Last Updated on October 9, 2024
The place I was most excited to visit in Colombia after Las Lajas sanctuary was Cali, Colombia’s third largest city and the salsa capital of the world. Last year, when I traveled through Colombia for nine weeks, I always saw myself stopping in Cali for a week or two to take salsa lessons – it’s almost a compulsory ritual for solo female travelers in Colombia it seems. You go to Cali and learn how to salsa. But then I flew to Mexico on a whim and never made it to Cali.
My excitement about visiting Cali faded quickly, however, when I read the following section in Wikitravel’s Stay Safe section:
2016: Drive by robberies are frequent. A group of two or three motorcycles will pick a random passerby and surround her, pointing a gun at her and quickly emptying her pockets. The whole thing takes less than a minute. Apart from taking a taxi everywhere, there’s not much you can do about it, because they operate at daytime and even in “safe” neighborhoods too. Apart from common sense(which will minimize but *NOT* eliminate the risk of being robbed), empty your wallet of any unnecessary debit/credit cards, carry a photocopy of your passport instead of the original (If you have an ID card that can be easily replaced, it’s even better), don’t carry a lot of money. If you have an expensive phone, you might want to carry a cheap phone while in Cali. You could wear pants with hidden pockets, because the objective of this crime is to make a quick getaway, not to take a lot of stuff. That said, realize most tourists in Cali don’t get robbed.
Yikes.
I was a bit freaked out, to be honest, and even cut my trip short, instead adding another stop to my tour of southern Colombia. I’d stop not only in Popayan but also in the small town of Pasto.
By the time I finally got to Cali, I had built up this image in my head of the city being a dangerous, gang-infested place where I’d get robbed for sure. Instead, I found a city I instantly liked, and which I didn’t find scary at all.
I went for runs along the beautiful river walk, I wandered around the downtown area, climbed to the top of Acueducto Park Hill for lovely views over Cali, I enjoyed strolls through Simon Bolivar Park while munching on fresh pineapple (for $0.17 a piece I developed an addiction quickly!), and I admired the colonial buildings as well as the awesome street art in the San Antonio neighborhood.
Speaking of street art – somehow nobody ever talks about Cali’s awesome street art scene. I’ve read several articles and blog posts on Cali that talked about the city’s churches and a cat sculpture park and salsa bars and museums, but no mention of the street art.
Hence I was surprised by the amount of street art I saw all over town – but what a pleasant surprise! I loved the colorful murals and graffiti and couldn’t stop snapping away with my phone. The one thing I didn’t dare bring along on my wanderings around town after reading that little paragraph on Wikitravel, was my dSLR camera. I never felt unsafe taking my iPhone out until I was stopped by a local who told me I shouldn’t be walking around with my phone out, but always hiding it.
Luckily, I never found myself in a situation that had me fear for my safety though. Instead, I had a lovely time in Cali. Next time, I’ll come back with more time and will stay long enough to learn salsa.
