Donde Fidel

Donde Fidel is the walled city's best-known salsa bar. It is run by Fidel Leottau, who was born in 1940 and has spent around 60 years as a guardian of Cartagena's salsa memory, according to El Universal, which in 2026 described the bar as a kind of salsa museum. Before opening here, at the Portal de los Dulces, Leottau ran earlier bars called Abacoa and Continuo Bar between 1978 and 1985; the premises themselves once housed a lunch counter called Lonchería El Pollo.

The walls are the first thing you notice. They are covered with photographs and memorabilia of the great names of salsa: the Fania All Stars, El Gran Combo de Puerto Rico, Celia Cruz, Héctor Lavoe, Rubén Blades, Cheo Feliciano and Eddie Palmieri among them. Many of the musicians have visited in person: El Universal lists Rafael Ithier of El Gran Combo, who came around 15 times, as well as Johnny Pacheco, Óscar de León, Rubén Blades, Cheo Feliciano and the duo Richie Ray and Bobby Cruz. The painter Alejandro Obregón called it "the place of memories".

Regulars come to listen and to request their favourite tracks; El Universal mentions Descarga caliente as one of the classics people ask for. The historian Enrique Luis Muñoz Vélez describes it as a lasting meeting place for lovers of Caribbean music, somewhere meant to be "tattooed on the soul".

It suits music lovers of all ages, people who want a drink in an authentic local bar rather than a designer cocktail, and anyone interested in the history of salsa. Leottau credits his late wife, María Eugenia Castañeda Ríos, who died in 2023, as essential to the bar's work.

Opening hours are not published in any source we could verify, so check locally before making a special trip there. The Portal de los Dulces is in the walled city, so Donde Fidel is easy to combine with dinner in the old town or a later night in Getsemaní. If you are interested in the history of the music, a visit here pairs well with a night of live salsa at Café Havana.