Advertisement
Published: March 2nd 2013
After a day or 2 of rest in Santa Marta, I headed to Barranquilla for Carnaval with my travel companions Elaine and Paul. Barranquilla is not only Shakira's hometown but it is THE place to go for Carnaval in Colombia. It lasts four days from the Saturday until Tuesday (Mardi Gras). As it is not normally a tourist destination, there are not many hostels and they are booked out well in advance. Elaine had managed to get 3 places in a hostel on the Friday night so we headed to Barranquilla, its only about 2 hours by bus from Santa Marta. At the bus station we asked how much a taxi would be to the hostel and we were advised COP 30,000 (10 or 11 pounds) which seemed extortionate but it was metered so was the correct price. We drove for a while and seemed to be heading out of the city, when we got to the street, the taxi driver could not find it and asked a few locals who also did not know. Finally a policeman came along and advised that it was a scam and the hostel did not exist! Luckily, we had only paid a 10% deposit
Carnaval
The figure on the left is "negrita puloy" and lots of people dress up as her. Initially I thought they were dressing up as Minnie Mouse but thankfully not.on the booking. So we were still left with nowhere to stay. The taxi driver then took us to another hotel (actually in Barranquilla) this time. We got a grubby room with 4 bunk beds. Initially this was 110 pounds per person and went rapidly to 36 pounds each. It was still a rip off but it was either that or go back to Santa Marta (actually I wanted to do this!).
Our fortune turned around the next day, or I should say mine because Elaine was flying back to Ireland and Paul was staying with another group of friends. I was meeting Sarah, another Irish friend who had sorted out accommodation in Barranquilla with a couch surfer. It turned out to be a lovely Colombian called Sonia who is married to an Irish guy. They hosted 7 of us and took us to parades in different parts of the city. They fed us and introduced me to aguardiente which is a colombian liquor. Barranquilla is known to be a little sketchy especially during carnaval so I didn't normally have my camera out with me. In the evenings we went to a street party, you can buy drink in
the street, there is live music. Everyone has a small shot size cup around their neck, like a necklace. Someone buys a bottle of aguardiente and pours you a shot from your necklace shot glass. It was a great atmosphere, how I wish St Patricks Day was back home. Lots of free entertainment too.
I left everyone still partying on Monday and went back to Santa Marta, the next day I bought a guitar and headed to Palomino beach where I camped for 3 nights. Palomino is still on the Caribbean. However there are strong currents so you cant really go into the water, it is better for surfing. The first night we were playing guitar on the beach, as you do, when we heard a saxophone playing. Sure enough, it was Matt, the saxophone player and figure skating teacher (how cool is that) and he had the most amazing moustache. Unfortunately I have no photographic evidence.
On our last night in Palomino we met a German magician and hypnotist and he hypnotised me and Sarah. We googled him and this is him giving at TED talk about magic -
Advertisement
Tot: 0.171s; Tpl: 0.016s; cc: 9; qc: 50; dbt: 0.0518s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.1mb
