When you hear about Carnaval most people think Rio de Janeiro and Brasil, but Carnaval is HUGE all over South America. The second largest Carnaval in South America is in Barranquilla, Colombia which is only a 2 hour drive from Cartagena. We arrived in Cartagena two days before Carnaval started and were able to get on a bus going to Barranquilla for the day.
Carnaval runs March 1st till 4th with a huge parade each day from 11am till 5pm and a party the entire time! Barranquilla has a population of about 800,000 but during Carnaval there are over 3 million people there! We arrived around noon and the streets were packed. We made our way down towards the main street where the parade was already started. There were so many people it was hard to move, everyone was so happy and festive! People were dressed up in amazing costumes, there was food and beer for sale everywhere and music blasting. The stands were completely packed and we couldn't see the parade, but a man let us up onto his balcony for 12,000 pesos each. The view was much better up on the balcony and we hung out with some very cute Colombian kids. The kids were so excited about Carnaval and explained each float to us. It was amazing to see how happy everyone was! The parade was incredible. The floats were very elaborate and each one had their own dancers and music playing. There were also large groups of dancers doing routines in between the floats with beautiful costumes on. I've never seen so many beautiful people in one place! Watching them made me want to get up and dance!
We left the boys up on the balcony and the four of us girls went for a walk. We made it one block before we were bombarded with flour and spray foam! It was so funny, we were all completely covered in flour. Groups of people had boxes of flour and when you walked by they would surround you and throw the flour. They especially targeted the foreigners. We bought some spray foam and started retaliating when they would go after us. Everyone at Carnaval participated and there wasn't one person who didn't have flour on them. The majority of people participating were Colombian and they were so happy to see us joining the party! A lot of people asked to get pictures with us or just took pictures as we walked by. I think Colombians are the happiest and nicest people I've ever met! We spent the rest of the day partying in the streets with everyone.
When it was time to catch the bus back to Cartagena we were all quite dirty. My hair was one giant matted mess of flour & foam. Outside the bus we chatted with some local kids and one young boy wanted to come live in Canada with me. The only English he knew was "I love you" and kept saying it over and over. Carnaval was such an amazing experience and I don't think I stopped smiling all day!
Pictures coming soon!
