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Cali isn’t big on tourism but there are a few museums in town to keep you busy. Most of them are decent. I was able to visit four of them.
La Merced Archaeological Museum
La Merced Archaeological Museum (Museo Arqueológico La Merced) is housed in the former convent of La Merced. It costs COP$4,000 to enter (as of April 2023) and is open daily except Sundays from 9am to 6pm. The permanent collection displays indigenous artifacts from the southwest of Colombia and a mummy. There was also a temporary exhibition of photos highlighting festivals of Colombia. It wasn’t a great museum but the mummy and explanation of burials was interesting. Everything is in Spanish but the attendant can give you a pamphlet in English to explain the exhibits.
Religious, Ethnic and Cultural Museum
Across the street is the Religious, Ethnic and Cultural Museum (Museo Religioso, Étnico y Cultural). It wasn’t open.
Calima Gold Museum
Around the corner is the Calima Gold Museum (Museo del Oro Calima). It’s located in the Banco de la República building. Admission is free and it’s open Tuesday through Saturday from 9am to 5pm.
We took about a half hour to go through the small but informative museum. It had several artifacts made out of gold, pottery, and a few other interesting things to see.
There was also a scale model of an indigenous village and a life-sized indigenous man dressed in full garb with golden jewelry.
There are other branches of the Gold Museum (Museo del Oro) that I’ve seen around the country in Bogotá, Armenia, and Santa Marta. I feel that the one in Cali wasn’t up to par with the rest.
La Tertulia Museum
La Tertulia Museum (Museo La Tertulia) is a modern art museum that I didn’t care too much for. Adult admission for foreigners is COP$17,000 (as of April 2023) and it’s open daily except Mondays from 10am to 7pm. The best thing about it was the architecture of the external wing and the movie theatre.
There were a couple of exhibits on interior design and two interactive exhibits on display.
Other Museums
As for other museums in Cali, also worth checking out is Caliwood, the country’s first cinematography museum. You can also head out to the airport for the Fénix Air Museum (Museo Aéreo Fénix), an excellent aviation museum.
