November 30, 2025 BY CASSANDRA JOHNSON
Cali. I had a feeling I would really like this major Colombian city. Nice and warm, I found myself taking a stroll each day looking for a particular food spot or coffee shop. From a variety of points, I could work/chill with a little dessert and a warm variation of a sweet beverage. Cafe mocha, cappuccino, etc and by now, I had also developed a taste for Colombian coffee. The only factors slowing me down were the hills and the steep drop offs, some occasional rain. I was continuously walking up, reminding myself that it was going to be so much easier coming back, but honestly the steep downslopes were something one should brace for as well.
Well, I made it and I notice that once I know there is a spot within reach, no matter how far, I am compelled to get there, even foolhardily. I laughingly remember a friend getting lost from his hostel in Cochabamba, Bolivia and he said something to the effect that if you are going to wander off, don’t do it downhill, seeing as how he had to return at the opposite angle, righting himself up a steep incline.😊
I leaned into Cali’s ambience. People were friendly, not too particularly focused on what my story might be, but still engaging, treating me as if I could be from there or aptly treating me like a welcome guest. Cartagena would later prove similar, though the weather was much hotter.
Cali had left me curious. It was a place where more people looked like me and previously, I had just spent a day or less there. Fortunately, I was able to stay for about 12 days this latter time, since I could be flexible with my bus tickets from there back to Bogota. I liked purchasing them in person on the day of my trip, leaving my bags in the bus terminal luggage storage, so I could be free to walk about and eat in the city, leaving any weight behind. I also left them behind when arriving before accommodation check-in times.
I knew the bus station well by now. I had taken to the budget travel option over the flight I took into Colombia primarily when I arrived the very first time in Colombia and stayed in Medellin.
Cali is a place I could have stayed for a majority of my 90-day Visa but I was also ready to get back to the chillier Bogota for a work minus distraction strategy that Bogota was more suitable to me for, and what I needed to fit in before stopping in Cartagena and getting out a somewhat underrated country, before I was required to leave altogether.
