Party with the Paisas at La Caverna de Baco

Lucas received the call around 8 on Sunday night. It was his friend Katherine.

We had just bought groceries, including booze, and since she wanted to come out, it was going to be consumed immediately. We just had to pick a place to go.

La Caverna de Baco, we decided. It would be pretty busy there, even though it was a Sunday, and you can bring your own drinks.

It’s easy to find. It’s the place with all the people outside on the south side of Calle 33, just west of the Rio Medellín, a short walk, maybe 5 to 7 minutes, from the Exposiciones metro stop.

This is a great place to hang out with paisas. I’ve been there a handful of times, and I am always the only extranjero, the only foreigner. I like that. I always make new paisa friends when I go there.

We usually sit either right outside the bar, or at the little island with grass in the middle, a place that looks like a small tree once stood. Everyone who sits there puts their bottles right behind them, in the grass, and picks them up when they want a refill.

You can buy beer and liquor there too, of course. We only went to the store to save money. But you don’t save much, maybe only 600 pesos, because the booze is pretty cheap at Baco.

A beer costs only 1,750 pesos, or about a dollar. A bottle of liquor is about 35,000 to 40,000 pesos, or $17 to $20, depending what you buy.

Baco is also known for its shots, and Lucas likes to buy a green one called gasolina.

It’s one of those shots that the bartender lights on fire before you quickly drink it out of a straw and boy, does it burn when it’s going down, as Katherine and I learned after Lucas bought one for each of us. We didn’t need another, naturally.

After the shot we returned to our usual spot, the island, where Lucas ran into Cesar, a good friend of his, someone he’s known for years but hadn’t seen in a long time.

He introduced us to his friends, who were all very nice. I figured we would be there until we ran out of whiskey, then head home.

I was wrong. The rumba was only beginning. We were about to go to a club in Barrio Colombia.