Author: angie

As salsa dancing became one of my great passions while living in South America, I have started my own Christmas tradition with travelling to the Feria de Cali each year. It is one of the most famous festivals in Colombia taking place every year from December 25^th to 30^th. In different parades, the locals show their culture, traditions and typical dances. The festival is always opened with the Salsodromo on the 25th where all the different salsa schools give their salsa moves to the best. Starting with the most famous salsa school in Cali called Swing Latino and followed by many others. Cali is also known as the world’s capital of salsa and is home to one of the best salsa dancers and groups worldwide.

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We always stay in a hotel near the stadium as it is just perfectly situated to reach all the events of the salsa festival by walking. As we didn’t book seats at the boxes of the festivals, we decided to be there at around 2pm in order to get a good spot along the highway where the parade of the Salsodromo was taking place. We were lucky and even got some plastic seats for about 5 USD each from locals. The parade only started until 5pm and therefore we enjoyed some typical food, Colombian beer and some dancing in the bright sun of Cali. Then the spectacle started: one after another group of amazing dancers passed us – dancing on trucks or simply on the highway! The dancers were of all ages – from little kids, youngsters to seniors and all performing an amazing show in their beautiful dresses. Until 10pm the salsa schools of Cali were entertaining us with their amazing dance presentations!

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On the other days there are also parades of old cars (Cali Viejo) and they also show other traditions of this region, e.g. the typical vehicles Jeep Willys with which they transport everything in the coffee triangle or the famous flower ornaments of Medellín & its surroundings. In the afternoons are also more events like encounters of music lovers that are selling records, CD’s or DVD’s of their big collections of artists and you can buy the typical instruments like bongos, claves, cowbells, maracas or guiros.

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Last year we got tickets for probably the most famous salsa show “made in Cali: El Delirio”. It was the opening of a new location and a new show in 2014. It was already an experience just entering the “circus tent” of El Delirio with its great decoration, artists and everyone handing us small gifts, a glass of rum or a whisky! The tent has a capacity of 1.500 people. The show consisted of different parts – one of it was a tribute to Michael Jackson – all in “salsa version” of course. Each part of the show was just amazing and a truly spectacle! At the end the professional dancers even danced with the audience and the band just played the finest music. The show ended until 2am and is truly a must-see! Every last Friday of each month and all days during the Cali fair you can enjoy this unique dance show!

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During the Cali fair there are always numerous concerts of famous artists – many of them are even free of charge. Every year you can go to the famous “Superconcierto” in the stadium. From 7pm to 4am , great artists like La 33, el Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Marc Anthony, Enrique Iglesias as well as Willie Colon, Oscar de Leon or Prince Royce, Prince Daddy Yankee or Romeo Santos turn the stadium into a dancing arena with everyone dancing and singing along their most famous songs – it always is a truly amazing atmosphere!

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Besides the concerts and famous dance shows like El Delirio, Ensalsate or the salsa show of Swing Latino, you should not miss to dance the night away in one of the famous salsa bars in Cali like Tintindeo, Zaperoco or Juanchito – but it is recommendable to get there early during the fair as these popular dancing places get very crowded!

So there is not more to say – except: Let’s DANCE!

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Medellín – the so-called city of eternal spring is always worth another visit! Actually this time I just wanted to enjoy a relaxing weekend in the sun and therefore my friend Eugenia and I relaxed a whole day in the spa area of the great hotel Diez right near the famous neighborhood “El Poblado” where you can find many bars & restaurants. Of course, at night it was party time. As the climate in Medellín is so amazing, it is very usual that the “party night” starts in the park of “El Poblado” drinking beer, rum or aguardiente and enjoy to watch the people passing by!

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At night we were lucky enough to get to see the famous Christmas lights of Medellín. To be honest, I didn’t really expect so much – at least nothing different than I have seen in other Colombian cities as people get crazy decorating all their houses, streets, shopping malls with hundreds of Christmas lights. But Medellín tops it all! I really couldn’t believe this! There are Christmas lights everywhere as in any other city but on top of this more than two kilometers of the Medellín river is completely covered with different figures of colorful Christmas lights and hundreds of people go to see this spectacle.

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This event always starts in December and lasts until the first/second week of January and I must say, it is definitely a must to go to Medellín and see this amazing work of hundreds of artists if you are in Colombia during that time. Even the National Geographic announces Medellín as one of the top cities worldwide to see Christmas lights.

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The sponsor of this event is EPM – the city’s public utilities company. The Christmas lighting was planned as a sustainable project with energy saving lights and has over 30 million LED lights, more than 800 kilometers of rope lights, 11 tons of metallic decorative paper, and 170 tons of ironwork, among other things. It is the masterpiece and work of about 330 artists – many of them are single moms.

