The South American Odyssey

Near Barro Abajo, we came across a local mercado after almost 2 months. Same as in Bolivia or in Peru, this place had small kiosks selling a limited menu, very cheap prices and with plastic chairs and tables set in front of the kiosks where locals could sit and eat. We had our lunch here. A few meters away, we found a multi-storey market selling phones and phone spares. There were SIM and recharge cards sellers as well. Since we were planning to stay for another 15 days in Colombia, we decided to buy 2 SIM cards between us. This would also enable us to keep in touch and sync up since we were staying in different places. That took us best part of 2 hours. By the time we finished, it was getting quite late and the crowning of the Carnival Queen was supposed to begin with at 8 pm. We were quite far from the place where the crowning program was. We also weren't sure what exactly the program was. We hurried back towards Bella Vista and then on towards Via 40 near where the program was supposed to be held in the Naval School. The info for the carnival events amd venues was very sketchy. Their official website had no mention of the entry fee, any map of the location or even any details of what the event was about. The only 2 lines it had, said its the coronation of the Carnival Queen in the Naval School on Via 40. Now, Via 40 is a 5 km long stretch of road and there was no Naval school marked on either Google maps or Maps.me. We walked towards Via 40 and entered the road right in the middle of the stretch. Luckily, the program was happening nearby. We could see some lights and music between the thick cover of trees in this area. We started walking in the direction where everyone was going. Here, we encountered many touts selling tickets. Looking around we saw some of the people carrying tickets in their hands. We had no clue about the ticket price or if there actually was a ticket. We had presumed that the entrance would be free as this was not part of the main carnival parades etc. There were no kiosks or shops selling tickets anywhere.
We walked on and reached the entrance. Here, there were security people checking the tickets. We asked them where we could buy the tickets. They confirmed that tickets were needed for the entrance but had no clue how much they cost or where to buy them. We checked with a few people going in and realized that they had paid 100,000 COP each. Now, we had 2 issues, first we weren't carrying that much cash since we were expecting to be in a crowded place, so we had carried a little amount of money only. Secondly, we didn't know if the event would be worth paying that much amount for. We had the option of going to our hostels nearby to get the cash but, would it be worth it? Was 100,000 the correct price? Will we be able to make it back in time? Should we spend so much on one of the side events or save the money for the main events? We had moved back from the entrance and were contemplating these questions, during which we were constantly being interrupted by the touts selling tickets. We decided to check with one of them. We asked the price, which was given as 100,000 per ticket. We told him we didn't have that much amount. He asked how much we had and we told we had about 100,000 among the 3 of us. All this while, Maria was not having a good feeling about this and kept asking us to move away, while the 2 of us wanted to get more information from the guy before making a call. In any case, we didn't have anything to lose besides a total of 100,000 COP among the 3 of us and if it worked, we could be inside pretty cheap. The guy promised to get us in for a total of 100,000 COP. We told him we'll give the money only when we were in. He agreed.
He started walking in a totally different direction away from the venue. We got suspicious and asked where he was going. He told us that from the entrance, people inside were going to the other side from below the road through a tunnel and showed us the place where the lights and sounds were coming from the other side of the road. He told us that there was another way from above the road only, via another entrance. We followed him and soon enough we came to another entrance where there were queues to enter. Here he entered after the security check and we followed him. No one asked for any tickets or anything. We were still not sure if we were going to the same place. A bit further, we came across another security check. By now, we could see that we were going to the same venue but by a different entrance. He told us to pay and continue inside. We refused, we told him to leave us all the way inside as we were not sure if there would be another check where they might ask us for the tickets. After a while he agreed but instead of going in himself, he sent a lady colleague (tout) with us with the instructions to get the money from us when we were satisfied and totally inside. We followed her in and after a few tens of meters we were in and among the crowds. By now, we realized we had been fooled in some ways. This was a free entrance to the same venue but towards the back of all the crowds. We've been had!! 🤣🤣 The tout asked for the money and we gave the 100,000 we had promised to her. After that we went in and had a good laugh about it. They had promised to get the 3 of us in and no more, and they had come good on their promise. While we had paid them whatever we had promised them. In some ways, we paid 1/3 the price for the information we didn't have, that of the free entrance 😉
For once, we didn't feel bad about having been made a fool of. Both the sides kept their words and we managed to get in without paying the high sum of 100,000 COP per person.
The program was a very colorful one we had a clear but distant vew of the stage. There were huge screens also where we could see the details of the dances etc.Read more