Cali es Cali, lo demás es loma

If you missed it you might enjoy reading my first post about my visit to Cali, Colombia, No des papaya.  I talked about all of the cool new Spanish I picked up while I was there.  In today's post I'm going to share my experiences with the city itself.

Let's jump right into it.

One thing I should mention is that Cali is short for Santiago de Cali, which is in the Valle de Cauca.

You may not know this, but Cali has been proclaimed itself the Salsa capital of the world.  And by Salsa I mean the dance, not the condiment.   I would say the city has good reason to make that claim.

You hear Salsa music playing everywhere in Cali.  In the streets, in the bars and night clubs, in stores, in restaurants, in taxis, in cars driving by, on the radio, you can't avoid it.  I mean you literally hear Salsa being played everywhere.  

But they don't just dance Salsa, they dance Salsa Caleña.  Often referred to as Colombian Salsa.  

If you dance Salsa or have seen people dancing Salsa, it was most likely Cuban, Puerto Rican or New York style Salsa.  But Salsa Caleña is a different animal.  It's famous for it's fancy foot work.  Here are 47 seconds of the amazing foot work Salsa Caleña is known for:

If you can't see the video, here's the direct link:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B6y1ntHcxGY

I actually took a Salsa lesson when I was there.  When in Rome, right?  

There is no shortage of Salsa schools in Cali.  They're practically on every corner.  I read an article that said there are around 200 Salsa schools in Cali.

But let's move on, there's a lot more to do in Cali than dance Salsa.

One of the must see attractions in Cali is the Cristo Rey.  It's a smaller, but equally impressive copy  of the Brazilian version.

It's absolutely amazing to see it up close and personal.  Here's one more picture for you:

Up next is the parque de gatos.  I really enjoyed visiting this park, which is ironic because I'm not a cat person.

The cats are known as Los Gatos de Tejada.  Or more affectionately as los gatos.   The park contains numerous sculptures of cats that represent various things, each gato has a sign that tells the story of what it represents.  Here a few of my favorites.  Google "parque de gatos cali" and you'll find pictures of nearly all of the cats.

Here's an interesting cultural note about Cali that won't go unnoticed while you're there.  I found it to be rather surprising and I suspect you will too.  

You see, Cali is not just the capital of Salsa, it's also known for being home of some of the most beautiful women in Colombia.  Not to mention the capital of plastic surgery.  

And when I say plastic surgery, yes, I'm referring aumentos de gluteos y senos.  And of course lipo, or liposución.

Aumentos de gluteos y senos

Butt and breast augmentations

Many women choose to get plastic surgery, it's commonplace.  Rumor has it that even girls as young as 15 will get surgery as a quiseñera present if they come from families that can afford it.   And compared to the US, plastic surgery is cheap there.  In fact, it's cheap all throughout Colombia.

But wait, I'm not done yet.  That isn't the part I found surprising.  

Like anywhere else in the world, Colombia uses mannequins to sell clothes.

Did you notice anything unusual about those mannequins?  If you didn't let me help you out.

And you'll see it on the "flip" side as well.

Yep, the culture of cirugía plastica extends to mannequins as well.  Apparently "bigger is better" in Cali. 

Let's move on.

Cali is also known for it's night life.  I mean, how could a city that claims to be the Salsa capital of the world not be famous for it's night life?  Tin Tin Deo is a well known place to go Salsa dancing.

I'd be irresponsible if I didn't teach you the proper lingo to talk about going partying in Colombia.

You might think that in Colombia you ir de fiesta (to go partying) but instead you ir de rumba.  It means the same thing, but you want to sound like a real Colombian, so use ir de rumba.

If you like to party, you're a rumbero or rumbera.   Rumbear is another way to say you're going to go partying.

Remember I said that Cali is the (self-proclaimed) Salsa capital of the world?   Well, if you're the type who loves Salsa music and likes to dance Salsa, then you're a salsero. 

Now, what's a night out on the town without a few drinks?

If you're a rum drinker, you may want to try one of Colombia's very own rums.

