Hey fam this is J&K with Eat, Baila, Travel: a channel for foodies, salseros, y aventureros.
Welcome to our second video, where we’ll be taking
you on a little recap of our visit to Colombia earlier this year from right
before travel restrictions were placed due to the COVID19 pandemic.
In the next few minutes, we will share our suggestions for what to do, what to eat,
and where to go out dancing in Cartagena and Cali as we enjoy some empanadas and some café
colombiano. So if you’re in the area, stay tuned for our Chicagoland recommendations
to enjoy a little piece of Colombia at a distance.
With 3 of our favorite things all in one place, Colombia is an amazing place to eat,
dance, and travel to. When we started our trip, we thought it would be like any other adventure.
So, let me tell you the craziest part about this trip.
Wait, wait wait! You can’t just give away the chisme! We gotta build up
to it! Fine…!
So here’s what we knew about Colombia prior to visiting.
We knew Shakira, Maluma, Grupo Niche, and that’s about it.
One we definitely didn’t know very much about was champeta music. But champeta
was brand new to us until Shakira’s Super Bowl performance. You remember that? Mhm.
Champeta music has african roots and is today super popular along the Colombian Caribbean coast.
In the Getsemaní neighborhood of Cartagena,
we were lucky enough to stumble upon a bar by the name of Kilele with a live band.
For live salsa and cumbia, we went to Cafe Havana
Like Colombian music, we had limited exposure to Colombian foods such as empanadas and the
bandeja paisa, because that’s generally the kind of Colombian food we’d find in Chicago.
We get our empanadas, arepas, and carne llanera from this
food truck located on 43rd and Cicero Avenue.
But some of the best food we ate in Cartagena was ceviche!
Here are our top 3 spots to eat and drink in the old city center.
We went to Cafe del Mar looking for some café, but the joke was on us,
they sell food, drinks and a beautiful sunset, but no coffee.
Our 2 favorite beaches are in the island of Barú: Playa Blanca and Cholón, which is actually a
party island. We took a 5-island tour that we actually didn’t get to enjoy as much as we’d
hoped because it felt rushed. So looking back, we do wish we’d just done Playa Blanca and Cholón.
Oh, and the aquarium! Actually, it’s an oceanarium. This entire island is
home to dolphins, sharks, and sea turtles and other exotic animals.
We also did a day trip to the pink sea and the Totumo Volcano for a mud bath.
The pink sea was unlike anything we’ve ever seen and absolutely incredible to witness.
It’s not swimmable, but does make for a nice photo shoot backdrop.
The best way to book day trips is by walking around
Bocagrande and negotiating with tour agencies.
Bocagrande is the area close to the public beaches and filled with assertive street vendors.
We were excited to buy some fresh crab on the beach with this man, but damn we got ripped off!
So we say go for this ceviche cart instead. Notice how this man is wearing a mask in early March
while masks weren’t required in the US until April. By the way, this ceviche was so good!
From Cartagena to Cali. If you’re a salsera, you’re in for a treat.
So Cali is not a common tourist destination, in fact it’s even considered “dangerous” but,
for a salsero, it is a salsero’s dream! They eat, breathe, and sleep salsa. There are over
45 salsa dance schools to take classes in and over 80 places to go out dancing.
We were used to dancing line-style salsa, which is very different.
Shout out to Son de Luz and Fiebre Latina for their patience with us! We’re used to dancing
line-style salsa, which is very different! We included their info in the description below
in case anyone is interested. On top of the 16 hours of dance classes we took to learn
salsa caleña, we went out dancing every night possible. Here’s where we went dancing in Cali
There’s nothing like some Colombian coffee to keep you up for dancing.
My favorite was from this coffee truck at Parque del Perro.
No, it’s not a dog park, it’s a park dedicated to
dogs. You just gotta visit, you’ll see what we mean. There’s also a Parque de los Gatos,
which was even cooler than the dog park. Sorry dog lovers. It is filled with giant
sized cat sculptures, decorated to match their quirky personalities.
Don’t forget to visit la Plaza de Jairo Varela, the legendary figure in
Colombia’s salsa scene. When you get up close, you can hear Cali Pachanguero, the unofficial
anthem of Cali. And when you stand across the street, the trumpet structure spells out NICHE.
Alright, ay les va el chisme. Here is the story of how we just barely
made it back to the US when COVID had the whole world shutting down. On the night we
hoped to go out for my birthday is when they started locking down everything in Colombia.
We took a taxi to El Mulato, a famous salsa spot known for it’s Sunday nights,
but it was closed! Even the taxi driver was shocked.
We had started hearing about the lockdowns all over Colombia
especially in Cartagena because it’s such a tourist destination.
We started thinking about the real possibility that we were going to be stuck in Colombia.
We have a decision to make, right. What are we gonna do? Are we gonna go back to Cartagena? Are
we gonna stay in Cali? How are we gonna get back to the States? Do we wanna go back to the States?
Ultimately, we decided to take our flight back to Cartagena as planned.
We tried to ask about our flight to Chicago but it was pure chaos!
People flooded the airport because they were desperate to leave immediately.
Many people had their flights canceled, their airlines abandoned them,
canceling without offering any assistance for alternative options. We met people at the airport
who were booking one-way tickets to anywhere in the US for a $1,000 just to try to get home.
This is when it hit me that the whole world was about to shut down. Colombia was acting
fast and took precautions even before they had any documented COVID cases. First there was a
6pm curfew, and then tourists were prohibited from wandering the streets at any time of day.
We spent a week quarantined at Casa Venita until we were able to catch a flight home.
Little did we know, we would make it on one of the last flights out of Cartagena that day.
To this day, we wonder if we made the right decision to return to the US.
Thanks for watching! Let us know what you liked or learned about Colombia during this video.
If you want to see the full list of our Cartagena and Cali recommendations
for where to eat, dance, and things to do, you can check out the description below.
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We appreciate all your love and support, your comments,
you guys keep us motivated, so take care!