BEAUTY QUEENS AND PAINTING THE TOWN BLUE IN CARTAGENA

South America » Colombia » Cartagena
November 11th 2007

Published: December 29th 2007

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MRJ SthAmericanAdventures

CARTAGENA

Me, Darragh, Shagga and Sinead with some local kids

After yet another long bus ride this time consisting of a couple of screaming babies I finally made it to the Caribbean Coast of Colombia. I had left Sharyn behind in Medellin and jumped on the bus with Darragh, an Irish friend we met in Salento, in order to get to the coast to smell the ocean air. I did guess that Cartagena would not be the ideal place to be to enjoy the ocean but it was a great change to being up in the mountians. As we left the bus station we met up with Jamie, a Scottish guy, who had also been on our bus and together we took a taxi into the heart of Cartagena. Some of the first things that I noticed while driving into town were how dirty the place was....there was rubbish everywhere, the change in the people....there was a lot more darker skinned people here which had come from the Caribbean influences and there seemed to be a lot more poverty here than in other places in Colombia. Especially after coming from Medellin where everything was nice and clean, Cartagena definately felt like it had a bit more edge.

Cartagena was founded

CARTAGENA

At the Miss Colombia parade.......Garrett early in the day

in 1533 and swiftly became the main Spanish port on the Caribbean coast and the gateway to the north of the continent. Treasure taken from the indigenous people was stored here until the galleons were able to ship it back to Spain. Cartagena was a tempting place for pirates and in the 16th century alone it suffered five dreadful seiges, the best known was led by Francis Drake in 1586. In response to the pirate attacks, the Spaniards decided to make Cartagena an impregnable port and constructed elaborate walls encircling the town and a chain of forts and this helped to avoid further seiges. During the colonial period, the city was the key outpost of the spanish empire and influenced much of Colombia's history. Today Cartagena has expanded and has vast suburbs. It's Colombia's largest port and an important industrial centre of 1.1 million people with the old walled town having changed little over time.

Once we had organised some accommodation, a shower and some food we decided to have a wander around the town. We were staying just outside the walled part of the city in an area that was still considered the old part of town.....the difference

CARTAGENA

Kids in the street with flour and blue paint

being that this part of the city did actually look old compared to the amazing buildings inside the walls. There was an obvious increase in the amount of dodgy looking people who were very dirty and a lot of the time drinking aguadiente in the streets, but I really never felt unsafe or threatened. There was a lot of market stalls on the side of the streets where you could get all your fruit and veggies along with fresh juices, our favourite arepas and cooked meat. Once inside the city walls the whole place changed. All the buildings had been maintained in their colonial fashion and painted in different colours. Many had balconies with bouganvilla in different colours hanging from pot plants and the area was lined with stoned streets and open plazas. There was obviously money in this town as there was many high end clothes shops, restaurants and cafes. A truly amazingly beautiful city and it has been maintained in great condition but as soon as you leave those surrounding walls you can see the real Cartagena.

By pure accident we had arrived in Cartagena just days before the biggest festival of the year. Luckily we had

CARTAGENA

Miss Colombia weekend so fiesta in the streets

heard about it and were able to get there early and get accommodation for the weekend as many people were arriving after us who were struggling to find beds. Sharyn had arrived in Cartagena by this stage but had unfortunately managed to get a couple of styes in her eye so was feeling pretty average. The festival, Reinado Nacional de Bellaza - the Miss Colombia competition, was celebrated over four days with the last day also being Colombia's Independance Day. On the first day we had been told that there was going to be a parade of the Reinas (beauty queens) through the town and with that a party in the street. The ladies at the hostel were very adamant that we should take nothing of any value with us and to wear old clothes as there was no doubt that we would have paint and other substances thrown at us. I did have to go to the bank before heading to the parade and I thought that I had gone early enough in the morning to avoid any problems with people wanting to paint me blue. I was having problems finding an ATM that would give me cash so