I've never been the one to "pop bottles" in the club, but you can order a bottle of Ron de Caldas for about $30 in the discos and have a good time.  For that price my friends and I hicimos una vaca and  didn't hesitate to pop a few bottles. 

Interestingly enough, your bottle of rum is served with a pitcher of water that has fresh limes squeezed in it that serves as your chaser as opposed to mixing it with Coke.   

Let me explain what hicimos una vaca means.

The expression is hacer una vaca and it means you and your friends pool money together to pay for something.  In this case it was a bottle of Ron de Caldas, but it could be for anything.

Ok, enough about partying.  It's time to explain the title of this post.

Cali es Cali, lo demás es loma 

First of all, loma means hill.  Geographically Cali sits in a Valley and is therefore pretty much flat.  So if we translate this literally it's something like

Cali es Cali, lo demás es loma 
Cali is Cali, the rest is hills

Not impressive right?  Let's translate this again with the real spirit of the expression.

Cali es Cali, lo demás es loma 
Cali is the best city in the world

I don't know about that, but I do know it's time for me to wrap this post up. 

I spent 8 days in Cali and really enjoyed it.  This post really doesn't do the town justice, but it should be enough to give you a glimpse of the city and a tiny slice of the culture in Cali. 

Have you been to Cali? What did you think of the city?  Leave a comment down below and share your opinions and experiences. 

¡Hasta la próxima!

No des papaya

Just a few weeks ago I was back in Colombia, but this time I traveled to the city of Cali.

If you don't know where Cali is, here's a map of Colombia:

Don't feel bad, I didn't know exactly where it was either.  Now that we've oriented ourselves, let's jump right into the good stuff, the Spanish.  We'll leave the tourist attractions for the next post.

We'll start with what was perhaps the most surprising thing to me about Cali.  The traffic.

Cali, like many other cities in Central and South America is extremely congested and rush hour lasts for a lot more than an hour.

The good news is that gave it me more than enough time to talk to cab drivers about the amount of tráfico there.

Except they didn't use the word tráfico, instead you're going to hear the word tráncon. 



En la avenida 19 hay trancón
There's a traffic jam on 19th avenue

No, yo no voy para allá y hay mucho trancón
No, I'm not going over there because there's a lot of traffic

Hay mucho trancón y mucho accidente
There's a lot of traffic and a lot of accidents

By the way, you can refer to rush hour as la hora pico.  And the word trancón is used throughout Colombia and Central America, so your Spanish will get a lot of mileage out of this one.

One other interesting thing about traffic in Cali, Medellín, and I imagine most of Colombia, is that lots of people ride motorcycles or scooters.  The word for motorcycles  in Spanish is motocicleta, but you'll just hear them referred to as motos.

There is one advantage to riding a moto as your primary form of transportation, it allows you to beat the traffic.   People ride in between the cars and zig-zaging in and out lanes.

They do it so much in fact, that you'll see street signs discouraging it.

Yes, you read that correctly.  No Zigzaguear.  I laughed when I saw it.   I was thinking, "You've got to be kidding".   But as it turns out zigzaguear is an official word in the Spanish dictionary.  You can read about it in Wordreference.   It's not only an official word, it's fairly common in other countries too.

This next one is a fun word.  Cuchibarbi.

So what does cuchibarbi mean?  I can sum it up pretty easily in English with one word, milf.   Although cuchibarbi isn't considered vulgar as is it's English counterpart.  And cuchibarbi appears to be uniquely Colombian.

But to be more specific and to explain things a little better for those of you who aren't familiar with the term milf, a cuchibarbi is an older woman, typically 35+, that's still very attractive and dresses as if she were still in her 20's, provacatively  with short skirts (minifaldas) and plunging necklines (escote).  She may or may not have  had a bit (or a lot) of plastic surgery.  And she may or may not have kids.

The word is a combination of the word cucha, meaning vieja, which is a way of referring to an older woman (potentially disrespectfully) and Barbie, like the doll.  Don't ask me how cucha becomes cuchi, because I have no idea.

