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The South American Odyssey
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The South American Odyssey

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling

    The hostel party

    9 de febrero de 2018, Colombia ⋅ 🌙 25 °C

    I reached back the hostel at around 11 pm. The young owners had organized a party inside the hostel. They had invited 7 DJs from around Barranquilla and the news had been spread during the day about the party. The back courtyard was packed with people by the time I reached back. A local party at the hostel with all my new friends from the hostel, was something I wasn't going to miss. We partied to the beats of the local latino music till early in the morning.Leer más

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    Via 40 with palcos on both sides
    Via 40 with palcos on both sidesFound a good place to sit2

    Tickets for the Saturday Parade

    10 de febrero de 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 30 °C

    The parade was set to begin at 1 pm along the Via 40 street. I had tried to enquire on the evening before about the time, the cost of the tickets and where to get them. Interestingly, none knew where to buy the tickets. For the time, they suggested going around 11 am to get good places. The owner of my hostel also suggested that instead of the palcos that were quite expensive, we could look for places organized by private people. These, people normally put up plastic chairs just behind the barrier and are much cheaper than the palcos (balconies). Armed with this information, we had agreed to meet at a junction nearby and from there, go on together to Via 40 which was about 700 mts away from there.
    In the morning, Hristo messaged and informed that the person at the reception had mentioned that he could arrange the tickets for the parade for 75, 000 COP per person. That offer did seem tempting considering that the entry for the Crowning of the Carnival Queen had been 100,000 COP per person. But, we had realized than that there was a cheaper (free) entrance as well so, it could also be possible that the parade too had a free/cheap place. We decided not to buy the tickets for him. When we met at the junction, we discussed this again. It was almost 12 pm. All the good places if they were free or cheap would have been taken up by now. We decided to buy the tickets from the guy at the hotel reception. Hristo was to run back, buy the tickets, while Maria and I would continue to Via 40 and then we would sync up after Hristo had the tickets and knew which place to go to. Maria didn't want us to split up and put her foot down firmly thats we'll all be together and go to the Via 40 amd when a woman does that, you've gotta listen 😁😁
    We all went to the Via 40 together. There were barricades everywhere and the police was searching and checking tickets. They had separate ques for men amd women. I was 1st in the que among the 3 of us. They checked my bag and let me in. No one asked for any tickets. Behind me, Hristo was stopped and asked if he had the tickets. He just pointed to me and was let in. Maria too was searched in the women's que and then asked if she had the ticket. She pointed to both of us and was let in 🤔
    Inside the barricade, there were touts selling tickets. Some of them at 60000 COP, some for 40000 COP. We couldn't really figure out why we were let in without the tickets and what tickets these touts were selling. There was an "official looking" ticket counter next to the barricade. We went and had a look. They were selling tickets for 30000 COP and a combo ticket for 2 days (Saturday and Sunday) for 50,000 COP.
    We just ignored all the touts and continued inside towards the Via 50. Just near the main road, we were stopped by a police guy who singled us out from the whole crowd moving in. He asked for our tickets and on telling we don't have any, asked us to go back to the barricades and go over to the other side of the partition barricade. We asked him where we could buy the tickets, for which he told that this area was reserved for the Navy and the entry was with passes only and that we could get the tickets on the other side.
    Something didn't really add up.. The people around us didn't really look like from the navy and what about the tickets being sold near the entry barricades or by the touts. 🤔 In any case, we didn't have an option since the police guy wasn't leaving us, so we walked back towards the entrance. Just before the entrance, we saw an opening in the partition barricade, where we could cross over to the other side. We crossed over and found ourselves in an area with a lot of private tents with plastic chairs selling the places from 30000 COP to 40000 COP per place. We continued walking along from one tent to another, checking out the prices and places. At the end of this private area, the area for the private balconies started. These were raised platform with chairs to sit on. Each palco had its own entrance and tickets. There were touts selling tickets to the various numbered palcos at different prices but most of them were quoting prices from 100,000 to even 300,000. After walking around for another 10 min, we decided that of we could get a front row seat in one of the private tents, it would be a much better deal than paying 100,000 for a slightly raised seat, that too quite behind since the palcos were already filling up fast. So, we negotiated a price of 70,000 COP for the 3 of us and found a place in the second row in one of the private area. There were people sitting on the floor in front of us but we still had an amazing view.    Leer más

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling

    Batalla de Flores

    10 de febrero de 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    It is the first day of Carnival. The celebration starts off firmly with the Battle of Flowers, which is the most important and most expected event. It is a great parade of floats, headed by the Carnival queen and followed by folkloric groups, disguises, cumbia groups and other dancing groups, winners of the last carnival's competitions. The Battle of Flowers is the oldest parade carried out in the Barranquilla Carnival, and was organised for the first time in 1903 following the general Heriberto Arturo Vengoechea's initiative, who was looking for a way to celebrate the end of the 1000 days war. With this event, the carnival resumed as it had been suspended since 1900.

