Mucha Rumba at the Feria de Cali

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Rumba is a word used in Colombian Spanish to mean partying, nightlife, drinking, fiesta, etc, etc. If you come to Colombia you will find Rumba and if not Rumba will definitely find you.

We are heading south to Cali so have to come back through Bogota for a night which happens to be Christmas Eve. Nightlife does not start until after 11 PM because people are having Christmas with their family. Around midnight we go to a bar next to our hotel. Afterwards to a salsa/reggae after party hosted by a Jamaican dude we met last week at a free Hari Krishna vegetarian dinner. Going to bed at 4:00 AM is just foreshadowing of things to come.

The feria is very big in Colombia. Ferias are multi day festivals that have several events going on. The big ones will include bullfights, beauty pageants, concerts, parades and parties. No matter what the size of the feria there is sure to be lots of Rumba and even more alcohol.

It was recommended by several people that we go to the Feria de Cali -- “Mucha Rumba.” So we make the effort to book a hotel online and to deviate greatly from our general travel direction to get to the Feria de Cali. The city is Colombia’s third largest and their festival is one of the biggest in the country. The venues in Calí are spread all around the city and we either have to manage the indirect bus system or take taxis. Many of the events are free and just require that we bring a donation of a pound of rice or salt which will go to recent flood victims.

Our hostel is completely packed with travelers from every continent. Everyone is there for the revelry and it is very easy to make friends and drinking buddies. One night at our place more people are awake at 4 AM than asleep. And because we booked late we were stuck in a dormitory. With people returning to their beds at 7 AM and others checking out at 9 AM, a long snooze is hard to come by. Since taking the night bus from Bogota during most of the feria I feel like I am jet lagged from lack of quality sleep.

Photo courtesy of Juyeon Park

Cali happens to be the salsa capital of Colombia so it is quite fitting that the first big feria event we attend is a salsa performance. We arrive to the open air stadium half way through the show and are still there for more than two hours watching one dance school after the other perform their short routines. The groups range from a lone couple to teams of fifteen people or more. The dancers’ ages vary from elementary school to retirement home. Many of the performers are amazing dancers at an age when I was still tripping over my feet slow dancing at bar mitzvahs.

There are various different styles of salsa dancing (e.g. New York style, Cuban style). Cali style is famous for its very fast leg movements. Take that 1..2..1..2 you learned at the free salsa class at your local YMCA -- or at church, in college, on a how to DVD -- add a step and crank it up times 50. That is what we are seeing now. Watching just the speed of their legs is mesmerizing, then they add intricate twists and lifts all synchronized to the music and smiling all the while. The show ends with a stunning international competition winning team from Cali.

**I used a low-quality point and shoot camera, so please ignore the horrible sound quality and focus on the dancers:

Every night there are free salsa concerts. The venue is very fittingly at an old liquor distillery. The first time we go, we wait for over an hour, but it is well worth it. There must be several thousand people here. Many have brought their own cowbells and maracas to create a surround sound percussion section. The music, dancing and drinking carries on until 3:00 AM then we go to a salsa bar until 4:30 AM.

Here is a clip from the concert. Try to ignore the camera quality and focus on the Rumba going on around me. If you can hear, the band and audience are singing a song "Cali, Cali, Calidad" playing off the Spanish word calidad ( 'quality' in English). This really gets the crowd going:

There are also some non-rumba related activities at the Feria de Cali. There are parades every afternoon and bullfights every early evening. Click here to see our day at the bullfight. There is also a temporary amusement park and a beauty pageant which we missed, but I caught some of it on the news. Lines are huge almost everywhere and all Colombians do not seem to be so civil about queueing up as they are in say UK or Japan. On the final day of the feria we wait two and a half hours in a long winding line only to be told that it is full. All because of people hundreds of people cutting in line with very little if any organization. We leave very disappointed. The Cuban band playing is supposed to be amazing. Drat!

View as we are leaving the parade (hot and boring). The people on the ground
are waiting to enter the too packed bleachers.

We have fun just walking around the amusement park and watching families have fun.
Adults and kids are waiting in ridiculously long lines for 30 sec rides.

Time to buy stock in Pop-A-Shot International. Nobody gets anywhere near
to the 240 points necessary to win a stuffed animal.