Mira esa cuchibarbi, que buena esta!
Look at that milf, she's hot

Miren la faldita que se puso hoy la cuchibarbi
Look at that tiny skirt the milf put on today

Remember that even though I translated cuchibarbi as milf, it isn't as vulgar.  I could've also said "older woman".   And in the second example you see "la" cuchibarbi, because they're referring to a particular woman, as opposed to just any cuchibarbi.

Another fun word I learned was mecatos.   Mecatos are snacks, or to be more specific, junk food.

Another expression I heard on several occasions is "en bombas".  It means you need to do something or go somewhere really quickly,

Traigame ese libro en bombas
Bring me that book right away

Voy en bombas y ya regreso
I'm going really quickly and I'll be right back

Me voy en bombas y cuando llego a la oficina, oh sorpresa, no hay parqueadero
I leave in a hurry and when I get to the office, surprise, there's no parking available

I made some time to go to downtown Cali (el centro) to do some shopping.   One of the things I noticed is that there are signs everywhere that read "Remate".

What is a remate?  A sale, but not just any sale.  It's a killer sale with steep discounts.

Next let me talk about some of the words I heard people using to address each other while I was out and about in the streets.

First up is the term pana.  So what does pana mean?  Pana is a way of referring to a good friend.

Miguel es mi pana
Miguel is my homeboy

Ok, maybe homeboy is a bit too informal (but then again maybe not) but you get the idea.   You'll hear this word used in Venezuela too.

You can also use it as an informal but affectionate way to refer to someone, like when you want to get their attention.  In this case it's like saying friend, dude, sweetie.  I wouldn't say there's an exact translation, but you get the hang of it pretty quickly after hearing it a few times.

Disculpe pana, me puedes decir la hora?
Excuse me dude, can you tell me the time?

¿Cómo estás mi pana?
How are you my friend?

Ayer estuve con unos panas 
I was with my a few of my buddies yesterday

The words nene and nena convey the same meaning.

Disculpe nena, ¿me ayudas?
Excuse me sweetie, can you help me?

And just like pana, nene (for guys) and nena (for girls) are used in Venezuela.

Mi reina (my queen) is another attention getter I heard.  Guys, you can also use this one to address to affectionately address that cute girl you just met or have been dating.  Or married.

I overheard a conversation with a couple of ladies from Venezuela and they used the word marica to refer to each other.   Men can use this term in the same fashion as well.  It's very much a Colombian and Venezuelan thing, but you need to be careful with it because it's also a derogatory term for homosexuals.  In fact,  in most of the Spanish speaking world it only carries the derogatory meaning.

Here's a little bit more Venezuela Spanish I heard, chamo and chama.  You can use it as an informal and affectionate way to refer to people as well. 

One thing you won't find in Colombia is una famarcia.  Not because they don't exist, but because a farmacia in Colombia is called a droguería.  By the way, both of those words mean pharmacy in English.

I certainly heard my fair share of Colombian swear words in Cali, but you can read about those in my other blog, No Seas Pelangoche.  That blog is dedicated to the really fun stuff, swear words.  Or as I like to call them, sentence enhancers.   Right now I'm only going to share a couple of words to help you avoid swearing in Colombia.

If you want to avoid saying jueputa (think SOB), then you can say juepucha or juemadre instead.  They're very mild words that you can use anytime you'd say something like darn it or son of a gun.

And finally we get to the title of this post.

No des papaya

So what does no des papaya mean?  On the off chance you're never heard of a papaya, it's fruit.

Now that we know that we can make a translation, or at least attempt to.

No des papaya
Don't give  papaya

Well, that wasn't exactly helpful was it?  Let me stop teasing you and ir al grano (get to the point).


No des papaya is something you will hear over and over again in Colombia, and it means to not give someone an opportunity to take advantage of you.  Like by walking around with your brand new iPhone in your hand taking pictures and talking on the phone. 

If your Colombian friends or sometimes even complete strangers see you doing things that will potentially make you a victim of crime , they will say this to you.   Especially with cell phones. 

As Americans we're very accustomed to walking around and doing whatever we please with our cell phones without any real fear of having them snatched out our hands.   But be advised (as I have been numerous times) don't walk around with your cell phone out in the streets of Colombia, or at least not in the bigger cities with higher crime rates.  Step into a store, restaurant or any place that gets you off the streets before using your phone.  Remember,  No des papaya.

