Santiago de Cali is Colombia's third city and the undisputed salsa capital of the world. Two and a quarter million people live in this hot, sticky valley between the Andes and the Pacific, and on Friday and Saturday nights it sounds as if every one of them is dancing. Cali doesn't have the colonial good looks of Cartagena or the cool weather of Bogotá. What it has is rhythm, an outdoor life lived under flowering trees, and a sense — still — that it is a city most foreigners haven't quite figured out yet.
The setting is dramatic: a flat valley on the upper Cauca river, with the Western Cordillera rising sharply behind town. The 26-metre statue of Cristo Rey on the western ridge is the obvious landmark, a younger and slightly smaller cousin of Rio's. The historic centre lies on the east bank of the Río Cali around the Plaza de Caicedo and the colonial church of La Merced; just south, the cobbled hill of San Antonio is where artists, students and travellers congregate, and where everyone goes at sunset to watch the lights come on. Granada, north of the centre, is the smartest district for restaurants and nightlife. Across the river to the east lies Juanchito, the legendary string of warehouse-sized salsa halls where Caleños spend their weekends.
The salsa scene is the real reason to come. Cali took the music from Cuba and New York in the 1960s and 70s and made it its own — faster, harder, danced with a tight footwork that locals can spot a foreigner failing at within two seconds. Spend a few nights at places like Tin Tin Deo and Zaperoco, book a class at one of the dozens of dance schools, and time a visit if you can to coincide with the Feria de Cali in late December or the Festival Mundial de Salsa in September.
Practically, the climate is warm year-round (think 30°C and humid), the food leans on plantain and Pacific fish, and the city is the obvious base for trips into the Cauca Valley, the Farallones cloud forest and the Pacific coast at Buenaventura. Cali had a rough reputation in the 1990s and 2000s and is much safer now, but it is still a city where you take a taxi at night and don't flash valuables — the usual rules. Get those right and Cali rewards you in a way few South American cities do.