Other entertainment in South America
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Paseo del Buen Pastor
Paseo del Buen Pastor is a cultural center/performance space, which was built in 1901 as a combined chapel/monastery/women’s prison. In mid-2007 it was re-inaugurated to showcase work by Córdoba’s young and emerging artists. There are a couple of hip cafe-bars in the central patio area where you can kick back with an Appletini or two. The attached chapel (which has been desanctified) hosts regular live-music performances – stop by for a program, or check Thursday’s edition of the local newspaper La Voz del Interior for details.
reviewed
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B
Saloon
This edgy, arty bar has a student vibe. Foreign DJs sometimes spin here, and every other Friday there’s live music. You can get sandwiches and light salads (COP$10,000 to COP$12,000). It also sometimes hosts art installations. It’s on the second floor of a white building in the heart of Granada.
reviewed
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Centro Cultural Gabriel García Márquez
Opened in 2008 and a modern addition to La Candelaria, this expansive new complex pays homage to Colombia’s most famous author in name, but its events span the cultural spectrum way past literature. There’s also a giant bookstore (with a few English titles), a hamburger restaurant and cafe.
reviewed
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C
Nikoro
A chic bar that goes through spates of being really popular or really dead. If it’s lively, there’s nowhere better for a beer to watch sunset on the river. Go down the left-hand set of steps from Pevas to get there.
reviewed
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D
Vines Park Hyatt
In the superformal surrounds of Mendoza’s best-looking hotel, this is a relaxed and intimate wine bar offering wine by the glass, cheese platters and tapas.
reviewed
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Rouge
Dedicated clubbers know BA is firmly positioned on the global clubbing map and will want to hit the clubs along the river on Costanera Norte, a 10-minute taxi ride from Palermo. Most clubs only open on Fridays and Saturdays from around 1am, don’t get going until 3am, and don’t close until 9am, so take your sunglasses. The best are Pachá, BA’s oldest and best superclub boasting big-name DJs and a riverside terrace; Rouge, big on Friday nights for progressive house with lounges on a waterfront terrace; Jet, playing more mainstream sounds; and Caix, which starts to heat up around 9am Sunday morning! During summer most clubs move to the coast or to fashionable Punta de…
reviewed
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Praia do Jacaré
Almost every Brazilian tourist who comes to João Pessoa comes to the Rio Paraíba north of the city to hear saxophonist Jurandy play Ravel’s Bolero at sunset, which has spawned a tourism empire along the water’s edge (some come from as far away as Natal and Recife just for this). It sounds corny but it’s definitely a spectacle worth witnessing, and quite beautiful. Four overwater bars play host (try Bombardo for the added bonus of violinist Belle Soares, who plays afterwards). Arrive by 4:30pm (4pm in winter) to get a choice seat. A round-trip taxi from Tambaú (including wait time) is R$50.
reviewed
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Estadio Nacional
On the whole, Chileans are a pretty calm lot – until they step foot in a soccer stadium, that is. Mad screaming and dancing (or cursing, weeping and hair-tearing) accompanies international games, the most dramatic of which are against local rivals like Peru or Argentina, when ‘Chi-Chi-Chi-Lay-Lay-Lay’ reverberates through the Estadio Nacional. Tickets can be bought at the stadium or from the Feria del Disco. Equally impassioned are the hinchas (fans) of Santiago’s first-division soccer teams, of which Colo Colo, Universidad de Chile and Universidad Católica are the most popular.
reviewed
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Aeroclube Plaza Show
The young and wealthy head for Aeroclube Plaza Show, an outdoor entertainment complex with a few bars, dance clubs and free live forró nights. Inside, Rock in Rio (3461 0300; h10pm-last customer Tue-Sun) is a 1700-sq-meter dance club with eight bars that gets packed on weekends. Also in Aeroclube, Café Cancun (3461 0603; h9pm-last customer Tue-Sat) has a Mexican theme to its food and decor, and makes for a fun night of dancing and some tequila drinking.
reviewed
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John People Bar
This modern boteco (neighborhood bar) sits on prime people-watching real estate in Tambaú. There’s a front patio and breezy rooftop deck overlooking the stage elevated above the bar. Live music starts at 9:30pm and varies between forrópé-da-serra, a slower form of forró, on Tuesday, MPB (Música Popular Brasileira) by a Dave Matthews-esque power trio from Wednesday to Friday and samba on Saturday. A 2500ml tube of chope (draft beer) here runs R$28 – saúde !
reviewed
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Clube Finlândia
There is now only a sprinkling of Finns among the assortment of Brazilian people, but they all get together for traditional Finnish letkiss and jenkkas dances at Clube Finlândia every Saturday night. Finnish dancing lessons are open to the public starting at 9pm. At 10:30pm a local troupe presents a 40-minute traditional dance performance in Old World getup, then the dance floor is reopened to everyone for the rest of the night.
reviewed
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El Circuito Mágico del Agua
This indulgent series of illuminated fountains is so over-the-top it can’t help but induce stupefaction among even the most hardened traveling cynic. A dozen different fountains – all splendiferously illuminated – are capped, at the end, by a laser light show at the 120m-long Fuente de la Fantasía (Fantasy Fountain). The whole display is set to a medley of tunes comprised of everything from Peruvian waltzes to ABBA. Has to be seen to be believed.
