accidentally came across this link....

read all the way to the bottom :)

Batalla de Flores y Gran Parada de Tradicion

Weekend of a lifetime....and the people who made it all worth it

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CARNAVAL DE BARRANQUILLA Part 3

A culture, a tradition, a source of pride, a way of life.

Barranquilla's Carnaval is considered to be the largest festival in the country, one of the largest in the world, a mixture of the Afro-Caribbean-Latino culture rolled into one 2-month long celebration.

During Carnaval, the racial and cultural diversity of Barranquilla becomes blurred. People no longer view each other in shades of black and white, but rather in every color of the rainbow.

This is a scene dominated by makeup artists, fashion designers, and beauticians, who are faced with the challenge of designing the most vibrant, elaborate, and all-around over the top costumes, headpieces, hairstyles, and makeup patterns.

Everyone is white and everyone is black, everyone is beautiful, everyone is Barranquillero.

Whether 2 years old or 92 years old, there is no excuse not to be dancing. The spirit of Carnaval means quite simply that there is no excuse to be left out.

Poverty does not matter, nor does crime, nor sadness, nor any other harsh side of reality. Carnaval is meant to be felt, to be lived, to be embraced.

La Reina, the Monocucos, the Marimondas, the Negrita, the Torito, Joselito.
The cumbias, porros, mapalés, gaitas, chandés, puyas, fandangos y fantásticos merecumbés.
The Batalla de Flores, the Gran Parada de Tradicion, the Parada de Fantasia.
The Festival de Cerveza, the Festival de Orchestras.

Each character, each creation, each dance, each comparsa, each parade, each concert, has its place. Each reflects something strictly African, specifically Spanish, exclusively Caribbean, exceptionally COLOMBIAN.

CARNAVAL DE BARRANQUILLA Part 2

The trainee weekend idea was sparked 3 weeks after I arrived in Colombia when I made my first of several trips to Medellín for the Feria de las Flores. More than the parades, the parties, or the Antioquian city that I have since come to know and love, the diversity of our crowd in Medellín made the weekend one-of-a-kind.

Shortly before Christmas, I brought up the idea of hosting our own trainee weekend to Camilo and Lucia. After subsequent trainee weekends in Medellín, Cali, and Manizales over Winter Break during which several people had expressed interest in coming to visit BQuilla, I returned to the coast determined to reunite with everyone one month later.

Per the freak-out nature of a few of my previous entries, the planning of the event was nerve-wracking and exciting all rolled into one. From the early planning stages, it was evident that Mauricio, Loren, and I had a ton of work ahead of us. If we were going to do this, I wanted to go all out. I became frustrated at times with conflicting work styles imbedded with cultural differences more than I have ever come across in my job. Yet somehow through the mixture of communication and miscommunication, reservations and cancellations, emails and text messages, Spanish and English, ins-and-outs of event planning, every detail of the event fell into place at the very last minute, as you always will happen. From the minute that the trainees, LC and MC members started to arrive from around Colombia, I knew that I was in for the best weekend ever.

USA, India, Russia, France, Belgium, Switzerland, the Netherlands, England, Mexico, Bolivia, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Brazil, Israel, Canada, Germany, and Colombia.

I was reunited with some of my closest friends here, people with whom I have shared adventures all over Colombia, who have inspired me and who have been some of the most amazing and passionate people I have met since I arrived last July. I met so many new friends, both @ trainees and other random nomads that had met up with the others along the way. I have each and every one of them to thank for making the experience what it was.

I could not have imagined spending Carnaval with anyone other than you guys .... muchisimas gracias :)

CARNAVAL DE BARRANQUILLA Part 1

As the last few trainees and I watched the concert last night in Barrio Abajo, sporting our sombreros bolteados, sipping on Aguilas, too exhausted to even move our feet, let alone dance, the Barranquilla Carnaval 2007 came to a close. We slowly made our way home, saying goodnight and goodbye to each other and to one of the best experiences many of us have had during the past year in Colombia.

Quien lo vive, es quien lo goza.

Until you live it, you really cannot understand it. Any expectations that I had for Carnaval based on the stories of others, any idea that I had formed about the festival based on the energy that I had experienced during the pre-carnavals, paled in comparison to the real deal. I am still in awe of it all. I have considered Barranquilla for home for quite awhile. I love my lifestyle here, I love the people, and I love how much they love to be Barranquilleros. But until a foreigner has seen the Carnaval for themselves, they have not really seen Barranquilla.

Mi historia de la carnaval va a necesitar muchas blog entries...

a parade through the precarnaval extravaganzas...

...

You take it on faith, take it to the heart...

Curled up in my not-so-comfy office chair, wishing that I had a nice tall latte to power me through the day but settling for a tinto. Arrive to work by 7 am but not planning to have much time for work today. AIESEC has once again taken over my life. frustrated, worried, anxious, excited, confused, nervous, stressed, DETERMINED....I have about every emotion possible running through me right now. My mind has been racing all week. I have to believe that, despite everything that makes me want to think that I am in way over my head, I am going to be able to pull this off. I refuse to give myself any other option. Running on PASSION...Pushing forward....and I'm off....

And that road keeps on calling me...

This is BIG.

26 registered for the TRAINEE WEEKEND starting Friday.

5 more trainees pending travel and work arrangements.

4 AIESEC'ers from Venezuela who want to join us.

12 more hours left for even more people to register.

4 days of CARNAVAL celebrations.

Is it bad that I am looking forward to going to the spa to recuperate after all of this OC work is over more than the actual event itself?

deep breath.

What it is...