    Initially, the Battle of Flowers was a stroll along the old "Camellón Abello", now Paseo de Bolívar, that opened two groups of people formed by members of rich families on carriages decorated with flowers. The historian and chronicler Alfredo de la Espriella described the first battle of flowers as a game in that two groups of people confronted each other by shooting flowers, plastic party streamers and confetti along a course extending a few miles. This battle finished with a peace gesture when both groups reconciled and went on to celebrate at Emiliano Vengoeachea theatre. Its success was such that the same battle was repeated the next year.

    It has been taking place along the Via 40 avenue since 1991, after having taken place along Olaya Herrera avenue, the 43 road and el paseo de Bolívar avenue. The floats now are equipped with loudspeakers and boarded by international and national singers who invites the spectators to celebrate and dance. Although the spectators are now accommodated in palcos (boxes), from where they watch the spectacle, they used to watch it on foot.    Leer más

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    22

    Floats

    10 de febrero de 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    The parade started at around 1 pm, the first of the participants came just about 20 - 30 late but that was quite acceptable considering the Latin American standards. 😉
    From our place right next to the road, we had a good feel of the show but the barriers and the police guys standing on the outside of the barricade were constantly in our line of sight.

    Some of the beautiful floats in the Saturday Parade.    Leer más

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    King Momo 20183

    King Momo's float

    10 de febrero de 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    King Momo is known as the son of the dream and of the night and presided over parties of the insane, which are celebrated in pueblos and cities. Momo became known as the “protector” of all those who indulged in merrymaking and the scandal of vice and excess.Leer más

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    Having fun
    Having funOur packed tentPacked up within a few secondsLebanese Meze2Counting the cash. It was just about enough 😁

    Dinner at Parrillia Lebanese

    10 de febrero de 2018, Colombia ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    It was a fantastic day... We really enjoyed ourselves. Our tent had been packed during the parade. The people were throwing foam and white flour at each other. It was full fun and party. But, as soon as the parade ended, the locals running these sitting places started stacking up the chairs and within a few seconds everything was ready to be locked for the day.
    From the parade, we went to a Lebanese restaurant we had seen in the last few days but had not gone in yet. We had our dinner at Parrillia Lebanese and the vegetarian fare for the day was a meze plate with a nice mix of chickpeas, mashed brinjal paste, falafel etc. The food was good but we ran into trouble towards the end of the meal when the bill came. It had been a grand meal and we had topped 100,000 COP. Hristo realized that he might not have enough money for the food. After emptying out all the pockets, we still ran a few tens of thousands less. Luckily, I was carrying some money and we managed to just reach the bill amount with nothing left for a tip 😈    Leer más

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    Street vendors
    Street vendorsFantastic places in front of the palcoLive band in our palcoWith the carnival caps and whistlesReady for the paradeSnipers on the opposite building

    The Sunday Parade

    11 de febrero de 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 31 °C

    Richer from the experience of the day before, we had a clear plan in mind for the day. We started off earlier around 11 am as planned. This day we decided to go further up on Via 40, directly where the palcos were. There were vendors selling caps, foams etc on the street side. We entered the public area and started going from one palco to another exposing ourselves to various touts so we could pitch them against each other. We had also planned our location well. We wanted to be nearer the start of the parade since the day before when we were in the middle of the Via 40,we had realized that a lot of groups would get tired dancing in the searing sun by the time they reached our seats. But, we didn't want to be right at the start since most groups would have be trying to get organized in their dances etc.
    Keeping that in mind, we marked 3-4 palcos where we would try and get our tickets and this day we decided to get into the palcos since they afforded a better view of the parade.
    Keeping all these factors in mind, we managed to pitch a few touts against each other and negotiate the price down from 60000 COP to 25000 COP per person in one of the palcos right in the front row at a nice elevated position above the Via 40 road. Our palco even had a live band that kept is entertained till the parade started. They even gave us free coffee, caps, bags and some snacks being sponsored by a local pub. We were extremely happy with the deal and our place and the live band was quite useful since the parade started at 2:30 pm about 1.5 hours later than scheduled 😎    Leer más

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    Police bikes
    Police bikesA Marimonda police vehiclePolicemen on stiltsNavy cavalry divisionModels of cranes

    Gran parada de Tradición y Folclore

    11 de febrero de 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 32 °C

    Gran parada de Tradición y Folclore (Great Parade of Tradition and Folklore) is carried out on the second day of Carnival and was introduced in 1967.
    This is another lengthy parade commonly called the “Great Parade” that includes traditional folkloric groups, cumbia groups and dancing groups with no floats. Each year well over 300 dancing groups participate in this parade. This parade shows the dance and the music in their more traditional essence, since there are not floats neither high loud speakers presents in it. The music also therefore shows its most conservative facet, being cumbias, chandés - associated with the Garabato dancing group- and fandangos -associated with the Marimondas dancing group-, the musical genres most heard.