CARTAGENA

And finally amongst the madness came the Reina's, Beauty Queens, on their floats

I was getting edgy and wanting to get back to the hostel before getting cornered by the few boys walking around with cans of blue paint who were making people pay them to avoid getting covered. I was walking down to the one bank when four guys coming the other way spotted me and headed straight for me with arms up forming a hard to pass human wall. I went straight to the middle of a vendors shop and stood in the middle there while she told the boys to leave me alone and that I had good clothes on......I was very greatful to her for helping me out. With that close call I was very fast at the bank and back to the hostel in no time. Once we, me, Sharyn, Darragh and Jamie, had changed into old clothes and had discarded anything of value we headed down into the town to find out what was happening. We had been told that the parade would start at 4pm but that it was best to get there a couple of hours earlier to find a position. We made it to the sea side road where the parade would be and

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Garrett and Sinead getting amongst it

found ourselves to be very early but managed to get front row positions on the road side. There was a definate sense of festival in the area with people starting to dance in the streets, people selling beers and rum, food, party toys, blue paint and flour and as the crowd grew so did the madness. Darragh and Jamie had gone further up the road to check it out and came back covered in blue and white, it didn't take long for any gringo to get covered, and by this stage the bands had started to pump out loud salsa to get the crowd ready for the Reinas. Unfortunately Sharyn wasn't feeling the best and really did want to avoid getting anything in her eye so I decided that I would take on the crowd by myself and see what was happening further up the road. I had literally just started walking past the stage where the band was playing when I was sprayed across the face with white foam which had covered my sunglasses and stopped me from being able to see anything. As soon as that happened I was surrounded by a group of people and when I

CARTAGENA

The crowd trying to get a view of the beaty queens

attempted to walk past I was stopped by one guy holding up his arm pushing me back. The whole time I knew exactly what was happening but was not too fussed as I had nothing for any of them to steal except a plastic bag that had some toilet paper and some tampons in it. Finally they let me pass and sure enough my plastic bag was no longer in my pocket.......so finally I had been pick-pocketed in Sth America and had won the game by having something of no value stolen and walking away with a screw you kind of smile on my face. On the other side of the stage I found absolute bedlam and Darragh and Jamie who had made friends with some other gringos in the crowd. They all were covered in blue and white which meant that I was the only real clean person so it didn't take long to be surrounded by some locals who liberally covered me in blue paint. It was all pretty random and you could basically walk up to anyone in the crowd and chase them with hands covered in blue.......we did see some people being told in no uncertain

CARTAGENA

Miss Colombia contestant

terms not to touch them so you had to be a little careful but generally most people were up for it. For all of 50c you could buy a couple of bags of blue powder and once you added water would provide you with hours of innocent fun. There was a lot of kids around finding it quite amusing to see the gringos covered so it was lots of fun to play with them and share the paint and flour. Other than the people trying to lift things out of your pockets the only other real hazard, other than the beer, rum and aguadiente, was the large groups of teenagers ramming the crowd as they ran through........not sure what they found so entertaining about this but you just had to make sure that you were not in their way. After a couple of hours of playing in the crowd, dancing and drinking the parade acutally started. I headed back down to Sharyn who was with Blake and Lindsay, two other Australians we had met that day, and got my position back to watch the Reinas. By this stage the footpath was packed and it was some what difficult to get

CARTAGENA

Miss Colombia contestant

back to Sharyn but no one argued too much as I was covered in blue and they didn't want any on them. During the parade we had a lot of women around us who got right into it.......the ones behind me were not too impressed because they were struggling to see over the top of my head even though I was standing lower than them. The parade was full of different dance groups dressed in amazing costumes dancing salsa as they passed. The girls would go mad if a group of good looking boys passed they would stop for an impromtu dance on the side of the street. Blake and Lindsay both got pulled into the middle of the parade by some dancers and looked incredibly uncomfortable and Australian when the women tried to make them dance some salsa......I was just glad it was them and not me. Along with all the dancers the Reinas would come down on floats in skimpy sparkly outifts, some of which looked like they should be worn by drag queens and not a Miss Colombia contestant. There is a lot of silicone in Colombia and there was not a shortage seen during this parade

