On Tuesday 6th December Quito celebrates the day the city was founded by Sebastian de Benalcazar in 1534. If you’re in Quito during this time (particularly on the 5 December or the week before), get ready! The party spreads throughout the city streets with dance parties, live bands, chiva buses (open air buses often with disco music blaring), and of course lots of drinking.

The day of December 6 itself is actually very quiet. No one is on the streets, and few places are open. Why? Because most people are hung-over or, quite simply, worn out. The big day is the day before, the 5th, when most offices and shops close at 1 o’clock in the afternoon so that people can get home and start la fiesta early. Some companies even have their own parties that day, hiring bands to come to their office. At noon, there is a parade down one of the main avenues. Participants wear one of the various traditional costumes of the country’s myriad indigenous groups and carry baskets of flower petals.

As the sun goes down on the evening of the 5th, the streets become crowded with local musical groups and dancers. Chivas roar up and down the main avenues while people pour in and out of restaurants, bars, and discotheques. Quiteñans celebrate their city in the way they know best: dancing and drinking until dawn.

Be careful to leave valuables at home since the streets will be crowded and pick-pocketing more likely. Enjoy the party!

Every year, immediately after Christmas, between December 25 and 30, the city of Cali fills up with tourists from all over the country and abroad who come to participate in this great fair, famous for its horse riding parades, bullfights, the best salsa orchestras, multitudinous concerts, dances, and delicious gastronomy.

The fair starts out on the streets with a parade of the best Paso Fino horses in the country. It continues with a multitude of popular festivals and parties in various sections of the city.

Cali also stands out as the world salsa capital, with the best national and international orchestras vibrating throughout the city and bringing together different kinds of publics in closed shows with performances by phenomenal prize-winning dancers and in multitudinous concerts staged by the best interpreters of this musical genre.

Get your dancing shoes on for parties, parades, music concerts and beauty pageants in Colombia’s salsa capital.

Cali Fair is definitely one of the best ways to end the year.

The name Sebastiao Salgado is one that is associated with long term documentary photography projects resulting in exquisite black and white photographs, lovingly crafted from the camera to the finished exhibition print.

For the past seven years he has been working on a series entitled Genesis, a collection of photographic essays that look at the landscape, wildlife and human communities that live with what he describes as their ancestral values.

A selection of pictures from the project, which is due to be completed by 2012, is now on show in the newly opened gallery in the east wing of Somerset House in Holborn. The space once inhabited by the tax office now forms a very pleasant environment and ideal gallery space for Salgado’s work, glorious black and white photographs of forests bathed in that heavenly light that seems to follow Salgado on all his assignments.

Other pictures show some of the tribal communities he spent three months living with as they moved from camp to camp through the forest. He describes them as “living in a very pure way,” and his pictures of their daily lives and ancient rituals provide a glimpse of the past that Salgado is attempting to protect.

His photographs attempt to make us realise both what could be lost, and the fact that it has not yet all been destroyed. As he says, there is plenty to save.

“People destroy the forest not because they are bad, but because they are not informed,” Salgado said. “Working closely with the people of the land is very important, to achieve equilibrium, we must fight to protect it.”

As well as his photographic work for the past 20 years or so, together with his wife Lelia, he has worked to restore a small part of the rainforest in Brazil through the Instituto Terra, and he is also an ambassador for Unicef.

His epic project Workers, which was published in 1993, brought worldwide acclaim, and a few critics, yet there are few who work on such a global scale and are able to combine a photographic eye that is second to none, alongside such passion for the subject. So if you are in the area, pop along to Somerset House and see the pictures as they are meant to be seen, as prints.

The current exhibition is a joint one with photographer Per-Anders Pettersson who travelled to Acre in north-west Brazil with the actress Gemma Arterton to highlight the work there by Sky Rainforest Rescue which is a three-year partnership between Sky and the WWF.

Amazon is now on show at Somerset House, London, until 4 December 2011.

The tropical Cartagena on the Caribbean coast hosts Colombia’s annual Concurso Nacional de Belleza (national beauty contest). The queens come from all over the country and parade through the huge crowds on carnival-like floats. The reigning Señorita Colombia becomes a national star and ambassador for Colombia, renowned for its beautiful women. This includes representing the country in the Miss Universe Pageant 2012.

The purpose of this event is to help the needy. This is why the key point of the event is the parade by the name of Belleza con un propósito (beauty with a purpose) that has been taking place since 1979. The money collected during the parade benefits institutions that work for the elderly, children, and disaster victims to satisfy their basic needs, health and education.

Over 100 sculptures formed entirely out of sand – including The Eiffel Tower, the Pyramids of Giza and Corcovado mountain – have been created by a task force of international artists.

No glue was used for any of the sculptures, only water and pressed sand. An exhibition space of over 32,300 square feet has been dedicated to the works.

The event was organised by training company Foto Urbano, which has taken similar exhibits worldwide, but never to Colombia.

The Colombian capital was an unlikely destination for such festival and over 6,000 tons of sand had to be shipped in from the River Sumapaz.

All the works will be on display under a tent in Bogota’s El Campín sporting arena until 31 December 2011.

Electronic music fans get a 16-hour summer fix of their favourite trance, techno and house tunes at the annual Creamfields Buenos Aires. Party-goers take over the Buenos Aires Autodrome where more than 100 internationally renowned groups and DJs appear. Confirmed astists at Creamfields 2011 include David Guetta, Groove Armada presents Red Light, Above & Beyond, Sven Väth, Luciano, John Digweed, Hernan Cattaneo, Ferry Corsten, Fedde Le Grand, Laidback Luke, Afrojack, Pete Tong, Booka Shade, Miss Kittin, Adam Beyer, Ellen Allien, Danny Howells, Joris Voorn, Gareth Emery, Seth Troxler, Gui Boratto, Jamie Jones, Busy P, Christopher Lawrence, Guti, Gaiser, Barem, Layo & Bushwacka.

In October every year, guitar artists come together in Buenos Aires to showcase their incredible talents.

The international guitar festival started back in 1994 and since then more than 200,000 people have attended the festival which has seen hundreds of musicians from scores of countries.

The free and open display of guitar skills is a prestigious and well-known event in Buenos Aires.

The Buenos Aires International Festival (eighth edition) is one of the great events in the City’s cultural calendar. Diverse performances by national and international companies fill theatres, cultural centres and other venues across the capital. Workshops, lectures, presentations and exclusive events run alongside performances.

Budding local playwrights also compete for the esteemed Germán Rozenmacher Prize for New Theatre.

The Festival runs from 24th September to 8th October 2011.

More than 50 vineyards and 400 labels of wine will be present at the Chilean Wine Fair, including an exclusive area for sparkling champagnes.

Experience 1,400 square feet of wine, gastronomy and culture in Santiago’s Hotel Plaza San Francisco. Tickets are available at different outlets and cost $15,900 (Chilean Peso) per person.

One of the most important audiovisual events in Latin America, the Festival do Rio attracts professionals and film buffs from all over the world. Catch screenings, showcases and seminars at venues across Rio.

The festival attracts over 200,000 people for its screenings of Brazilian and world films at cinemas throughout the city, which include numerous features, shorts and documentaries. There are also seminars, cinematic exhibitions and cubicles equipped with video and DVD.

The 13th Rio de Janeiro International Film Festival (Festival do Rio) will take place from Thursday 6 October through Tuesday 18 October 2011.