And finally we get to a bit of Spanish that actually took me by surprise.   I was checking out of my hotel and said:

Estoy listo para dejar la habitación
I'm ready to check out

Or literally, leave the room.

To which the gentleman replied:

¿Quiere entregar la habitación?
Do you want to check out?

Technically, entregar means to hand over or deliver something, but apparently you can entregar a hotel room as well.   So far I've only heard this in Colombia, but if you've heard it somewhere else, please, leave a comment below.

If you want to learn more about checking in and out of hotel rooms, check out my post:

¿A qué hora es la hora de entrada?

You can also download my list of 54 Spanish Hotel phrases for travelers, for free of course.

And finally, I think that about wraps it up.

I recommend you try out some of these words on your travels and/or your Colombian friends.  They will surely be impressed with your new found knowledge.

If you enjoyed this post, this isn't my first encounter with Colombian Spanish, so here are the links to the other posts I've written about Colombian Spanish.

¿De tela o chócolo?

¿Quiubo parcero?

¿Hola bebé qué más pues?

And lastly, if you want to learn more about Colombian Spanish, I highly recommend an ebook appropriately titled Colombian Spanish.  It's actually a great book and goes well beyond teaching you Colombian slang.  It offers some great advice on how speak more like a native and less like a gringo, and touches on Colombian culture  as well.   I was extremely hesitant to buy it because my bookshelf was already overflowing with Spanish books, but I'm glad I did.

Stay tuned as I've got several more posts lined up to share the rest of my adventures in Cali with you all!

¡Ojalá que les sirva!

¿De tela o chócolo?

In this post I'm going to continue sharing my Spanish languages adventures in Medellín, Colombia.  If you missed the first installment, no worries, you can read it here:  Holo bebé, ¿qué más pues?

One of the first things I tend to do when I get off the plane is exchange money and grab a bite to eat.  Exchanging money is usually a pretty straight-forward transaction.  I'll have to blog about it so that when you have to do it completely in Spanish for the first time you won't feel lost.  In the meantime, you can find plenty of helpful phrases for changing money and everything travel related in general in my favorite Spanish Phrasebook for android, called My Spanish Phrasebook.  Alright, I digress, let's get to it.

In México I've had to show a passport to exchange money on occasion, but this time I had to let them take a huella, or finger print of my dedo índice (index finger).  Not a big deal, it just took me by surprise.  By the way, if you want to know what the other fingers are called, then read my post Pulgar Arriba. 

So after getting some Colombian Pesos in my pocket (I'll show you what those look like in a later post) checking into the hotel was up next.  I won't go into detail about that, you can read my post ¿A qué hora es la hora de entrada? to learn how to check into a hotel.  After that it was time to get to one of my favorite past times, eating.

So I headed downtown and came across a food stand selling arepas de chócolo.  

I didn't know what chócolo was, and it didn't look like any arepa I had ever seen, but it did look tasty, so I ordered one.  And it turned tenía razón (I was right), it was delicious!   

What is chócolo you ask?  Nothing but good old-fashioned maíz.

Now that we know what chócolo is, we can figure what an arepa de chócolo is.  It's what we might call sweet corn cake.  

You may have noticed the above photo is missing that white triangular stuff that was on top of arepas in the first picture.  And if you're wondering what that was, it's queso cuajado.  I'm not a cheese guy, so if it isn't a slice of Kraft American cheese I can't help you, but the definition of queso cuajado is curd cheese. 

The combination of an arepa and queso cuajado is something you have to try.  I wasn't sure if I was going to like it, but I fell in love with it.

Here's a little chócolo humor for you if you want a good laugh and a have just a little over a minute to spare. Click here to watch it in Youtube if you can't see the link.

OK, now that you've had a chance to put those Spanish ears to work let's keep going.

There's actually more than one type of arepa served in Medellín.  The other one is called an arepa tela.  I have to admit, I didn't like these quite as much, but they weren't bad.

While Medellín has a variety of foods, the most famous dish you have to try is the Bandeja Paisa.

