My Journey: Barranquilla, Colombia

The next destination was Barranquilla, Colombia, which is located north of Medellin near the Caribbean Sea. It is Colombia’s fourth most populous city after Bogota, Medellin and Cali. Barranquilla is an industrial port city that strategically lies next to the Magdalena River. The people here speak a variant of Coastal Spanish which for me, can be difficult to understand at times.

Magdalena River

The airport is significantly smaller than Medellin’s airport. Since I was traveling in the same country, the process was faster at the airport. I obtained my luggage and went right out the door to meet my family. As soon as I exit, the hot gust of wind hit my face. It felt like Miami’s heat. I was told it would be hot but I definitely was not expecting this. I started sweating immediately and I could not wait to get out of my black jeans. Most of the cars had their windows up with the air conditioning on. The land is flat in Barranquilla so I missed the beautiful mountainous view in Medellin. The roads vary from cement to dirt roads to cement with potholes. The drivers are worse than the ones in Medellin in part because of the unstable roads.

After we left the airport, we stopped by a small market to purchase fish. There were small huts with all types of fish ready for purchase and after much searching we finally bought Bocachico. The fish is cooked whole and usually accompanied with coconut rice, plantain and yucca. It was delicious! I have not weighed myself and do not plan to but I am sure I have gained a couple pounds with all this delicious food. I always want to try something new followed by a refreshing natural fruit juice like mango, lulo, sweet tomato, maracuya, papaya, zapote, and nispero. The natural juices are my favorite because they go great with this hot climate.

Bocachico.

These are called "bollos". They are made with corn mass and wrapped up in corn leaves. The yellow ones are corn and the white ones are cheese.
The brown balls are "butifarra" a type of sausage made of raw pork and spices, you add lime and they are delicious. They go well with bollo.

These are Lulo. Just by adding water and sugar and blending it well, you make an amazing citrus fruit juice. It is my favorite.

Fruit juices in convenient little baggies.

You can even find freshly squeezed lemonade in the streets.

You can find fruits anywhere!

Most of the homes have air conditioning in the rooms. Since they consume a lot of energy, they are only turned on at night to go to sleep. I am the lucky bird that did not have one in the room I was sleeping in. I just used a fan at full speed with a very thin blanket wearing a thin tank top with shorts and I still managed to wake up at night of heat exhaustion. Unlike Medellin, the windows should be closed at night because bats are abundant here. They will see a dark cozy home and fly right in. I definitely do not want a bat as a roommate; I will stick to my little three-speed oscillating fan.

I did not get to experience El Carnival de Barranquilla (Barranquilla’s Carnival) because it is during the Holy week, the last week of lent and the final week before Easter but it is Colombia’s most important folklore celebration. It is four days full of festivities starting on the Saturday before Ash Wednesday and everyone partakes in the street dances, musical and masquerade parades. The Carnival is the last opportunity for the predominately Catholic population to indulge before lent. The typical characters known to be in the parades are:

La Marimonda, which are the most popular costume because it is the only one that originated in Barranquilla, the rest are of African or European descent.

This was at a wedding. It is a custom to have "una hora loca" (a crazy hour) where carnival music is played for an hour and people dressed in carnival costumes come out and hand out masks. It is a lot of fun!