decided to move hostel today because the internet was down in iguana.
quick farewell to my friend martin
i quick farewell to claudia who works in hostel iguana
and hello to central cali
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
son de luz
something constructive having noticed how the colombians dance salsa so differntly to those of use danicng the cuban and north american styles todays adventure was to go meet some of the cali salsa instructors and get them to show me how its done. 
first stop was Luz of "son de Luz foundation" here in cali.she lives down the south of the city in a rather pleasant area.she gives the dance classes on the roof of the house.it was quite nice to have a dance class on the roof at 30 degrees though i wolfed down the orange juice she gave me.
luz has a very methodical approach to the whole thing,doing a class with her its rather like going to some kung fu master in salsa terms.she warms up with thai chi or something and really brings it down to basics, i am certain she can make you an expert... with time.!
apart from being a salsa master! luz is a nice lady, we had a good chat downstairs afer the classduring the conversation i realised that two of her students happen to be the former world champions viviana vargas and ricardo murillo
wilbur is a dancer who can dance many styles.and his focus in this case is to take us foreigners who know the international salsa styles and incorporate cali moves into to it.
anyway what the heck , im going to do both. for another day at least.
first stop was Luz of "son de Luz foundation" here in cali.she lives down the south of the city in a rather pleasant area.she gives the dance classes on the roof of the house.it was quite nice to have a dance class on the roof at 30 degrees though i wolfed down the orange juice she gave me.
luz has a very methodical approach to the whole thing,doing a class with her its rather like going to some kung fu master in salsa terms.she warms up with thai chi or something and really brings it down to basics, i am certain she can make you an expert... with time.!
but dont ask me to show you any of this , because i have not mastered it at all.in fact , the change over from cuban salsa steps to cali kind of requires me to rewire my brain a little and this is something of a step back before a step forward can be made.
apart from being a salsa master! luz is a nice lady, we had a good chat downstairs afer the classduring the conversation i realised that two of her students happen to be the former world champions viviana vargas and ricardo murillo
it is a true honor to meet luz!
just watch this!
so as if that wasnt enough salsa for ya, i had actually booked a salsa class in my hostel at 7pm from a guy who apparently mixes cuban with cali style.
to be honest this sounded dubious to me and i was kind of wishing i hadnt agreed to it.
however i did the class and it turned out to be a fantastic idea.
wilbur is a dancer who can dance many styles.and his focus in this case is to take us foreigners who know the international salsa styles and incorporate cali moves into to it.
enabling us to find a common ground with calenos without the whole rewiring of the brain!
which is nice!
i just wish they wouldnt focus so much on hip movement..im not good at it!
anyway what the heck , im going to do both. for another day at least.
Tuesday, December 21, 2010
Cali - la capital de la salsa
the plane arrived on a flight from medellin during the afternoon.
on landing the air hostes announced "bienvenidos a cali, la capital the la salsa"
welcome to cali, the capital of salsa
my taxi driver was an old guy maybe in his 70s. i hopped into the passanger seat and told him i would tell him the address of the hostel in a moment. as we were driving i realised the hostel i had booked on the net was not actually in my guidebook and he didnt know where it was either so to keep things simple i asked him to take me to one of the others . he knew hostel iguana!
as we passed through the neighbourhood of the hostel, i asked him if this place was dangerous, to which he replied.. "no no, es muy vigilado" (no no its very heavily policed)
the lady in hostel iguana was a truely lovely person. and spoke to me in length about everything i wanted to know.
she showed me a map of cali and explained where all of the different things that may interest me are located. on top of that i asked her which areas i should avoid.
she put her hand to her mouth for a moment. then swept her hand across half the city .
ooh!..... de aqui .....hasta alla! (ohhh!! from here .....to there)
a lot of people back home had asked me if colombia was dangerous and of course it is, the colombians have confirmed that to me, but getting to colombia you realise that its better to say "PARTS OF colombia are dangerous"
similarly when colombians tell you "cali is dangerous" you then realise on getting there that its in fact "parts of cali ". admittadly it is a rather large part. it appears as though the city is divided in two. the safe part and the dangerous one.
i am eager to learn salsa, cali style after my experience in bogota.
@@@ knows a polish friend who organises classes, he said he can have a guy come over to the hostel . this teacher is apparently mixing cuban/LA and cali which im not really holding high hopes for but what the hell, lets give it a try.
i also asked felipe if there was anything to do on a monday night, he told me of a salsa place called "la brisa" a good 30 minute drive from the centre. i needed to find someone to come with me and their was a young australian guy of vietnamese descent in the hostel watching tv. you'l do! lets go.
we stopped in a incredible argentinian restaurant before heading out.. very nice!! then headed in a taxi to "ls brisas".
the taxi driver was an overwieght kind of guy with a grin and sly look in his eyes. he drove so dangerously on the way. which im getting used to. they try everything from overtaking between cars and motorbikes, to talegating ..you name it. you just have to hold onto your seat and reassure yourself thay these guys know what they are doing, we did come across motorbike accident on the way out there which doenst help.
we entered the nightclub and took a seat and watched the calenos dancing. the music was excellent and the amount of beautiful women was jaw dropping... now i know that all these salsa songs about cali are true.
i was a bit nervous about stepping on any cultural toes by asking any girls to dance if they happened to be sitting with a few guys, however i did find a table or two where there were too many girls and got a few of them out on the floor for a boogie.
later on the way back, our next equally sly eyed taxi driver was quoting us 30 thousand instead ot the 25 thousand we were charged to get here, we had been told it was going to be more to come back to town so we agreed.
this guy drove faster again. he ran every single red light.. i asked him if this was ok , he smiled and shrugged. my vietnamese friend mentioned "i guess thats why we pay him 30 thousand and not 25" he understood that and laughed.
