Carnival de Barranquilla

I Arrived to Baranquilla on Friday, just on time for Carnival, the backpackers world in south America is a small one, and in Colombia it is even smaller, you tend to meet people again and again during travelling, It seems that the other backpackers in Colombia have also decided to come here for the Carnival, which created a bit of extra demand for hotel rooms, making it difficult to find one, eventually I found a place at hotel Skal, but I had to pay all four days upfront, which means it is likely I will stay here until Tuesday, the last day of the Carnival, other travelers found this hotel, and I ended up meeting some old acquaintances in there, Laura from England who I met in Salento, and Dan from Australia who I met in Cali and Medellin, they had other friends with them, and we all went out to together, though the only event on Friday was a gay parade, which we went to see, there was a march with gays dressed up in costumes, and bands playing music, it was quite fun, the march ended at a square with a stage, were there was music and huge crowd gathered, we mixed up with a group of locals, the people here extremely friendly and we made some friends very fast, part of the fun involved spraying other people with water, foam sprays, and maize powder (normally used to make maize bread), one time I turned around to avoid some water splashing, only to be smeared with maize powder by some girl, I had it in my eyes and mouth, not very nice, we had a couple of blond people in the group, and at some points they were the main attraction at the gathering, surrounded by ten or more people, trying to listen to every word the were saying, or dancing with and around them, there are no natural blond people here, and this is not touristic city, so the presence of blond people seems to be an extraordinary occurrence, I on the other hand look too much like a local, and lot of Colombian think I am local, a Costeño, that is the name they have for people from the cost of Colombia, one time in Cartagena, I was hanging out with a couple of English guys, and they were asking some local guy in a bar about the best places to go out, and the guy told them why don't you ask your friend here , pointing at me, he is from around here, he should know were to go, when I told him that I was not from Colombia, his answer was "what are you trying to pull here, you are more from Cartagena that I am" !! Anyway at the end of the night we were given phone numbers, by the group of locals we met, and they invited us to meet them the next day, and join them for the festivities, I was quite moved and impressed by this extreme openness and friendliness.

On Saturday we went to see the Batalla de los Flores, but there was no flower fights, as the name might suggest, it is a Carnival march, I found it quite similar to the carnival in the Netherlands, just with diffirent kind of music and people, this match was a comercial march, with trucks carrying bands and dancers, anyway we did not see much of the march, there was too many people, and you need to get there early and pay to get a front line seat to the show, instead we engaged in foam and water battles between us and against the locals, everybody wants to get the gringos, especially if they are blond and tall, so they were soaked with water and smeared with white powder very quickly, we made friends with some local girls, which we met again the next day, going back we had to walk quite a bit before finding a taxi, things were getting rough as everybody else was walking back as well, and a few fights broke out in the streets, but we finally found a taxi and got back to the hotel safely, I started feeling sick thought, I think it was that empanada I had five hours earlier, I only had twice problems with food in south America, and both were from epanadas that I bought on the street, I felt nausious, I went out for some fresh air, and sucked on a limon, I started feeling better, but I decided just to take it easy that night, and get some good rest, the others went to some live music show.

On sunday I finally tried the hotel pool, it was nice and clean, I read a bit, then we went to see the other march, the popular march this time, people waring costumes and accompanied by music, I bought a lot of snacks on the street, to compensate for not eating the night before, we did not see much of this march either, and it was already fading away when we got there, so we head back to the hotel, I was feeling very tired and still suffered the effects of that bad empanada, so I crashd in bed, and was awoken at midnight when the other guys were about to go out, there was a local girl with us and she suggestd a place to go out to, but when we got there, there was no light, electricity cuts in this city seem to be a common thing, so we head somewhere else, la Plaze de Cerveza, we went into a nice pub, with cheap beer, no entrance fee, good latin music with a bit of techno once in a while. The women in Barranquilla, are a mix of black and Carribean, offering a differnt kind of beauty to the inside of Colombia, and unlike the women from Medillen they do not require any artificial breast implants, they are excellent dancers as well, and the traditional way to dance here is to dance very close and intimate, we had blond australian guy with us, who the local girls called mono, monkey, I found it amuzing that they call blonds monekeys here, we stayed there until the close time, then had a snack on the street, I should no better by know than to buy another empanda on the street, anyway I did not suffer any ill effects from it, we got back to the hotel, Lura the English girl had too much to drink, and was talking non sense all the way back to the hotel, which was very funny, we jumped for a final swim on th pool , at 5 am, then went to bed. I went out again the night after, and had a lot of fun as well, but one of my friends at the hotel had his camera stolen, and when I got to Taganga I heard that many other travelers had been pick pocketed, Barranquilla is not a very safe place during Carnival. On Tuesday I headed to Tagnaga, on the way our bus was stoned by children, throwing ice chunks, I guess their idea of carnival fun, there were other childern blocking the road and asking for money to let cars through, although it was all a humorous act, but in general I had quite a good, espcially deo to the opennes and friendleness of the locals, I had not seen much of the carnival actually, but I did learn to dance to the local rythems and in the very close and intimate local style.