Carnaval de Barranquilla

Another year, another wild Carnival; I attended Carnival of last year, and I am back for this years Carnival. The Barranquilla Carnival might be less famous than the Rio Carnival, but it is still very impressive, and it is huge; Four days of street marches, and numerous live concerts. In the marches groups of people of different ages participate, I seen kids as I young as three or four, and old people probably in their sixties and seventies. Each group has its own costume, most of them very elaborate ones. Each group also has it is own dance or performance, a band accompanies each group, providing the music for the act.

I stopped by Barranquilla a week earlier to make a hotel reservation for the carnival. Then I went to chill out for a few days Taganga and Tayrona, and I headed back to Barranquilla on Thursday night. My friends Troy and Shane, had already arrived earlier, apparently the hotel owner was giving them a hard time with the reservation. I made a reservation for a room with 3 beds for 70000 pesos a night, and I put 50000 down payment to make sure they keep the room for us. But the owner was trying to charge them 150000 for the three bed room, or put them with a room with two beds for 100000; basically trying every trick in the book to charge them more, even though he had the reservation written in clear Spanish on his desk, saying a room with 3 beds for 70000. The owner turned out to be a real jerk, he was doing the same with the other reservations as well; trying to charge people more and charging each room differently. That made some people very unhappy, when they found out later they were paying more than the others. And I got involved with a dispute, because some people from other room went to complain to the owner that he was charging them too much, saying that we paid much less than them (which was true). The owner was upset because we told them how much we paid. In the end they left the hotel the next day. It is a shame the owner was such a jerk, because the hotel is such a lovely place. It has a nice patio with swimming pool, and the staff are just great; always helpful and friendly.

Basically all the travelers that arrived to the hotel were thanks to me, I stayed in this hotel during last year’s carnival as well. The known cheap hotels were all booked, so I took a motor taxi (A motorcycle where one sits behind the driver, a quick and cheap way to travel in the city for one person), and went looking for hotels, and I found this hotel Skal. When I came back to Barranquilla earlier this week, I did not have the hotel address or phone, so I had to look for it again. But after wandering a bit in the center, I managed to recognize some streets, and found my way back to the hotel. I made a reservation and send the information to Troy and Shane, they passed it off to many other travelers at the Platyups in Bogotá, as many of them could not find a hotel in Barranquilla for the carnival. I also passed the information to an Israeli guy in Taganga, who also brought some friends to stay at the hotel. I ended up bringing the owner a lot of business; never the less he still kept acting like a jerk, trying to raise the price of the room. So I don’t know whether I should recommend this hotel to other travelers any more.

It is possible to buy seating tickets to see the marches. Some open seating tickets costs 40000 for three days, and a ticket in the closed stands cost 140000 pesos for three days. We just decided to go for the march without tickets the first day; we just went to where the locals go. There one can stand or sit on the side of the road. It can be inconvenient considering the intense sun, but as the afternoon went on, and the sun became cooler, it was quit nice. Sitting at the side of the road provides a perfect view point for taking photos of the march. I could even just walk into the middle of the street and take pictures of the marchers, which was really cool.

The next day though we bought some seating tickets in the stands. We got them for 40000 for the remaining two days, instead of the original price of 140000, a good deal. The stands were fun, as we were a big group and we also met a lot of locals. Foam fights are a tradition of the carnival. Foam is sold in spray bottles, and everybody has one. One can either buy one or risk of being defenseless against the continuous foam attacks. The view in the stands was not the best though; the fence obstructed the line of sight to the march. I could take better pictures just standing on the streets the day earlier. I took some good pictures by raising the camera up high over the fence, not the most convenient way. We were joined by a couple of Colombian who my friends met the night before at some party: Carlos and Angela. Carlos is from Barranquilla, although he lived in Miami for a while, and he was our guide for the rest of Carnival; he knew the best party to go to every night. Angela is also living abroad in London, and she is here just for the carnival.

