San Antonio

Location:
Barrio San Antonio, Cali
Barrio San Antonio, Cali, Colombia

Culture and Arts

By Richard McColl

Caleños often wonder why it is that tourists like to wander through their calm streets lined with colonial houses and eclectic bars. Why is it that visitors to their fine city would prefer to stroll up to the shady park where couples neck and in the evening, enjoy a breeze that blows over the hill from the Pacific, delivering a cooling wind onto the tiled rooftops of this barrio? You tell me!

San Antonio is Cali's boho colonial center. Across the road and up the hill from the museums its streets are lined with small and independent theaters, interesting cafes and artists workshops. At night Caleños come to the park that sits beneath the San Antonio Chapel, constructed in 1747, and enjoy the breeze and occasionally relaxing music up here while watching the sparkling lights of Cali at night.

Getting There
From Calle 5, walk up the hill.

Travel Tips: Come in the late afternoon to enjoy the barrio as it is cooling down. In the middle of the day many of the cafes will be closed and there will be little respite from the sun.

Relative price: Free

Travel Skills: beginner/easy.