    The parade finally started at 2:30 pm with the local police, smartly dressed and riding in on their motorbikes. Even the police jeep was decorated as a Marimonda. We certainly had a much better location this day so I managed to get some very nice clean shots of the parade.    Leer más

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling

    Dancing late into the evening

    11 de febrero de 2018, Colombia ⋅ 🌙 27 °C

    The parade had started 1.5 hours late so it continued way beyond the normal ending time of 5 pm. The last of the groups were coming all the way till 6:30 pm. In fact, the organisers started pushing them to run and finish the parade quickly. The upside though was the beautiful lights of the lit candles in the Cumbia dances. It looked stunningly beautiful as it started getting dark.Leer más

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    Restaurant and street shops hosting street dance party
    Restaurant and street shops hosting street dance partyFalafel rollsBaklava sweetDJs spinning some Latino dance numbers at my hostel

    Verbenas and Donkey Rooms

    11 de febrero de 2018, Colombia ⋅ 🌙 26 °C

    From the parade, we went towards the town. There were parties going on everywhere.

    Verbanas are open, free-access spaces, where people can dance, eat and enjoy themselves with different activities. Verbenas are presumed to have appeared as early as the beginnings of the 20th century when surprise-visiting a residence by friends was a common activity. These surprise-visits should be assumed completely and without any hesitation by the owner of the residence as a rendezvous point for making a party. These carnival dancing encounters were commonplace in the middle-upper and upper class and were a spread activity until the official appearance of dancing rooms hosted by nightclubes and hotels.
    Donkey Rooms are semi-open, free access rooms where people met to dance and enjoy themselves. That particular, curious name came from the fact people used to leave their donkeys tied to a post outside the room just before entering.

    We had our dinner at Terraza Arabe, an Arabic restaurant. The vegetarian fare for the evening was a falafel roll and some sweet baklava.
    After that, we all went back to our respective hostels. The day didn't end there. Back at my hostel, a party was going on again 😁😁 I joined the gang at the hostel and we continued dancing till early in the morning.    Leer más

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  • The Craze for TravellingThe South American OdysseyThe Craze for Travelling
    Houses decorated for the carnival
    Houses decorated for the carnivalThrowing blades at each other

    Gran parada de Comparsas

    12 de febrero de 2018, Colombia ⋅ ☀️ 29 °C

    Gran parada de Comparsas (Great Parade of Groups). This parade is typically a more stylish and international version of the Great Parade. This has also been known as the “Great Fantasy Parade”.

    On this parade, floats and dancing groups featuring a mixture of traditional folkloric elements with special renewing additions are seen parading. Due to their number of participants, their played music, their displayed color and aesthetic on their disguises, their designs, adornments and accessory, the fantasy dancing groups have been becoming a popular phenomena, specially among young generations, which has influenced the development of this parade with many more new dancing groups participating in it over time.

    It therefore shows innovating choreographic mixtures fluctuating from the most traditional, through the local, to the international by blending international rhythms, such as samba, salsa, reggaeton, champeta and electronic music with other local ones such as cumbia, porro, mapalé and merecumbé. This event attracts renewing proposals searching for an space in the carnival. The success of a fantasy dancing group could have a renewing meaning to the carnival itself, enriching it and helping in its development. Over time, this parade has become one of the most attended events of the carnival.

    Now, with an experience of 2 days already, we knew how to go about the whole process of getting the tickets and where to sit. Having already known that this day's parade was not as big as the other 2 we had seen before we decided to set a lower budget for the day's tickets. Also, it was the last day for the touts to make whatever possible for the tickets they have already purchased. They would have made their profits on day 1 and 2, so we guessed this would be more of a recover as much as possible for whatever possible, day for them. Keeping all that in mind, we set a budget of 10000 COP per person for the palcos and after haggling and negotiating for 10-15 min with 3-4 touts at the same time, we managed to get into one of the palco we wanted at that price 😊 We again managed to get a place in the front row. But, this day again, the parade started 1.5 hours late.    Leer más

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