As you can see by the photo, that's quite a bit of food.  Arroz, frijoles, chicharron, huevo, aguacate, carne and plátanos maduros.  Bandeja Paisa is a hearty meal for sure. 

I think that's going to wrap this post up.  Stayed tune for the next one where I'll share a little more Colombian Spanish and tell you about a quaint little place called Pueblito Paisa and more.

Oops, I almost forgot.

If you're interested in learning more about Colombian Spanish, then I recommend you take a look at a book called Colombian Spanish.

It's actually a very enlightening book that will help you learn to speak more like a native Spanish speaker (in any country) as well as teaching you the most important Colombian words and expressions you'll need to know along with a bit of culture.   I was honestly surprised at just how good of a book this is.



¡Hasta la próxima!

¿Hola bebé qué más pues?

I've been traveling again, but this time I went to a new destination:  Medellin, Colombia.

Let's talk about some of the Spanish I heard.

As far as greetings (saludos) go, I heard the typical buenos días, buenas tardes and buenas noches, but what I also heard a lot of was simply buenas.  I heard it a lot.  If you aren't familiar with buenas, it's an informal greeting that you can use anytime of day. 

There was another greeting I heard quite a bit, and as far as I know, it is uniquely Colombian. Watch the video.  It's all of 6 seconds, so it won't take long.  If you don't see the video, click here to watch it on YouTube.

Didn't catch that?  Here's the transcript:

¿Cómo tu saludas a los niños de tu jardin?
How do you say hi to the kids in your Kindergarten class?


¿Hola bebé qué más pues? 
Hey baby, how are you?


She's so cute, I couldn't help but share that video with you.  Now, you may not hear the word "bebé" from just anybody, but without a doubt you'll hear "¿Qué más?" or "¿Qué más pues?".  It's really just the Colombian version of "¿Cómo estás?".

Did you notice that pues on the end?  It doesn't really mean anything, it's just a word paisas attach on the end of words, like, all the time.

Here are some examples:  Chao pues,Vamos pues

I took that photo from the top of the stairs, which is why the sign says baja.

Oh, remember that word paisas you just saw?  If you're wondering what a paisa is, let me give you the short version.   A paisa is a person from Medellin, a rolo is someone from Bogotá, a caleño is from Cali, and the people from the coast (e.g. Cartegena and Baranquilla) are costeños.   And that my friends, is my 1 minute, over simplified and very incomplete lesson on who is who in Colombia.   I recommend you talk to your Colombian friends to get the real deal on Colombian geography and demographics.  What I just told you will barely help you squeak by.


Other expressions that  are nearly impossible to miss are A la orden and con gusto.  Let's take a look at these.

It all started the first time I told someone gracias.  The response  I expected was de nada, but instead I got a la orden.  I heard that a few times and thought, I got this, no problem.  Then one more gracias later the response was con gusto.  Let's take a closer look at the context I heard these in.

From what I recall, I heard con gusto more in restaurants.  The mesero or mesera would bring me something and I'd say gracias,  and they would reply con gusto.  In my hotel if I said gracias to a staff member, the typical reply would be a la orden.  Except the bartender.  I'm pretty sure I heard him use both.  If I asked for something or asked someone to do something for me, like call a cab, they would also reply a la orden.

Now, we're not quite done with a la orden.  I also heard this walking past shops when the proprietors wanted to get my attention.   In this context it's more like "May I help you?".  I have to say it's a nice change from hearing "Pásale amigo" in Mexico.

If you think you're going to Ir de fiesta (go partying) in Medellin, forget it.  In Medellin you Ir de rumba! Medellin has a great night life, with no shortage of places to rumba in.  And rumba means party if you haven't guessed that by now.

Brain, what are we going to do this weekend?

The same thing we do every weekend, Go partying.

And that is enough for this first installment of my Colombian experience.  In the next post I'll talk about some more Colombian Spanish, food, and a few of the places I visited.

By the way, if you're looking for a good Spanish phrasebook for your android phone to help you out when you travel, check out My Spanish Phrasebook, it certainly helped me out of a jam a couple of times this trip. 