DANCED in a parade danced as a MONACUCO, attacked everyone in sight with espuma, left speechless at the surreal feeling of being caught up in the heart of the carnaval. PARTIED in Santo Tomas amidst thousands, showed Gopi the beauty of the chuzo, passed around the 'guardo, attempted to avoid the macaena and water balloons. SMOKED the shisha in the courtyard of my apartment, chilled at the frutera with Arthur, Jean, and Gopi at 4am. SWAM in mud, got stranded in the middle of nowhere. COOKED an American style breakfast, an Indian style dinner. Fell asleep in the hammock watching FRIENDS, surrounded by amazing friends, knowing that the next two weeks are going to continue to be the ride of a lifetime.

10 days and counting....

Pre-Carnavals have been well underway for several weeks. I doubt that anyone in this city has been able to avoid at least one espuma (foam) or macaena (cornstarch) attack. Even more impossible to ignore is the sense of excitement that has been building across the city, from Puerto Colombia down to Soledad. If you are in Colombia right now, Barranquilla is THE place to be.

Planning a Trainee Reception Weekend during the 2nd largest Carnaval in the world has been quite a task thusfar, especially considering the other two OC members keep reminding me that I can't even imagine what I am getting myself into until the official festival is underway in about a week and a half from now.

Loren and Mauricio have been taking care of the in's and out's of scheduling the weekend to correspond to the best parades, events, and parties in town. Coordinating registration and logistics has been perfect for me, since I already know most of the trainees who will be coming and have been convincing them to visit since our last rendez-vous in Medellin/Cali/Manizales. My first visitor(s??) is arriving this afternoon, and more should be on their way soon.

I am definitely high on the excitement of planning another big event once again....it's been awhile. After several failed attempts of people telling us that all reservations had been booked weeks ago, we finally managed to come across a chiva to kick off the trainee weekend. AIESEC'ers don't generally like to hear that things are impossible. Next step, finding places for all of our guests to crash. Flashback to Halloween in Madtown 2005.

This Carnaval buzz is definitely not conducive to lesson planning...

Life gets a little messy...

... Precarnavals rock my world.

The Nomadpad of BQuilla...

My roommate and I have decided that we should open our own hostel. Since the first of the year, there has not been a single night where we have not had at least one visitor (...usually more like 4 or 5) crashing at our place. The extra beds, couches, and hammocks have proven quite usful and I love always having dinner guests. We are *booked* through the end of February, but always have space for one more. Any one else destined for one of the best CARNAVALS in the world this year?

Would you light my candle?

If you believe that there are 12 days of Christmas or 4 days of Carnaval, you are wrong. Perhaps that is harsh, but it’s the truth. Both of those celebrations started two days ago with Las Velitas.

I returned from Bogotá about a week ago and since I have been back, I had heard mentions of Las Velitas everywhere I went. Colombia is traditionally a very religious country, so it made sense that we had off of work on Friday for the Catholic holiday of the Immaculate Conception. Knowing Colombia culture, it also made sense that religious holiday or not, this was just one more chance to rumbiar y disfrutar de la vida. I got butterflies in my stomach as I was walking home from the gym Thursday evening and crossed the courtyard in front of the church next to our apartment complex. From blocks away I had heard the carnaval drums and flutes. As I got closer, I saw the crowds of people already gathered, singing and dancing, watching the performers, energy running through all of them. From the view out our 8th story apartment, Alex, Sarah, and I enjoyed the view of the dozens of dancers, dressed in extravagant, brightly colored costumes, dancing to Shakira…yes, just like the dancers in the music video. Carnaval had started. Later on, salsa, samba, and cumbia versions of Christmas carols began and entertained us as we were getting ready to go out. There may not be snow, but Christmas time is also here.

We partied long into the night, dancing at Rico Melao until we could barely stand, and then dancing some more. It is impossible to sit still for more than a moment without getting caught up in the music. Around 4am, people started to leave the bars and we drove over to Compadres for some greasy (delicious) empanadas. The most traditional aspect of the Las Velitas festival is that after you have partied all night, you light candles at sunrise. In true Barranquilla fashion, just about anything can be bought on the street, so as we drove out of town, we pulled over to a corner and bought a dozen lanterns and several boxes of sparklers from one of the street vendors. Alex and I were starting to get sleepy and dozed off in the car a few times as Ricardo drove us out of Barranquilla. It was almost 5am, but we would make it in time.

Just passed Puerto Colombia, we arrived to our destination: the beach. We drove right up onto the sand and with the sound of the waves crashing behind us, we lined the candles up on the beach, placed the lanterns over them, and lit the sparklers, just as if it were the 4th of July. We danced on the beach to the music streaming from the speakers in the trunk of the car and stood at the edge of the water, in awe of everything around us. The icy cold water splashed my legs, sent shivers up my spine and goosebumps down my skin, but in Barranquilla, we never complain when it’s cold because it is something that happens so rarely. I watched the ocean for what seemed like hours. Colombia is full of mystery that demands no explanation and beauty that is far beyond words.

The sun eventually came up, though it was too foggy to have really seen the sunrise over the mountains. Behind us, and down the beach as far as I could see, were huts with thatched roofs. People started to emerge, simultaneously eating breakfast and raking the sand smooth. A few nodded and said Buenos días to us, the strange combination of two Colombian guys and two gringo girls now kicking around sand, splashing in the water, and laughing as the guys tried in vain to teach us capoeira.

I was home by 8am and spent most of the day asleep in my hammock. With each day that I spend in Colombia, I am more and more convinced that it is possible to laugh more, to love more, to dance more, and to live more here in a day that some people do in an entire lifetime…