IT MIGHT TAKE TWO TO TANGO, BUT IT TAKES A CITY TO SALSA
COLOMBIA’S CARIBBEAN COAST is defined by its laid back beauty: from the elegant walled city of Cartagena de Indias - a UNESCO World Heritage Site replete with cobblestone backstreets and colourful colonial buildings - to Tayrona National Park, where backpackers and tourists rub shoulders with the local indigenous tribes. The jungle-fringed beaches stretch for hundreds of miles, flanked by the Sierra Nevada, the world’s highest coastal mountain range. Colombia’s true hidden gems, though, are the villages buried in the vast swathes of Pacific rainforest in the south west - famous for their biodiversity, and the locals’ zest for life… and Salsa. Having heard other travelers’ stories of wild all-night salsa parties, and the best Ceviche north of Lima, I slung on my rucksack and took the ($50 24hr) bus to Cali, the region’s gritty economic hub, to sample the delights. I wasn’t disappointed as I ran into the little-known Festival de Música del Pacífico Petronio Álvarez, a six-day celebration of African musical heritage, food and dance which takes place every August - widely regarded as Latin America’s most important Afro music festival, but largely a secret outride of Colombia. Although Cali has marked itself out as the world’s Salsa capital, it’s the more traditional sounds of the Marimba (a kind of wooden xylophone) and the choral harmonies of the conjunto choirs that the local Caleños will tell you represent the true musica del Pacifico. CALI’S TOURISM GROWTH Each day 100,000 people filled the streets around Cali’s enormous Coliseo del Pueblo. It was an extraordinary spectacle. In the distance the West Andes blocked out the sky. Smoke from the grills curled up into the air, and a swell of people nudged their way along the narrow streets towards the coliseum. Most visitors to Cali stay in San Antonio, the oldest part of town, and ostensibly the hippest. Unlike the city's traffic-choked thoroughfares, the neighbourhood enjoys a village-like calm. There’s no shortage of rooms to rent in San Antonio (starting at around $15 per night) and there are lots of chic little cafes where a good menu del día rarely costs more than $5 and fills you up until dark. Descents of African slaves shipped in by the Spanish hacienda owners to work the land, Afro-Latinas make up around 50% of Cali’s population. Colombia’s third largest city, behind Bogotá and Medellín, Cali has a developing economy and growing industrial sector, though widespread poverty remains and unemployment hovering around 10%. This year 20% of festival goers came from abroad; a sign that the secret’s now out and Petronio’s appeal is reaching a wider audience. Taking the “Mio” bus to get around Cali is highly recommended, as it has its own lane and traffic often becomes congested. You can buy a travel card, or single journey card, from the vendors at any of the roadside stations. Since the Colombian government’s 2016 peace accord with FARC, which ended half a century of violent conflict, the Pacific region has begun to prosper, as increasing numbers of tourists feel comfortable enough to visit. The festival, then, in a sense served as a celebration of peace as well as music. TRADITIONAL HANDCRAFTS According to the mayor’s office in Cali, this year’s festival generated over $1,000,000 for the local economy. Of the hundreds of food, drink and handcraft stalls, the most popular were those selling ladies' ancestral turbans: elegant, pastoral-toned headscarves wound tightly round the wearer’s head and tied off in a neat bun at the side. One of the headdress designers, Nancy Lozano, told me that the turbans of the enslaved workers served a number of different functions: “To keep seeds for sewing later, to store small pieces of gold for trading and also to hide the women's beauty from the jealous wives of the slaveowners.” The turbans also carry another significance. If the bow is tied to the right it means the woman is spoken for. To the left, she's single. And the middle is understood to represent a strong powerful woman. CALI NIGHTLIFE Beyond a handful of churches and museums, Cali itself is low on sights. But what it lacks in architecture it more than makes up for with the electrifying atmosphere of its nightlife. Out on the streets there was an interminable buzz of conversation. Cold little glasses of Águila beer perspire on the tables where couples sit peacefully, leaning in closer with every sip. The hush, and their eyes, became more amorous as the evening sun started to sink. Those surreptitious little love smiles contain something of pure magic - like the thing one feels sometimes in looking at a canvas or dreaming of a place you’d like to be in but never find. As long queues formed outside the city’s glitzy Salsa clubs, a cool mountain breeze eased the heat of the day. It seemed as though world-class salsa dancers were filing into the room but, on closer inspection, you saw they were young Caleño couples, wearing old trainers and jeans, chatting with a beer in one hand and their partner in the other, curling effortlessly around each other, gliding across the checkered tiles, barely breaking a sweat. Music in Cali is more than mere entertainment: it’s a unifying factor that ties the city together. Petronio is one huge party and it spills out onto the streets each night after the concerts are over and