reviewed
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Mythology
The iconic nightspot in an iconic party town, Mythology advertises itself as ‘only for gods’; whether you will feel god-like the morning after is debatable. Early in the night it’s dominated by rafting groups watching videos of their exploits on the big screen. After midnight the dance floor dependably goes wild, to the sounds of ’80s classics, Latino dance favorites and the guy next to the DJ whose job is apparently to shout encouragement to the sweating hordes.
reviewed
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Termales El Otoño
Termales El Otoño is outside Manizales on the way back to town, which helps alleviate the cracking headache and nausea you will experience on the trip down the mountain. It sells beer, liquor and snacks. On weekends the place turns into a party zone, and there are 15 luxury cabins nearby (COP$155,000 to COP$294,000). To get here on your own take the bus marked ‘Termales El Otoño’ from the Manizales terminal (COP$1200, 40 minutes).
reviewed
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Sancho Music Club
The Alto de Ponta Negra neighborhood in the upper part of Ponta Negra, around Rua Manoel AB de Araújo and Rua Aristides Porpino Filho, is dense with a variety of bars, though most are almost cringingly steeped in sex tourism, a major problem in Natal. Sancho Music Club, with tapas and chope is one of the less slimy spots. This area, especially around Centro Comercial O Jardim, is packed from Wednesday to Saturday nights.
reviewed
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Rastapé
The Alto de Ponta Negra neighborhood in the upper part of Ponta Negra, around Rua Manoel AB de Araújo and Rua Aristides Porpino Filho, is dense with a variety of bars, though most are almost cringingly steeped in sex tourism, a major problem in Natal. Rastapé here, famous for live forró, is one of the less slimy spots. This area, especially around Centro Comercial O Jardim, is packed from Wednesday to Saturday nights.
reviewed
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Engarrafamento
The name means ‘traffic jam, ’ and that’s just what you’ll get at the door of this fun middle-class venue for live pagode (popular samba music), Música Popular Brasileira (MPB), forró and pop/rock. It looks little more than a restaurant from the outside, but inside it’s near disco-like, teeming with cool kids knocking back buckets of cheap Skol and picking at tasty bar food. Worth the R$15 taxi fare, especially on Sundays.
reviewed
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Caos
At last – a nightclub just as Miami Vice tells us a nightclub should be. Make your entrance by sashaying down a neon-illuminated transparent Perspex stairway whose innards are home to some unfortunate, sensorily overstimulated carp. Order a drink at the massive, garish bar while admiring the Inca-styled water feature before hitting the shiny dance floor. The crowd here tends to very young locals, and music is a mixed bag.
reviewed
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Boteco
Like most Brazilian cities, the boteco (Brazilian neighborhood bar) culture usually rules the nightlife and, though a chain, the obviously-named Boteco packs in the Recifenses. We’re not sure what whips through faster, the ocean breezes or the waiters loaded down with chope and Brazilian bar munchies such as picanha (choice beef cuts) and savory pesticos (bar snacks). It’s very hard to say no.
reviewed
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Ayahuasca
Lima’s of-the-moment lounge resides in a stunning restored casona full of Moorish architectural flourishes. Not that anyone’s looking at the architecture – everyone’s checking out everyone else, in addition to the hyperreal decor that includes a dangling mobile made with costumes used in Ayacucho folk dances. There’s a long list of contemporary pisco cocktails, made with infusions of purple corn and coca leaves.
reviewed
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Extreme Fun Pub
This relaxed spot is a very enticing place for a tea or coffee, a meal or sociable cocktail – try a Sexy Llama Bitch (B$20). It has salt floors, friendly service, a book exchange and beautiful salar photos. It’s also a good place to learn the classic Bolivian dice games or engage in an extreme challenge drink competition: who will chug down 10 drinks in the shortest time possible.
reviewed
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Macondo
This San Antonio institution does great coffee, a wide range of desserts, light sandwiches and salads, and serves beer and wine till late. Jazz plays on the stereo and the smell of coffee is in the air. Try the scrumptious cocktails, like the Melquiades (mango, chocolate, coffee, Baileys, whiskey and blackberry sauce) or the Macondo de Lulo (coffee ice cream with fresh lulo and whiskey).
reviewed
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Yumi Yumi
Right off Av Jiménez, this pocket-sized lounge/restaurant – run by a bleach-haired Brit bloke and mustached local chef – fills with student passersby and hostel guests for excellent, experimental two-for-one cocktails (try the sour lucita, with tequila and lulo fruit) for COP$14,000. The Thai curry special on Monday and Tuesday (COP$9000) is the best touch of Bangkok in Bogotá.
reviewed
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Planeta Jeri
Everything starts – and frequently ends – at Planeta Jeri, near the beach. Things don’t get going until at least 10pm, the caipirinhas (R$5) are divine, and the music runs the gamut from hip-hop to samba. Nocturnal cocktail carts parked on the street here provide an alternative source of inebriation with concoctions such as maracujaroska (passion fruit and vodka).
reviewed
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Smooth Jazz Bar
Absolutely nothing like its name implies, this tiny hole in the wall (holding 25 at a pinch) wins hearts for its phone-book-like list of drinks: three pages of cocktails and five different kinds of alcoholic hot tea are just the beginning. The music videos blasting from the TV in the corner are more likely to be Rod Stewart than Miles Davis, but 34 different piscos later, who cares?
reviewed
