There are no words to describe Carnaval in Barranquilla. It is as much a part of the city and its culture as the architecture and the food. For the weeks preceding and following the event, it takes over every aspect of daily life and remains a source of immense pride for the people. In short, if you have not experienced Barranquilla during Carnaval season, you don't know the real Barranquilla. I will attempt to give you a small taste of the craziness and culture that is Carnaval.PRECARNAVAL
¡Quien lo vive es quien lo goza! Roughly translated: "He who lives it, enjoys it." This is the motto of Carnaval, and, in my experience, it couldn't be more true. Carnaval takes place in the 4 days preceding Ash Wednesday, or February 13-16. However, Pre-Carnaval activities take place formally and informally during the whole month before. These include concerts, dancing, events (such as the Coronation of the Queen of Carnaval) and many other impromptu celebrations. There is music going at all hours of the day and night and it is not uncommon to see people covered in cornstarch and foam, walking down the streets late at night.
One of the most interesting and enjoyable Precarnaval events we went to was a drum concert in Barrio Abajo, a neighborhood of the city. We had been invited by the other tea
chers in the school, with little idea of what we were actually getting ourselves into. When we arrived, a small crowd had begun to gather around a closed-off intersection. There were stands selling food everywhere and people had already begun to search out the perfect viewing location for the concert. Instead of staking out our own spot, a few teachers dropped Shakira's name at the gate, and we were ushered into the closed off section, where at the time, only the band was setting up. They soon started to play traditional Carnaval music, with big drums, shakers, and small wooden flutes. The b
and consisted of an odd assortment of men, women, and children, each taking turns playing and dancing. As soon as they began, with no one else around but the band, they told us to start dancing in a circle around them. A few small children dressed up in traditional Carnaval costumes joined us, and in no time, there were tons of people dancing around the band, drinking, throwing cornstarch, and having an amazing time. After the number of people grew exponentially, we decided to move on to another Precarnaval celebration, at a local bar and restaurant. There we found more of the same, with a little more room to move around. All in all, it was a great first taste of Carnaval and left us ready for the real thing.CARNAVAL WEEKEND
Friday = La Playa kicked off Carnaval Weekend with a monumental Carnaval celebration in school on Friday. Throughout the week, teachers and students had been making posters and decorat
ions (often in place of class time). So by the time Friday rolled around, the place looked fantastic. I had, somewhat prematurely, agreed to be the Gringos Queen of Carnaval, so it wasn't long before I had on a lovely sequined costume, taking pictures next to all of the other ornately decorated teachers. We put on an amazing presentation of the queens from every grade, the results of a stiff competition which had earned each her own crown. There were also dance performances (some a bit more suggestive than I might have anticipated) and musical presentations. I danced mo
re in public than my abilities probably warranted, however it was a ton of fun! And the kids were really into it. The day's events concluded with a huge parade around La Playa, complete with a band playing live Carnaval music. We (the gringos) even had our own "float" (or mule-drawn wooden cart) to stand on. Floats were decorated with flowers, paper-machete marimondas, and streamers. And when we through the neighborhood, the school filled the streets with dancing, laughing, and craziness. Kids and families not in school would run to see the spectacle, which seemed to go on for miles. It was certainly an experience.We were also very fortunate to have our Worldteach friends from Cartegena and Isla Baru in town for the weekend. While they missed the excitement at the school, they were in time for a little food and going out Friday night. It was so nice to see them again and hear all about their amazing experiences in their own sites.
