Well the Big Event has come and gone.
Barranquilla is known for its Carnaval. It is the second largest Carnaval celebration in the world behind Rio De Janeiro’s  Carnaval celebration.  Since I arrived, in mid- January, all I have heard was bits and pieces of how wonderful Carnaval is. The city looks forward to this week for months. I have been attending Pre-Carnaval events for a month now.  So, naturally I had high expectations for this week. It officially started on Saturday, March 1st with the Batalla de las Flores, a parade through the North Side of town.  It was unlike any parade I have been to before. The costumes are so elaborate and the participants dance the entire time.  The city sells stadium seating along the parade right for quite the pretty penny. Or you can arrive fairly early in the morning and bargain for a plastic seat along the parade rout. Either one of these is recommended or else you will not be able to see anything. A few of my fellow volunteers and one of their Madres and I went to the parade route at 9:30 to bargain and save some seats for the other volunteers.  The parade didn’t actually start till 1:00pm, but my 11:00am most of the plastic seats lining the parade route were filled.  Vendors sell water, cerveza, and food directly to you in your seats.  Colombia does have some incredible service at times.
  This slideshow requires JavaScript.
#gallery-0-10-slideshow .slideshow-slide img { max-height: 410px; /* Emulate max-height in IE 6 */ _height: expression(this.scrollHeight >= 410 ? '410px' : 'auto'); }
The parade concluded around 6 pm. I went with my host family to eat and shower before we went out to a street party. The street party was in front of Hotel Prado, a very popular hotel in Barranquilla. They have a concert in their garden with some pretty big latin artists. Outside on the street a large crowd gathers every year, to listen to music , to dance and to party.  My hosts, Sami and Laura, took all of us volunteers to the street party. They were our chaperones. I couldn’t hear much of the music from the hotel, but plenty of cares with large speakers were set-up around the near by streets blasting house music. Alejandro, Ashley, Sarah, me,  and a few of our Colombian friends took us to another street party six blocks away. This was called Carnavalada, which was muy tranquilo with live music and space to dance.  I had a wonderful time here.  Carnavalada happened every night of Carnaval.  I made some new friends at the event and I acquired a few more dance teachers. Colombia is never short of a dance teacher.
Sunday was a very mellow day for me considering Carnaval is supposed to be a constant party and the streets shut down due to people dancing in the streets and everything is closed. Not exactly true. Â My friend Sarah was in Barranqilla for Carnaval. She is another WorldTeach volunteer working in Bogota. However, her family id from Barranquilla and she was able to stay with them for the weekend. She was also one of three messengers to get me a care package from the States. She invited me to eat lunch with her family and pick up my bag of goodies. Her family was so nice and welcoming. Sarah was on a late flight back to Bogota for class the next morning.
Sunday night I went with Sami and Laura and a few of their friends to a alcohol tienda in the North. They had set up huge speakers and people just dancing on the front patio and on the street. I was exhausted and wanted to head home at a reasonable hour, but was talked out of it every time. Â I was dropped off at the house around 2:30 am and the others went to eat. This girl needed her beauty rest.
On Monday, I bought a cheap ticket to the Parade de Fantasia. I went with John, Frank, Lani and Brighid. Brighid’s friend’s were selling the tickets for 20 mil. quite the deal and it was shaded. The parade had more dance groups  and more elaborate costumes with less cars and actual floats. I liked it much better.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
#gallery-0-11-slideshow .slideshow-slide img { max-height: 410px; /* Emulate max-height in IE 6 */ _height: expression(this.scrollHeight >= 410 ? '410px' : 'auto'); }
Monday night I had tickets to go see Bombero Estereo and Systema Solar at the Plaza Aduana near the Rio Magdalena. A few other volunteers went too. It was a nice chill outdoor venue, but it took forever to get the show started. We danced the night away and headed back to the house around 4:00 am. There were still a few acts to play, but I was over it.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gBu9O2jqto8
Tuesday, we woke up to no water. Womp, womp, womp. It was dreadful. I had been told that this happens quite often, but I didn’t think it would happened during Carnaval.  I made the best of the water bottles I had filled up the night before and Sami, Laura, Luis and I went to get Mondongo Soup and head to the Joselitos Parade.  The parade signals the end of Carnaval and the death of Jesus. The costumes were mainly black and it is a tradition for men to dress up as women and dance in the parade. It was in a different location then the other parades and very relaxed. Lots of dancing and elaborate costumes in true Carnaval fashion.
This slideshow requires JavaScript.
#gallery-0-12-slideshow .slideshow-slide img { max-height: 410px; /* Emulate max-height in IE 6 */ _height: expression(this.scrollHeight >= 410 ? '410px' : 'auto'); }
When I got home there was water and I was able to take a shower before the other volunteers and I met up to go back to Carnavalaba. I ran into some friends I had made earlier in the week and met a group of dance teachers who were eager to teach the gringos to dance. It wasn’t very crowded and had a variation of different music which was nice to hear after 6-days of the same music.
I didn’t have class until Friday and was able to spend Wednesday and Thursday at the beach since the city had a planned water outage.
Glad I was here to experience the 2nd Carnaval in the World. But i’m glad it is over soon and the flood of Gringos are leaving. I like Barranquilla as it is.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jeHwgbCT0do
Los Carnavales Well the Big Event has come and gone. Barranquilla is known for its Carnaval. It is the second largest Carnaval celebration in the world behind Rio De Janeiro's  Carnaval celebration. Â
amandla
stormborns
tangentwithtanner
germansingergirl
andulkaphoto
romaincrisis
origamiaround
2087
gamechangershow