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Part of the parade for the Miss Colombia contestants

either.....many of the girls had similar smiles, boobs, cheek bones and look......no one was really out of the norm. The crowd loved it and was very vocal for the girls that they liked so it was great fun to be dancing on the side of the streets and waving to the Reinas as they passed. The women around us had a ball and along with cheering and dancing they would grab Sharyn and my arms and wave them in the air and one women to my right randomly threw handfuls of flour our way. After many times of getting mouthfuls of flour I decided that it was time to get her back.........blue powder with some water meant handfuls of blue paint which went straight onto her face. I actually got some cheers from her friends who had had enough of being covered in flour. After about an hour the parade was over and the crowd slowly started to disperse but not before some more water, paint and flour had been thrown and mainly in our direction. I was actually getting laughed at by stangers and I was wondering just how I looked........basically I was totally blue like a smurf with

CARTAGENA

More Beauty Queens

a little sprinkle of white as I had not rinsed any of the paint off that had come my way. We headed back into the old city and slowly made our way back to the hostel.........which took sometime after trying to avoid fire crackers, having water thrown from balconies, more paint, joining into random dancing, eating some arepas, drinking some beers and taking in the whole buzz that was around the town. On arriving back at the hostel the ladies there thought we were the funniest things that they had seen all day. After quite a few photos and a lot of laughter and a long shower we were all back to normal other than some hidden patches of blue. We met the rest of the people we had been hanging out with that day up at their hostel for some drinks before heading out for the night. By this stage we had been drinking for some hours now so when it came time to head into town it was some what difficult to get everyone to head the same way, so envitably we all got separated and ended up going to different clubs. I ended up at a small

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More Beauty Queens - this one was very popular with the boys!

salsa club which had the bonus of no entry charge and that was full of people having a good time. Salsa was not really my thing as it is uncomforable when you are trying to shake your bootie and it just looks and feels completely unco-ordinated, but this night was the turning point in my salsa career. After quite a few beers, which doesn't really make you dance better but just makes you loose your inhabitions, I decided to hit the dance floor. I was first dancing with an American guy who was in our group and who had quite a few moves but then I met a Colombian couple on my way to the toilet who decided that I should definately be hitting the dance floor. The girl was more than happy to hand over her boyfriend to me who then took me to the dance floor and that was it......I have been hooked ever since. That night I decided to not be so conscious of what I looked like and just have a good time and I personally think that it helped, whether I looked like I could dance even a little I am not sure and it

CARTAGENA

Jamie getting into the celebrations with a local girl

really doesn't matter as I had such a good time and was woken up to why people love salsa so much. Since I had been on the dancefloor for most of my time in this club I had missed most of my group leaving, but luckily the American guy was looking out for me and waited for me before leaving. We both decided that it was time to head back to the hostel but along our way we met a Canadian guy called Frederico who was hanging with a Colombian girl who invited us to come with them to a house party. Next thing we find ourselves in this apartment that has a couple of balconies looking out over a beautiful park and plaza and a great place to finish of a great day of celebrations. Soon though tiredness and drunkeness overtook and I walked back to the hostel to collapse into my bed.

The next day was very slow and I was sure that I was not going to be going out that night. Town was pretty chilled and nothing really was happening and we gathered that most of the inhabitants were feeling like I did and couldn't

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Darragh, Jamie and Sinead

be bothered doing anything. After eating way too many arepas over 12 hours I decided to head up to the bar nearby to say hello to everyone we had met the day before. The bar was called Club Havana which was a Cuban bar with all the trimmings of Cuba........I loved it especially with my new love of salsa music. So after thinking that it would be a early night it ended up being anything but......few more drinks at the Club Havana, a bit of salsa around the bar, meeting new people, trying to go to other clubs but being too late, walking around town, saying goodbye to everyone as we were leaving the next day and then finally to bed for a few hours sleep. So my first time in Cartagena had been a lot of fun and after so many instances where I would miss a festival by a week it was great to finally be in a place to experience the madness that we had. Sharyn and I had decided to get out and head up the coast a couple of hours, with limited time and the fact the all we or I was going to do

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Just one of the many great characters of Cartagena

it we stayed was drink more. So slowly along with Darragh we headed out of Cartagena and towards Taganga. We heard that the festival continued for the next couple of days and on the last day which was also Independance Day the whole town went mad again and this time it was with red paint. There was the announcement of the winner of the Miss Colombia competition and also a very long and boring parade.

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