The Feria de Cali ends but New Year's Eve comes right after. There is a big party with everyone in our hostel. Unlike other Latin American places (and New York City) the streets are strangely quiet. Like at Christmas, everyone celebrates at home and then goes out much later. Our hostel party disperses at 2 AM and we go to a salsa bar which is just starting to pick up then. It is a retro 70's style club. We do not get to our bed until after 6 AM. By this time we are definitely Cali-d and Rumba-d out and ready for somewhere more tranquil. But we are too tired to leave on the 2nd. So on January 3rd we plan to head to a small, quiet  town.

With all of the Rumba we barely see anything of Cali. However, we do
manage one afternoon to drag ourselves to the art museum and visit El Gato del Rio

Bullfighting in Cali

It is loved and it is loathed, controversial and steeped in tradition. It is the Spanish bullfight. As everyone knows it is not much of a "fight" that is why the spanish name corrida de toros (running of bulls) is more suiting.

The bullfights in Cali are held during the end of the year and coincide with their giant festival, Feria de Cali. We are here in Cali for the feria and going to a bullfight seems to be a thing to do. I have been before about 15 years ago in Spain, but Mika has never been so we decide to check it out.

Ticket windows at the Plaza del Toros

As far as foreigner sentiment towards the event according to my unscientific poll of talking to other travelers, I would say that about half were interested in going. Half thought it is disgusting. Some went with the hopes of seeing the bull gore someone. One Swiss woman said she cried when the first bull was killed and left shortly after. I went in knowing that it is a brutal sport that involves an unfair fight between man and beast, but just a few short months (and continents) ago we also went to see water buffalo sacrifices up close at funerals in Indonesia so in comparison this should be quite tame.

By the time we get to the stadium we are late for the first of the six bullfights on the card for this afternoon. Like at the opera, we are not allowed to enter the arena while a match is in progress. We start talking with a guy who is also waiting to enter. He is a huge fan and has tickets for all eight days. We end up sitting with him. We are in the nosebleed seats but all around us are serious bullfight fans.

We'd be holding up the roof if there was one

These aficionados are as passionate about bullfighting as others might be about football or baseball. The fans cheer loudly when the toreros perform majestically and will whistle - booing in Spanish - mercilessly for the hacks. During the matches we are taught the nuances of the art of bullfighting which we could easily miss just sitting there on our own. These guys discuss everything from the school of the toreros to the genetic make-up of a particular bull.

There are several steps which happen before the matador meets the bull face to face with his red cape, sword and really really tight pants. There are guys who wave large pink capes, there is a horse rider and two guys without capes that stick short spears into the bull. All of these are done so that the matador can study how this particular bull moves and reacts. When he is ready the matador stands alone with the bull. If he is performing well the Presidencia - judges presiding over the match - will signal a live band to play. The matador must kill the bull in a certain amount of time and he has three chances to do it. If it is not quick the crowd will whistle in disapproval. In the rare chance that the bull does not die, the beast is spared and the rest of his days will be spent out to pasture as a stud.

During the five matches we see just one is great. The matador is from Panama but studied here in Cali. He is ranked eighth in the world and earned US $6 million this year. By watching him dance with and manipulate the bull I really could begin to appreciate the sport. Even from our distance you can see how graceful he is. When it is over the crowd gives him a standing ovation while waving white handkerchiefs. A man in front of us lends Mika his extra one. The crowd's handkerchiefs are signaling the Presidencia to drop their white flag and honor the matador with the dead bull's ear. If they drop two flags he will get both ears. A third and final flag they'll chuck in the tail. At this match the matador is rewarded one bull's ear. Like a real superstar he tosses it into the crowd - though I am not sure who actually wants to catch it! After this display I can begin to understand why even today it has such a passionate following.

One other good thing about the bullfight is that it is BYOB -- bring your own bota. The bota is a leather sack (or plastic these days) which you fill up with your beverage of choice. Cold Manzanilla - a sweet red wine - is the traditional drink to bring. Sharing the bota with the people seated next to you is definitely a quick way to make friends at a Colombian bullfight. We buy our bota outside of the stadium and the seller fills it up for us exchanging our warm bottle for one of his cold ones.

Step 1: fill the bota



Step 2