After a rest in San Cipriano I was ready for the last night of la feria and new years eve! On the way back to Cali there were handmade dolls (like guy fawkes if you’re English) and people collecting money dressed as devils along the road.
On the 30th December I went to the last night of la feria to Las Tascas which is an outdoor party with Vincent, Theau and Charlotte. We met a group of Colombian people who taught us a lot of salsa and then went with Ricardo to a salsa club for more dancing!
The 31st I had a lovely pacific dish lunch with coconut flavours at El Pargo Rojo and then had a private salsa lesson. The teacher taught me 5 basic steps of Calieno salsa which was really fun. He said he’d taught many foreign students and apparently Israeli people are the most natural and German are the worse at salsa!
Then we each made a dish at the hostel and had a big international feast! Harry arrived from Medellin to join us. The hostel owner was toasting and dancing in the reception too. At midnight we went out into the street and were greeted by a street party playing music, watching fireworks and dancing salsa. After everyone had wished each other new year, out came the doll and everyone had to pretend to dance with her! Then down the road, they strapped another one onto a chair, loaded it with gunpowder and fireworks, doused it in petrol and set it alight! The explosion was so loud and fireworks were going in all directions! This tradition is to symbolise saying goodbye to the old year and any negativity it had. After a car with speakers returned and the street party continued!
After a while we went with a Colombian girl to a house party with a great roof terrace where we could see the whole city, fireworks and of course more exploding dolls! We danced into the night to salsa, reggae and live bongo players!
Caroline's Adventures Around the World 