song was a fast
dance when in fact it was a slower one and vice versa. See Richie's blog for a
rough idea of what I'm talking about;
http://thedancingirishman.wordpress.com/2012/08/09/how-to-find-that-goddamn-1-beat-in-salsa/
) Anyway, off we march onto the dance floor and I can't hear the beat, so.. worst
thing ever, she starts counting out the "uno, dos, tres, uno, dos,
tres..." As the dance continued to deteriorate she had a kinda look of "Is
this guy for real..?" and a sense of complete disinterest as if wondering
when it would all be over. To be honest by the end of the song, I was pretty
relieved it was all over too.
BUT Billy's salsa attempts are not all over, it'll take more
than that to dissuade me. Practice makes perfect, or at least remotely look
like you know what you are doing, LOTS and lots of practice..! Girls, I promise to take more care with those flying elbows!
