Cali
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Santiago de Cali, the city's complete name, is the capital of the Valle del Cauca, department in Colombia. It is the second largest city in the country, with an estimated 2003 population of 2.1 million and a metropolitan area of 3.7 million.
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Geography and climate
Cali is located between the western and center ranges of the valley of the Cauca river. The weather is warm, sometimes really hot, and humid at day and fresh at night, and the surrounding hills cause it to be very windy. The average temperature is 23.8°C, (75°F) throughout the year, as there are no seasonal changes due to its proximity to the Equator. Cali is located at 3°26'14" North, 76°31'21" West (3.437222, -76.5225). [1] (http://earth-info.nga.mil/gns/html/cntry_files.html)
History
Santiago de Cali was founded by Sebastián de Belalcázar in July 25th, 1536. Initially, the city was established near the center of the Cauca valley, though it was moved to its current location a year after its foundation. The city was named Santiago de Cali because it was founded on the feast day of Saint James the apostle (Santiago, in Spanish) and, for the Cali part, some attribute it to a mispronunciación of the word "Lili", which was what the natives talked about the river that happened that way and that meant "white earth" simply or because it was the name of the cacique who inhabited the place, as happened in other cases. In the case of Cali, Belalcázar did not follow the procedure that was followed in the foundations of populations, inasmuch as it did not designate to the members of the Town hall, nor made the distribution of the lots that corresponded to each one of the future inhabitants, but that took a year, until finally choosing to change of place the population to make pertinent the administrative proceeding and to locate it in the site that at the moment occupies. That act, according to several historians of the city, was made in the lot that today occupy the church of the Favor and the residences between the present races 4ª and the river and the streets 7ª and 9ª. In spite of to have made the original act in the environs of the present church of the Favor, the greater seat, around which the church and the main administrative seats were located, drew up to several meters of there, in the site that at the moment occupies the Seat of Caicedo. On this seat, the first parochial church was located that stops century XVIII was replaced by other constructed on the planes designed by Antonio Garci'a and who survived without greater misfortunes until 1925, when an earthquake affected it structurally and this forced the company/signature of engineers Borrero and Ospina to reconstruct it, based remotely on the Cathedral of San Pedro in Rome. The center of Cali, from its declaration like National Monument in 1959, has undergone innumerable demolitions and transformations, that in good part have made him lose a good part of the architectonic characteristics that gave at their moment place to this important recognition. Within the constructions that were demolished forty years in the last, they stand out the Hotel Real, constructed in 1929 and demolished Lieutenant in 1972, and who outside for a long time one of the most significant constructions of the city. The old Palace of the Interior and the facilities of the Pichincha Battalion are due to also mention, that were replaced by constructions without smaller architectonic merit. Yet, still several constructions that deserve to be conserved, like the Mudéjar Tower are conserved that rises to a flank of the Church of San Francisco and that attributes to the canon payanés to him Marcelino Perez de Arroyo and Valencia with the collaboration of the master builder Moor Pedro Umbas; the church of the Hermitage that it replaced to the previous temple destroyed during already mentioned 1925 earthquake; the theater Municipal, designed and constructed by the company/signature of engineers Borrero and Ospina in 1918; the theater Jorge Isaacs it builds of Italian architect Gaetano Lignarolo, built in 1931; as well as the National Palace design of Belgian Joseph Maertens and the building Knoll, also work of Borrero and Ospina, Both located on one of the flanks of the Seat of Caicedo. Although all these constructions belong to the period of the Colony and the first years of century XX, are important to mention other constructions pertaining to more recent currents stylistic, but not less important or significant, so are the case of the buildings of Coltabaco or Zaccour, only of mentioning two examples, that with the previous ones conform a dissimilar but nondespicable historical center that deserves to be valued and to be rescued, so that it serves as example for future urban interventions, as in fact it it has been the seat of the FAITHS (1988), neighbor of claustro and temple of the Favor, builds of architects Pedro Alberto Mejía and Rogelio Salmona, that it was awarded with the National Prize of Architecture in the XII Colombian biennial of Architecture celebrated in 1990. In August 7, 1956, about 1,100 reported killed when seven army ammunition trucks exploded. Cali also hosted the 1971 Pan-American Games
Places of Interest
La Ermita: Gothic-style church located in the downtown area and a well-known tourist destination.
La Tertulia: Museum of modern art.
Museo Arqueológico La Merced: Colonial-type church, converted into an archaeological museum displaying items from ancient cultures which inhabited the region in pre-Columbian times.
Torre Mudéjar: As part of the Franciscan complex downtown Cali, this tower and the little church that is part of, are the best preserved genuine sample in America of the morish influenced arquitecture brought from Spain before the XVII century.
Museo del Oro del Banco de la República: Museum containing archaeological exhibits of pre-columbian cultures which existed in the region.
Cerro de las tres cruces: A hill embellished with three big crosses from which the whole city is visible.
Iglesia de San Antonio: Colonial-type church at the top of a hill.
Cerro de Cristo Rey: Another hill embellished with a large statue of Jesus Christ.
Canchas Panamericanas: Sports Complex that includes the Pascual Guerrero stadium, Evangelista Mora Gym, many sporting fields, pools and so forth. Is also widely known for a common iced drink (Cholado) sold here.
Pance: Extended rural zone at the south of the city frequently visited for leisure purposes, surrounded by plentiful vegetation and irrigated by the Pance river.
La Novena: This is a main street where you can find a lot of restaurants and fast-food places. It is located at the south and it's the caleño's preferred street to be after the big parties in Juanchito, at 3 A.M. Here you can buy hamburgers, hot-dogs, chorizos, etc.
External links
- Santiago de Cali City Hall (http://www.cali.gov.co/)
- Universidad del Valle (http://www.univalle.edu.co/)
- Universidad Santiago de Cali (http://www.usc.edu.co/)
- Universidad San Buenaventura (http://www.usb.edu.co/)
- Corporación Universitaria Autónoma de Occidente (http://www.cuao.edu.co/)
- ICESI (http://www.icesi.edu.co/)
- Pontificia Universidad Javeriana - Cali (http://www.puj.edu.co/)
- CaliesCali.com portal (http://www.caliescali.com/)
- El País newspaper (http://www.elpais-cali.com/)
Other Definitions
- Also an abbreviation for California, the state within the United States of America. "Cali" seems to be slang more commonly used by those native to states other than California itself, particularly states along the Eastern seaboard, or more generally by those not currently in "Cali." Examples: "I wish I could go back to Cali," or "So you're from Cali, from the 'Left coast'?"
de:Cali es:Santiago de Cali fr:Cali (Colombie) ja:カリ pt:Cali