we saw another motorbike accident on the way. and also our driver slowed down as we encountered some commotion on a street with police around as some guy threatened to jump off the roof of a building... im not kidding!
on landing the air hostes announced "bienvenidos a cali, la capital the la salsa"
welcome to cali, the capital of salsa
my taxi driver was an old guy maybe in his 70s. i hopped into the passanger seat and told him i would tell him the address of the hostel in a moment. as we were driving i realised the hostel i had booked on the net was not actually in my guidebook and he didnt know where it was either so to keep things simple i asked him to take me to one of the others . he knew hostel iguana!
as we passed through the neighbourhood of the hostel, i asked him if this place was dangerous, to which he replied.. "no no, es muy vigilado" (no no its very heavily policed)
the lady in hostel iguana was a truely lovely person. and spoke to me in length about everything i wanted to know.
she showed me a map of cali and explained where all of the different things that may interest me are located. on top of that i asked her which areas i should avoid.
she put her hand to her mouth for a moment. then swept her hand across half the city .
ooh!..... de aqui .....hasta alla! (ohhh!! from here .....to there)
a lot of people back home had asked me if colombia was dangerous and of course it is, the colombians have confirmed that to me, but getting to colombia you realise that its better to say "PARTS OF colombia are dangerous"
similarly when colombians tell you "cali is dangerous" you then realise on getting there that its in fact "parts of cali ". admittadly it is a rather large part. it appears as though the city is divided in two. the safe part and the dangerous one.
i am eager to learn salsa, cali style after my experience in bogota.
@@@ knows a polish friend who organises classes, he said he can have a guy come over to the hostel . this teacher is apparently mixing cuban/LA and cali which im not really holding high hopes for but what the hell, lets give it a try.
i also asked felipe if there was anything to do on a monday night, he told me of a salsa place called "la brisa" a good 30 minute drive from the centre. i needed to find someone to come with me and their was a young australian guy of vietnamese descent in the hostel watching tv. you'l do! lets go.
we stopped in a incredible argentinian restaurant before heading out.. very nice!! then headed in a taxi to "ls brisas".
the taxi driver was an overwieght kind of guy with a grin and sly look in his eyes. he drove so dangerously on the way. which im getting used to. they try everything from overtaking between cars and motorbikes, to talegating ..you name it. you just have to hold onto your seat and reassure yourself thay these guys know what they are doing, we did come across motorbike accident on the way out there which doenst help.
we entered the nightclub and took a seat and watched the calenos dancing. the music was excellent and the amount of beautiful women was jaw dropping... now i know that all these salsa songs about cali are true.
i was a bit nervous about stepping on any cultural toes by asking any girls to dance if they happened to be sitting with a few guys, however i did find a table or two where there were too many girls and got a few of them out on the floor for a boogie.
later on the way back, our next equally sly eyed taxi driver was quoting us 30 thousand instead ot the 25 thousand we were charged to get here, we had been told it was going to be more to come back to town so we agreed.
this guy drove faster again. he ran every single red light.. i asked him if this was ok , he smiled and shrugged. my vietnamese friend mentioned "i guess thats why we pay him 30 thousand and not 25" he understood that and laughed.
we saw another motorbike accident on the way. and also our driver slowed down as we encountered some commotion on a street with police around as some guy threatened to jump off the roof of a building... im not kidding!
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Put some Salsa on it!
well, without boring you with too many details, the process of getting here , was a long ordeal as always .
there a few hiccups such as an overbooked flight looking for volunteers to fly tomorro instead.
actually when i heard them announce they were offering 600 dollars for passangers to stay in new york and fly next day i offered to do it! but backed out when i found out it was a 600 off your next flight with continental airlines within a year...by this stage i had actually given up my seat and got it back in the nick of time as people were boarding the plane and some american girl decided to opt for the 600 dollar deal.
when on arrival in colombia i rolled my eyes up to heaven as we were told that 70 suitcases had to be taken off the airplane before take off, somehow out of the 5 bags that arrived mine was one of them. so , bag and me thankfully in one piece ,we slipped through customs to colombia!
i choose a taxi with an old guy driving and chatted to him all the way to the hostel with his radio station playing salsa as the soundtrack as an reminder that i am once again in the country that lives and breathes this music, its now morning and im just trying one of the house breakfast called "combo 2" while rather uncannily appropriate the music playing in the background is "el gran combo - que le pongan salsa " (put some salsa on it)
which is a song that plays on the double meaning of the word salsa referring to its use as sauce for your food
good morning colombia!
there a few hiccups such as an overbooked flight looking for volunteers to fly tomorro instead.
actually when i heard them announce they were offering 600 dollars for passangers to stay in new york and fly next day i offered to do it! but backed out when i found out it was a 600 off your next flight with continental airlines within a year...by this stage i had actually given up my seat and got it back in the nick of time as people were boarding the plane and some american girl decided to opt for the 600 dollar deal.
when on arrival in colombia i rolled my eyes up to heaven as we were told that 70 suitcases had to be taken off the airplane before take off, somehow out of the 5 bags that arrived mine was one of them. so , bag and me thankfully in one piece ,we slipped through customs to colombia!
i choose a taxi with an old guy driving and chatted to him all the way to the hostel with his radio station playing salsa as the soundtrack as an reminder that i am once again in the country that lives and breathes this music, its now morning and im just trying one of the house breakfast called "combo 2" while rather uncannily appropriate the music playing in the background is "el gran combo - que le pongan salsa " (put some salsa on it)
which is a song that plays on the double meaning of the word salsa referring to its use as sauce for your food
good morning colombia!
Friday, December 3, 2010
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