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Every year the christmas lights festival in Medellín has a new topic. This year’s theme is “Carnaval de Luz” (carnival of lights) which represents a circus with carnival rides and themed tents. This year the majority of these christmas lights can be found in downtown along the parks whereas last year the main place could be found along the river of Medellín. Actually the theme and slogan for the light festival of Medellín – the “Alumbrado” in 2014 (when I was there) was “Values illuminate Christmas”. In every single figure you could find a story behind it. For example, hope, tranquility, forgiveness, tolerance and love were some of the shown values. So they created a Christmas story which is about a girl named Paloma who travels on a boat on the river of peace (the Medellín River) looking for the most beautiful values in life. She stops along the way on different ports to learn about different human values. This whole story was also shown in a spectacular light-water-show with music and impressing light show and the video of Paloma and her friends travelling displayed on water fountains.

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I must say there is always something new to explore in Medellín and its surroundings – and the climate is just perfect with an average of 22 degrees. Every time I go to Medellín I wonder why I live in the so called “fridge” Bogotá – but well, I will be back to discover more of the city of eternal spring!

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The Cocuy National Park has been on my list of places to visit since I came to Colombia and finally the day had come! With my friend Hernan and other friends and families we started the “mountain adventure”.  At 4:30 in the morning we hit the road from Bogota as a 10 hours ride awaited us to the village of “El Cocuy”. We passed breathtaking landscapes along the road with the Chicamocha Canyon, evergreen mountains and as getting closer to our final destination we could always get a better look at the impressing mountain chains and snow peaks of the Cocuy National Park – especially from the telescope which an old señor installed in the middle of the road! He is so passionate about it and shows you the top of the snowcapped mountains and tells you its names by showing you the map of the national park!

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Finally we arrived in the little village of “El Cocuy” at around 4pm where we stayed at the very nice hotel Posada Muñoz right at the market place. On the market place you can find a map/relief of the whole Cocuy National Park which covers in total 3.060 square kilometers and consists of 22 snow peaks including Ritakuwa Blanco (5.330m) or Pan de Azucar (5.120m). So definitely we would only see a very tiny part during our trip! After a small snack for dinner we went to bed early as the alarm would wake us up at 5am the next morning in order to start our mountain adventure.

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After a delicious breakfast in the hotel we walked to the office of the national parks where they gave us some more information about the Sierra Nevada del Cocuy – about its nature, its indigenous inhabitants as well as restrictions and advises! Then we were ready to go on the 4×4 vehicles which took us on a 1,5hours ride to the entrance of the Cocuy National Park. Here we met our guides and walked about an hour to the cabins “Cabañas Sisuma” where we spend the night! On the way we already passed beautiful Páramo landscapes with the frailejones plants which are typical for the Andes region and impressing mountain scenery! In the cabins we were served a delicious lunch after we checked in to our rooms!

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In order to get used to the altitude we went for another walk along “Las Lagunillas”. During this 2 hour hike we passed 3 different lagoons, páramo landscapes as well as beautiful mountain ranges. After this great experience, a typical tasty dinner awaited us at the cabin Sisuma. Then we had a small talk with our guides where we discussed the itinerary of the following day! The plan was to get up very earlier, have some breakfast and start walking at 4am! I was already a little afraid if I would survive this freezing night but seeing the people that were going to camp outside I thought it shouldn’t be too terrible. It definitely helped that I had brought my sleeping bag and I tucked myself in with some more blankets!

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In the middle of the night the alarm went off and it was time to complete our aim for this trip to walk to the snow border at “pulpito del diablo”. Full of energy we started walking in complete darkness but soon it got light and we could see more of the surroundings and actually which distance we had already walked! The big challenge was to climb up a steep stony path which is called “paso de cornejo”. We all made it up and on the other side of the mountain a breathtaking view awaited us and we were able to see our aim – the “Pulpito del diablo”! It actually seemed very near and a walk without any big obstacles but actually we kept on walking a little bit up and down for another 1,5 hours! It definitely seemed we would never get there even though we saw it just in front of us!

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Once we got there all my Colombian friends jumped into the snow like little kids as it was the first time they saw or touched snow! It was very funny and surprising to see how much they loved it – some even cried because of happiness! Even though I told them that this actually is not “nice” snow as it was pretty icy & grey! Well, we took a nice break there, ate some bocadillos and other snacks and just enjoyed the beautiful landscapes and watched some of the people climb the snowy top of the “pulpito”!

