Where the Valley Heat Breaks into Music

What catches people about Cali isn’t just the salsa, though that rhythm runs through everything from neighborhood bakery speakers to passing taxis. It’s the shift around five in the afternoon, when the heavy valley heat suddenly breaks as the cooling breeze sweeps down off the Farallones mountains. Windows slide open, plastic chairs move out onto the pavement, and the city begins to breathe outward.

In San Antonio, warm pandebono comes off baking trays while brass horn notes drift up the steep cobblestones. It’s the kind of place travelers return to simply for the cadence of those late hours: sitting on a stoop with a cold lulada, watching the salsa spots down the hill light up one by one, where someone is already showing a newcomer the basic steps on a polished terrazzo floor...