Later that night, we went to the Busy Club, at the recommendation of Carlos. They were hosting a special carnival electronic music party, with a pricey entry fee of 40000 pesos. Anyway decided to pay and get in. I never have seen so many gorgeous looking women in one club before, all wearing very revealing dresses. One should keep in mind though that not all is really in there, Colombia is the capital of plastic surgeries, and there were a few fake tits and behinds there.

The next day we went back to the stands to see another march, after a while it starts to feel a bit repetitive; just more people in costumes marching and dancing. After the march we headed to the coliseum, where a big concert was taking place. I was still recovering from the party of the night before, and decided to head back to the hostel and take it easy. The rest of group though went to see the concert. Apparently it was a very wild party, a bit too wild, many of them last cameras, video cameras, wallets. Considering the ammounts of alcohol and pills they consumed that day, it was propably an easy job niking there valuables. During Carnival I discovered the secret to not stop partying: Drugs; sometime coke but mostly pills. It is the only way these people can go on partying none stop for several days. My friend Shane did not sleep for four straight days. At the end of Carnival though he crashed and slept for a couple of days.

Tuesday was the last day of Carnival and we went to see the final march. I could get stand at the side of the road, and I had a good view point to take photos. I also took a lot of movies, but high quality movies come at a price; they fill up the memory card very quickly. I have a 256MB card but I am going to need a 1GB card at least, if I am going to use the video feature more often. At the march we met Stephanie, a 17 years old girl, already with a 2 month old baby. A couple of my friends had met her the night before at the concert. She works as walking call center; she carries a couple mobile phones, one for each network, and charges people for the minute. It is quite common, cheap and convenient way to call other mobile phones in South America. As we left Shane gave her his number, just in case she wanted to meet us later at some street party, we did not know then how lucky that would be for her later.

When we get back to the hotel a couple of hours later, Shane received a phone call from Stephanie, his Spanish is not that good, so he handed me the phone to answer. Stpehanie was in some kind of distress, which I did not understand exactly what it was. But she was still where we left her at the march, and she had some kind of problem getting back home. Shane might have been the most drugged person during the whole of Carnival, but this guy does not think twice about offering help, and I admire him for that; always ready to lend money when someone needs it. When I explained to him the situation, he immediately told me to tell Stephanie to grab a taxi and come to our hotel, and that he would pay for the taxi. I told that to Stephanie and gave her the address of the hotel. We have a quite an easy address to remember 41 con 41, street 41 with avenue 41. The street system in Colombia is all based on numbers, all streets going in one direction (e.g. north to south) are named Calle X, and all perpendicular streets are called Avenida X. I quite like this system, as you always have an idea where you are and which way you need to go to get to your destination. Anyway half an hour later, Stephanie appeared in the taxi, apparently she was in some kind of serious pain; a kind of complication related to the birth she gave a couple of month back. We comforted her, and she managed to call someone in here family. Then Shane put her in a taxi that took her back home, where she could pick up her medical insurance card, and be taken by some family member to get medical help, apparently in Colombia they won’t attend to you unless you have the insurance car. Next morning she called back and said she was OK, excused herself for the trouble she caused us, and gave her thanks for our help. I believe that many times when I meet people it is for some purpose, a purpose that might be unknown at the time of meeting. This person might be there to offer me something I needed, but when that is not the case, then it is not the probably the other way around, that person needs something and I am the one who can help them with it. I can’t help thinking that we met Stephanie because she was going to be in trouble soon, and we were the ones capable of helping her.

After taking care of Stephanie we went to see the final concert of Carnival; an open concert taking place in one of the streets of Barranquilla. It was quite good music, but we had arrived towards the end of the concert, and after a an hour it was all over, the convert and the Carnival.

I was thinking of going to the island of Providencia to do some diving. It is expensive, but still it fits in my budget, as I have managed to keep my spending down during the last couple of weeks. But Troy suggesting visiting the desert, which lies between here and the Venezuelan border, and that got me very excited. It is supposed to be quite wild and amazing region. Riohacha is the major city there, and there are supposed to be some lovely beaches close by. Anyway I am excited and I hope we do it. Troy and Shane seem to be recovered from Carnival after a couple of days of sleeping, so I might get them to go on the move today.