continues until after dawn. African rhythms, endless bottles of viche, and dancing so frenetic it would put even the salsa-dancing Caleños to shame, were they not joining in too. CLOSING NIGHT Around midnight on the final night the 100,000 strong crowd swayed together, twirling 100,000 white handkerchiefs in the air to the melody of the marimba de palma chonta, and passing around bottles of viche and arrechón (a somehow-bitter locally-brewed creamy sugarcane rum). That night, headliners Herencia de Timbiquí were joined onstage by the Cali Philharmonic Orchestra. The success of Petronio lies in its ability to remain faithful to its roots. But the climactic precision of the orchestra formed an extraordinary dialogue with what was an already mesmeric blend: the traditional music of the Colombian Pacific, the Timbiquí River miner’s lament, the modern urban sounds of trumpets and electric guitars and, now, the classical underscoring. It gave Herencia’s sound a new vitality and depth. For almost two hours they thrilled the crowd with their unique blend of high-powered choral harmonies. All the while, flowing beneath the symphonic flourishes of the orchestra, the melodies of the chonta-wood marimba fell like warm southern rain. It was all driven along by the pounding of the deer-hide cununus and seed-filled percussion of the guasá. Add the duelling electric guitars and an incendiary brass section and the result was a super-charged blend of rich Pacific rhythm and it seemed like the whole city got up to dance. The songs themselves were comprised less of protracted lyrical musings than visceral repetitions of simple phrases and the tempo of the drums. After all, like the pulses of two lovers, sometimes the rhythm is all that’s needed to entrance. At times, you almost felt as though you were sat by the Timbiquí river, listening to the sound of the water, as one call flowed into the next, the Marimba’s soothing melodies coming back again and again, inevitably yet never quite predictably, breathing together each time the opening melody resurfaced. Over the course of the six days it became obvious that Petronio was more than just a music festival. It was a celebration of nature itself, of tradition, place and history, community values and, perhaps above all, those beautifully intangible things born out of living in conviviality with the land; of which speech and dance are manifestations no different to birdcalls or sunrises; those atavistic things which can be taught in no other way than through song and silence. You sometimes even get a sense that the Pacifico music bears the hallmarks of the earth, singing itself into existence. IF YOU GO The best way: Flights from LAX to Cali (via Bogotá) start at $600 rtn inc. taxes with Avianca (avianca.com 3600 Wilshire Blvd LA CA, 800-284-2622) U.S. citizens can visit Colombian on a tourist visa (on arrival) for up to 90 days Where to stay: Hotel Americana Carrera 4 8-73, Cali, (+57) 28823063 hotelamericana.com.co 3-star downtown hotel with continental breakfast. Doubles begin at $20 Hotel Obelisco Av. Colombia 49, Cali, (+57) 28933019, hotelobeliscocali.com 4-star downtown hotel with outdoor pool and buffet breakfast. Doubles begin at $40 Four Points by Sheraton Calle 18 Norte #4N - 08, Cali, (+57) 24866000, marriott.com 4-star downtown hotel with outdoor pool and buffet breakfast. Doubles begin at $75 Where to eat: El Valencia Restaurante Español Calle 3 10 35, San Antonio, Cali, (+57) 316 6210136, restelvalenciacali.jimdo.com. Traditional Spanish cuisine (with 5 types of paella). Entrees run about $3-$10. Charrua's Parrilla fusion Calle 18 #105-75, Cali, (+57) 2 3087951, charruasparrillafusion.com. Family style steakhouse with gourmet standards (Uruguayan beef). Entrees run about $4-$15 Waunana Restaurante, Calle 4 # 9-23, San Antonio, Cali, (+57) 2 3450794, waunana.com. Spectacular pairings of local ingredients and flawless presentation (try the 7-dish tasting menu). Entrees run about $5-$18. To learn more Highly informative Colombia tourist information site: colombia.travel Travel advisories and general travel information: travel.state.gov Clubs Tin Tin Deo (tintindeocali.com) a Cali institution that’s regularly touted as the best place in town. Zaperoco (zaperocobar.co) an old school salsa bar, small dance floor but a big reputation. La Topa Tolondra (facebook.com/latopabar) a swinging venue with live bands, salsa classes and long queues after 11pm. Events Delirio (delirio.com.co) on the last Friday of the month, Cali's answer to Cirque de Soleil, with hundreds of dancers, acrobats and musicians. Festival Mundial de Salsa (festivalsalsacali.com) in September, a competition between around 5,000 young dancers from Colombia and worldwide. Feria de Cal (feriadecali.com) 25-31 Dec, the biggest party of the year with live music and carnival-style parades across the city. Petronio Alvarez (petronio.cali.gov.co) mid-August Salsa classes Private classes start at around $10 per hour and are available from a variety of companies including Sondeluz dance academy (sondeluz.com), La Topa Tolondra (facebook.com/latopabar) and Sabor Manicero (salsa-classes-in.cali-colombia.co)
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AuthorEnglish teacher from the UK. Living in Granada. Currently working in Doha. Archives
February 2022
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