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Then we started to walk the whole way back again to the cabins! On some places I was wondering if we actually walked up all of this! Once we arrived at the cabin we were served a delicious lunch and had some time to rest in the surroundings of the cabin! Then we walked back to “Los Herreras” where the jeeps awaited us to bring us back to the village! As we were all pretty tired from the trekking we went to bed very early to start our long trip of 10 hours by car back to Bogotá! This trekking in the Cocuy National Park was definitely an amazing experience and I am sure I will be back as there is much more to discover!

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Last weekend a special challenge awaited me and my friends! Since a couple of months I have already heard of the 5 kilometers race including different obstacles – the so-called “Desafío de Guerreros” and knew that this was something I definitely needed to participate in. So I motivated some of my friends to accompany me because I was sure that in a team it would be even more fun!

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The warriors challenge took place in a theme park just outside of Bogotá on the way to Zipaquira. Here they designed a special route for the “warriors” that wanted to meet the challenge. The 5 km route went through great landscapes in the middle of nature and was a mix of natural obstacles and other ones created by the organizers of the event.

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It was possible to register just yourself or participate with a team of minimum 5 people. As a team you sign up with a name and we identified us with “Schlammschlacht Internacional” which means as much as international battle in the mud. We were 6 and pretty excited but also a little nervous before the start as everyone told us that it would be pretty tough and well, they advised us that we would definitely finish this challenge totally dirty!

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This day the “Desafío de Guerreros” started at 8am and every half an hour another group started their challenge. Furthermore there was a live band for our motivation and 15 minutes before each start there was a warm up coordinated by a fitness coach. At 2pm it was our turn for the race in military style! The challenge started with a steep run up into the mountains of the wood. At the first station we needed to do 20 push ups or climb up a rope and then continued our run through the woods.   There were many obstacles where we needed to crawl on the ground or overcome high wooden constructions. Then there were others where we needed to proove our balance and many high obstacles where we needed to climb up and sometimes slide down into pretty nasty streams full of mud. Then there were other stations of rapelling and walking through many swamps and streamlets – so just everywhere a lot of mud was involved but this race definitely was a lot of fun!

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At the last station we needed to crawl down another obstacle where they just threw a lot of mud on us again in order to reach the aim as a real muddy warrior! Here we got a medal which crowns you as a real warrior – “un guerrero”! Furthermore we left the chip which took our time in a box. Even though I think this is not a race where time should matter this much – it is much more about having a great time with your friends and companionship!

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In my opinion this is a great challenge to experience with your friends that love sports and like to test their limits, help each other out, overcome their fears, laugh at one another crawling up and down different obstacles and sinking into muddy swamps and rivers! All in all just great fun – does it sound like that to you? Then what are you waiting for – sign up for the next challenge and become a warrior of the “Desafio de Guerreros” which takes place in many different places in Colombia, e.g. Bogotá, Medellin or Cali!

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Mompox lies on the majestic river Magdalena which is one of the most famous and important rivers in Colombia. So another tourist attraction is to go on a boat ride on the river Rio Magdalena as well as through the mangroves. Our guide picked us up at our hotel Casa Amarilla and we went to the river with a big group of Italians and some Colombians who were very excited about exploring more of their own country. From the river we had a nice view of the historical centre and passed by the beautiful churches.

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After about 20 minutes we got off the boat. Here some different means of transportation awaited us to bring us to a different bank where we took another canoe through the mangroves. The ride there was pretty adventurous as they had prepared different kinds of transportation in “Colombian style” for us. There was the possibility to go on a motorbike with 2-3people, a pick-up car set up with some plastic chairs in the back of the loading platform or on a wooden waggon which was pulled by a (poor) donkey! We decided to take the motorbike and luckily everyone arrived safely!

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Then we went for a canoe ride along the mangroves. We were able to observe many bird species and enjoyed the beautiful landscapes! In between we had a short stop at a typical finca where they served us a delicious fruit juice and water melon which was very refreshing in the heat of Mompox and its surroundings. The attraction of this finca were the animals like monkeys, parrots and cows. After this exhilarant stop we returned to Mompox by taking the same adventurous rides as on our way there – with the addition of a beautiful sunset!

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The next day we just strolled through the cobblestone streets and marveled at the beautiful white-washed buildings of Mompox! We also bought the typical lemon sweets (dulce de limón) of Doña Ada who has taken on the tradition which her mom started preparing these delicious sweets – well, maybe it is almost too sweet ;)!

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Mompox is a very popular destination especially during Easter Week due to its religious traditions and Easter processions. Furthermore the enchanting town has been home to the Jazz Festival for a couple years now and attract more and more visitors every year! This enchanting town is just a perfect place to relax and you will definitely feel that you have taken a journey back in time!

Have a look at my other experiences in Mompox!

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