The past few days I have been up on the Caribbean coast in Cartegena. I was pleasently suprised to learn on my arrival that wednesday was the start of Carnival cartegena, a five day party building upto the crowning of Miss Colombia. There was a great energy in the air of this old Spanish colonial city as the reverly was building. Wednesdays festivities started with a parade of dancing groups, similar to what you would see in Rio for their carnival. Here in Cartegena they like to celebarte by cwowding the streets, drinking and spariying each other with foam and throwing colored powder on anyone within reach, especially a foreigners. It was great to finally arrive in a place where the party was just beginning. it seems over the past months I usually arrived a day or 2 after the party ended. Except for Holi in India, which is similar, with the powder throwing and heavy drinking.
The parade on day 1 was big, but the day 2 was twice the size, with floats of all the enhanced women vying for the prize of Miss Colombia. day 2 was fun, but a little scary, with mobs of teenagers running arouns with foam and powder attacking everyone. I actually thought it would have been nice to have a money belt to protect my camera. I have heard many stories of tourists geting robbed by groups. Their tactic is to spray you in the face with foam, so while you´re protecting yourself, they´ll stick their hands in your pockets and take anything they can get. After a few minutes in the chaos, I decided to retire to the top of the wall surrounding the city and take in the parade from safer distance.
After 2 days of partying I met up with my friends from salento and Medillin, Kevin, Simon, Chris and Regina and we headed out to a place called Playa Blanca, famous for its white sand beaches and clear water. It was fantastic. We slept in hammocks, relaxed, wandered the beach and just chilled out for 3 days. One bummer was I forgot to charge my camera and there´s no electricy on Playa Blanca , so didn´t get may pictures. saturday on Playa Blanca was amazing compared to Sunday. On saturday there are no tours, or atleast there weren´t any this week, as it is a holiday, so we had the whole place to ourselve more or less. When we walked down the beach to catch our boat back to Cartegena on Sunday, there must have been a thousdand people swimming and lounging. it looked more like a beach in Rio or Waikiki.
They were still partying in Cartegena when we returned, just as before, with a people covered in blue and white powder, and most people carrying bottle of rum. All of us weren´t as excited for the reverly as we were the first couple days.
I am now headed up for Tayrona National Park for some more beautifl coastal scenery and camping before I start my return journey back through Colombia.
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