Saturday = Saturday is the biggest parade of the weekend, called Batalla de Flores. We had to "reserve" seat
s ahead of time with teachers from the school, and even in doing this, the crowds made doing so nearly impossible. It took us hours to get from La Playa to the parade site, involving buses, cabs, and a lot of fighting crowds. I don't think I have ever seen so many people packed into the streets in one area in my life. People were dressed up in costumes, carrying instruments, covered in foam and cornstarch, and generally having a good time. With seats going fast, I immediately went to try and feed myself. Even while buying food, I found that at any second, somebody was inevitably going to spray foam into the crowd and invade my newly purchased lunch. I eventually had to accept that I would ingest the foam at some point, and vowed to enjoy my fruit smoothie and empanada regardless.Our seats were actually plastic stackable lawn chairs, and by the time we had
returned from our food adventure, the ones we had previously claimed had been taken. I managed to claim another one in the second row, a pretty good vantage point to watch the parade, so no harm done. The parade itself was amazing. The floats were huge with intricate detail. There were characters from Uncle Sam to Mr. T, from wholesome advertisements to inappropriate characters. If you can imagine it, it was probably present somewhere in the parade. There were floats with bands and dancers, and dancing groups which paraded through from across the country. Some of the costumes were really out of this world. The parade lasted for hours. We actually had to leave a little bit early, because a few of us had tickets to a Daddy Yankee concert, another huge part of Carnaval.Concerts are huge affairs during Carnaval. With our limited funds, we had picked one to attend. Daddy Yankee, for those of you unfamiliar with the Latin American music scene, is a huge singer from New York, specializing in reggaeton, a Latin American combination of rap and R&B. After the adventure of navigating our way to the stadium, we grabbed some quick comida rapida (fast food, but not in the McDonald's sense) and made our way to the line. The tickets had said doors would open at 4, but the lines only began to move around 5. While we made it inside in time for the start of the concert at 6, we quickly learned that this is merely a suggestion. Nothing started till 7. Ok. not too ba
d. we got some more food. chatted. unfortunately, we hadn't had any time to sleep so the soft sounds of hte opening bands almost put me to sleep. I tried to stay awake by watching the crazy people around us. The were having a ball smearing corn starch on eachother, dancing, and drinking (beers were only a $1, but most people had rum, which required bribing hte police checking bags - if only we had known. jk). They even tried to get us to join in, but the idea of cornstarch smeared over my face was not a part of Carnaval I was interested in. I had sunburn already from the parade and I knew, for a fact, that it did not come off easily. We talked a bit to some new friends, with a time limit of 11. If he hadn't come by then, we were leaving. Two hours later, practically alseep on our cement benches, Daddy Yankee took the stage at 1AM, a whole 7 hours after the concert was set to begin. We promptly woke up, enjoyed an amazing show of all of his songs, and crawled our way home to bed. Certainly a great success. Totally worth the wait.Sunday = Sadly, Sunday our friends from Cartagena and Isla baru left us to r
eturn home. It was sad seeing them go. So, to drown our sorrows and recover from the day before, Wismine and I decided to adventure to the market. We spent the day poking around stands of arts and crafts and Carnaval specialties. I got a few gifts and a few treats for myself. We even made some new friends, like a man from Peru and a family who gave us bracelets and rum. lol. all you need in life, apparently. Wismine even spoke on the radio. It was absolutely lovely.Monday = We tried out another parade, but this time from the comfort of the shaded bleachers. We had a much better view of the parade and without the intense heat from the sun. While it was only $5 today, on Saturday, these same seats sell for like $100. We defintiely got the best of all worlds. Monday's parade was the Gran Parada de Fantasia, which we experienced with Margarita and K
ati. It had a lot less floats and much more dancing. It was amazing. the dancers were more choreographed than the day before, and their costumes were awesome. I got a lot of good pictures. On our way home (always an adventure during Carnaval) we met some really interesting people. The first was a CNN Asia photojournalist from Hong Kong, who took our pictures and picked our brains about Colombia. Then, after we sent him on his way with Margarita and Kati to a comedy show, we headed home to get some rest. When our street disappeared (as in literally the streets went from 53 to 55, leaving 54 nowhere to be found), we asked for help from a really cool guy who had learned English from his dads books. He was really helpful and sweet. He walked us all the way to the bus stop and even waited until the bug got there. That's defintiely one of my favorite things about Colombia. Everyone is so friendly and helpful. No one seems to be too busy to stop what they are doing and help you with whatever you need. It's so refreshing.Tuesday = This day celebrates the death of Joselito, who, legend tells us, died and left hundreds of pregnant women mourning. So, to celebrate this, women dress up in all black and parade around the town, mourning the death of joselito. Several of these women visited our doorstep with a suitcase carrying a big marimondo costume, signifying joselito. They were crying and moaning and putting on a grand show. It was hilarious. We then, tried to catch the funeral and parade for joselito, which the website said started at 4. This was, apparently, a lie. When we arrived at 3:30, we learned that it had already been going on for an hour and a half and that we had missed the funeral. We did get to see more costumes and dancing. Plus, we made up for the loss with some ice cream, one food of which Colombia has plenty, and I stopped on my way home at Buenavista (the mall) for a Burger King dinner. It was a bit expensive, as American fast food tends to be abroad, but well worth the money.
Wednesday = And thus ended Carnaval. We had off from school on
Wednesday, to recover from Carnaval, so we decided to celebrate Aisha's birthday by treating ourselves to Crepes and Waffles, a lovely restaurant with more food choices than you will ever have a chance to sample. We followed the good food with a little movie-time by seeing Valentine's Day. A little corny, it was a nice dose of home and relaxation. I then did my big grocery shopping trip of the week and called it a day. All in all, a great end to a great weekend.Now if only I could have had as much fun going back to work on Thursday.... alas. A two day week was a nice way to ease ourselves back into teaching. The following full week was defintiely much harder to get through. Still, more to come on normal daily life soon!!!
