CARNIVAL

I have always wanted to go to the Rio carnival; it's a dream of mine. The only problem being though, it is so expensive, just going there for the carnival would probably be the budget of my entire trip! Another time maybe. Not to worry though, because it appears that it's not only Rio that has the Carnival. No! They happen all over south America at this time of year, and guess where the second biggest one is held after Rio? Barranquilla , Colombia! And guess where I am right now? Yes that's right; Colombia, right near Barranquilla! Brilliant! So me and the troops thought it would be rude to miss it, and headed on the bus there, with a few bottles of rum and vodka and Matts giant sombrero, which Travis insisted on Wearing. The bus dropped us at at small parade of children, who all seemed very excited to see a load of Gringo's, to the point of us becoming minor celebrities! Everyone wanted their picture taking with us; especially Travis in the giant sombrero! He even had to get into the spirit of things by having to dance with them all. I filmed this little video of it here. Dance Gringo, dance!

The parade which lasted only an hour and only had children in it was nice but hardly anything to compare to Rio. The second biggest! Hmm! We were all a bit disappointed, especially Matt and Nathan who had not seen any scantily clan women with big breasts, nor had they had the big party atmosphere they wanted to get pissed in! We made our way back to the bus to get to Cartagena. When we got to the station we started talking to a local, telling him how small and short the carnival was.
"What were we talking about" was his reaction. We had not seen the carnival, only the kids parade. He got us a taxi straight away and off we shot. This time it was the real deal. As soon as we got out of the taxi the streets were filled with people, scantily clan girls ( Matt and Nathan were very happy); scantily clan men ( I was very happy); lots of beer (Matt and Nathan were very happy again); and music (everyone was very happy). Bingo! The atmosphere was electric. I can honestly say I have never seen anything like it. There were Samba troops that went on for as far as the eye can see and the parade went on for hours and hours. It was still going when we left. The dancing was amazing. The Latin Americans have rhythm in their blood. God! Us Gringos are no competition to them in the dance floor stakes. I wish I had been born south American and not with two left feet! One of the best days ever. Here are a load of videos I filmed of the day. Sorry I went a bit crazy, but I just couldn't get enough of it. I hope you enjoy them, though they can never capture an event like that through film; you have to be there and I feel very lucky I was.