Colombia (Lonely Planet, 5th Edition) - Jens Porup [202]
Return to beginning of chapter
DRINKING
Return to beginning of chapter
Cafes
Café y Chocolate ( 300 789 4961, 315 427 8457; cafechocolate05@yahoo.com; Carrera 9 No 2-09; 4-11pm Tue-Sat) This groovy little cafe at the foot of Parque San Antonio is a hopelessly romantic place to take a date. The mellow lounge atmosphere is perfect for an early evening drink, and you can order nibbles, but no real food. Some weekends it hosts live music.
La Casa Cafe ( 893 7011; lacasacafecali@yahoo.com; Carrera 6 No 2-13; 4-10pm Tue-Sun) This funky cafe has Jenga sets, card games and dominoes you can borrow, while lingering over coffee, juice, desserts and beer. The internet cafe (open 9am to 9:30pm, COP$2000 per hour) is right next door, and you can even sleep here (Click here).
Macondo ( 893 1570; http://macondocafe.blogspot.com; Carrera 6 No 3-03; noon-midnight Mon-Sat, 4:30pm-midnight Sun) This San Antonio institution does great coffee, a wide range of desserts, light sandwiches and salads, and serves beer and wine till late. Jazz plays on the stereo and the smell of coffee is in the air. Try the scrumptious cocktails, like the Melquiades (mango, chocolate, coffee, Baileys, whiskey and blackberry sauce) or the Macondo de Lulo (coffee ice cream with fresh lulo and whiskey).
Return to beginning of chapter
* * *
CALI’S CARROT LAW
Closing time in Cali is referred to as the ley zanahoria (carrot law), because you’d have to be boring as a carrot to go home that early (at present, 3am on weekends).
* * *
Return to beginning of chapter
Bars
Narguila ( 683 1845; www.narguila.com; Calle 25N No 5AN-23; cover COP$5000; 7pm-2am Thu-Sat) This popular hookah bar has no tables, just cushions on the floor, where you sit and smoke flavored tobacco from a water pipe. No dancing, just relaxing. Also serves Middle Eastern food and snacks.
Bar Oz ( 690 5163; Calle 8 No 38-90, Menga, Callejón Inducon; 7pm-6am) Located about a kilometer from the main strip in Menga, down a country road past several small farms, this disco boasts large replicas of the Sphinx, a small pond, bonfires in good weather, and a restaurant (mains COP$16,000 to COP$27,000) specializing in grilled meat. Don’t come if it’s raining.
Blues Brothers ( 661 3412; Av 6AN No 21-40; cover COP$5000 Thu; 8pm-2am Tue-Thu, 8pm-3am Fri & Sat) This loud bar is an obligatory stop on Thursday nights, when a live salsa band raises the roof (11:30pm to 1:30am). Staff mix great (if expensive) cocktails, and some nights the bartenders dance on top of the bar and pour shots of liquor down your throat.
Saloon ( 660 4116; elsaloon@yahoo.com; Av 9N No 13N-01; 4pm-2am Mon-Thu, to 3am Fri & Sat) This edgy, arty bar has a student vibe. Foreign DJs sometimes spin here, and every other Friday there’s live music. You can get sandwiches and light salads (COP$10,000 to COP$12,000). It also sometimes host art installations. It’s on the second floor of a white building in the heart of Granada.
Return to beginning of chapter
ENTERTAINMENT
Cali is famous for its bar-hopping weekend chiva tours. Board the bus and dance your way through gridlock as you visit six or so discos. All tours begin at the Hotel Intercontinental and end in Juanchito, late at night. The two best-known operators are Cali Chivas ( 882 4550) and Viajes Organesoff ( 667 3131; www.viajesoganesoff.com). Expect to pay around COP$15,000 to COP$20,000 per person, or COP$300,000 to COP$400,000 per bus. You’ll enjoy yourself more if you put together your own group and contract the chiva privately.
For the latest on what’s on around town, check the entertainment columns of Cali’s broadsheet, El