It was written by me, so you can rest assured it's got all the Spanish you need to help you navigate your way around a Spanish speaking country and communicate with the locals and a whole lot more.




Lastly, if you're interested in learning more about Colombian Spanish then take a look at a book appropriately titled Colombian Spanish. 

It's actually a lot more than just a bunch of phrases.  It really does a good job of teaching you how to sound like a native speaker and much of what it teaches is true of Spanish in general, not just Colombian Spanish.  It will help you improve your Spanish as whole.

¿Quiubo parcero?

I don't know about you, but the first thing I thought when I first saw "Quiubo" is "What?  Is that even Spanish?".  Turns out it is.

Quiubo is a shortened version of ¿Qué hubo?, which if you ask me, is almost as cryptic as quiubo.

Think of it as our bastardized version of "what's up" - "wazzup".  In fact, "what's up" is what this phrase actually means.   Add it to your list of informal Spanish greetings.  I know this phrase is used in Colombia and Mexico, but I'm not making any promises about anywhere else.

That leaves us with parcero.    Parcero (parcera) is simply another way to call someone an amigo, along the lines of pana, mano, compa, carnal and cuate.  Parcero is very Colombian.  And according to our good friends at Word Reference, the abbreviated form, parce, is very much in fashion these days. 

By the way, if you're interested in learning more about Colombian Spanish, then I recommend you take a look at a book called Colombian Spanish.

It's actually a very enlightening book that will help you learn to speak more like a native Spanish speaker (in any country) as well as teaching you the most important Colombian words and expressions you'll need to know along with a bit of culture.   I was honestly surprised at just how good of a book this is.  But I digress, let's get back on track.



Let's take a moment to talk about a few more informal greetings. 

Pana, which I believe is very common in South America, goes quite well with:

¿Qué hay pana?
What's new buddy?

And "Qué hay" is short for "Qué hay de nuevo". 

Then there's "Qué onda".

Qué onda compa (mano/carnal/cuate)
What's up buddy/brother/dude

Keep in mind words like compa, mano (shortened from hermano), carnal, and cuate don't always have an exact (or any) translation, consider the English words more or less equivalents.  I grouped all these together because they are very Mexican.  Spend a few minutes listening to a morning radio talk show on your local Mexican station and you'll probably hear all of these within 30 minutes.  Also, click here to read my earlier post about "qué onda".  If you plan on going to Mexico or speak with a lot of Mexicans, you'll want this one in you toolbox.

And of course there's "¿Qué pasa?, but do we really need to discuss this one? 

The last one I'll mention is...

¿Qué has hecho?
What have you been up to?

I'm sure there's a bizillion more of these, but at some point in your Spanish speaking career you will hear all of the ones I mentioned above, if you haven't already.

Ya!  That's it for today. 

¡Hasta la próxima!

Banano-Banana-Guineo-Plátano

I love bananas. They're probably my favorite fruit. Naturally I would want to know how to ask for them in Spanish. And until recently, I thought I did.

It turns out that things are a little trickier than you might think. I remember reading in my Spanish dictionary (or somewhere) a long time ago, and saw that the word for banana is plátano. I thought "Hey, that's pan comido", and I never gave it a second thought. Until today.

I was talking with Jorge, my Colombian amigo, asking him if he had eaten lunch already. He said "No, I'm going to need about 30 minutes to finish up a few things". So I said "Voy a comer mi plátano hasta entonces". And he says "you mean your banano". I immediately gave him the deer in headlights look. At this point he must think I was born with that expression.

So, the next question I asked was "is that Colombian slang?" Well, long story short, we looked in his encyclopedia and browsed around in WordReference, and we both learned that the word for banana depends on where you are.

In Colombia a banana is a banano, and banana (or bananita) is a piece of hard candy. A plátano is a plantain. To find out what what a banana is called in other countries, look at this thread in WordReference.

And just as an FYI, banano can also be a banana tree, and banana the fruit of the tree. Quite honestly, I was surprised to hear about the number of variations Spanish has for banana. Nonetheless, there's no sense in letting this stuff drive me bananas.

Finally, here's another post you might enjoy:

¿Tostones o los amarillos?