Carnaval....The photos may be better than my words but I want to try to convey how this month I experienced the most exciting and creative distplay of human madness that I have ever experienced.
Since December, I have been collecting a list of amigos to join forces in the Carnavl adventure in Barranquilla Colombia. As you know from my last journal, Barranquilla is a city to be missed. Nothing special or even holding much beauty for a tourist, but when February and March arrives, the entire city transforms, and I really mean every part of the city transforms, and its a vey large city.
From my San Blas island adventure, Lost City treck, Taganga, Santa Marta and random travels, I had collected about 20 people who were all counting on me to arrange a way for us to meet for the celebration. Since January, every hostel has been booked and the hotels are charging $500 per person per night, sooo what to do... After 2 house rentals failed, I felt put out and didnt want to try, until a wonderful queen offered home to me and anyone wanting to come. She even did the laundry and made us meals.
So after I planned and organized a huge group of crazy travellers including...
2 canadians 5 colombians 1 german 1 swiss 2 english 2 americans 1 aussie 1 dutch 1 french and a few argentinians and chilleans crowded into a 3 bedroom house, we covered the floors with our packs and costumes and started the adventure with a bang.
Day 1
We all arrive around 4pm, I show them my costumes and after seeing the whole city including stores, busses, houses, people, dogs are dressed up...our friends realized they needed costumes and decided to shop for the week.
This night we all head to a celebration in the street. This turns out to be a huge fest of loud music blasting from several different shops and bars, and the streets full of dancing, spuma (white foam spray) and costumes galor. After my friends have had a few drinks we, the gringos mingle with the locals and the night ensues with massive spuma being sprayed on all of us constantly and corn flour being rubbed in our faces. The best thing about this is that absolutely no one cares about their image being trashed. We are all dancing and having so much fun no one can worry about having nice hair or shiny lip gloss. You will only look bad if you choose not to dance and participate, no one looked bad this night.
Day 2
