I went to this year's Carnaval in Barranquilla which took place from from February 18th until the 21st, here's the low down on my experience there:
I wasn't too sure if I was going to go or not, so it was a bit of a last minute decision to go there and as usual, I didn't have any concrete plans or logistics set up. I PM'd Hencredible Casanova to ask about the city since he's been there before, after he recommended it to me (thanks again HC) I booked my flight and arrived there two days before and checked into a decent hotel (King George Suites on Calle 94 51B-88) 80K/night.
I was there alone but met up that night with two other RooshV forum members, rasta87 and 20nation, best thing I could have done because us three guys ended up partying together the entire time, hopefully they'll chime in on this data sheet too.
LOGISTICS: Getting to BAQ was no problem, I flew Avianca from Cali and it cost 250K ($140USD), the taxi from the airport (in the far south) to my hotel (far north) was 25K. One thing about taxis in BAQ, they don't use meters like they do in Bogota and from our experience, they WILL try to rip a foreigner off.
Hotels, if you don't prebook, try to get there a couple of days early to find one, they do fill up and prices go way up. I had to leave my hotel in the north after two days because they were full, luckily I found one in the city centre, Hotel Marseille (Calle 44 Carrera 43), it was basic (no WI-Fi but had AC and hot water) and cheap at 30K/night, except for Saturday and Sunday when in cost me $110K. This wasn't an ideal area to stay (shitty part of town, run down and a bit dodgy at night), I looked at another one in the north (a block from Buenavista mall), it seemed nice so I went in to ask the, a single room cost 1.7 million pesos ($950 USD) per night!
The Carnaval: I've never been to a big carnaval party like this where most of the city is shut down for 5 days straight and everyone is partying and in a festive spirit, so I have nothing to compare it to. All I can say is that BAQ was live the whole time, there were plenty of party options.
There were big events and concerts in the stadium on calle 76, including fiesta de Cerveza, Marc Anthony concert, crowning of the Carnaval Queen etc. We didn't end up going in because the lines were so long, the one time we did try to get tickets, it was a gong show, people were all pushing and shoving and the cops were busting pick pockets all over the place, we waited for about a half an hour before deciding to say screw it, we'll party somewhere else. If you want to see a show in the stadium, I'd recommend getting there early, but once you're inside, you can't leave and some of the tickets are for sitting only.
Outside of the big events inside the stadium, there were plenty of other party options. We went to parades 3 days in a row, they were spectacular, the floats were amazing and of course, plenty of hot women in the parades from all over Colombia. Basically we'd post up in a spot along the parade route and drink copious amounts of beer and aguardiente and spray ourselves and random people with the canisters of foam the were selling. We'd do this from around noon til about 4 or 5pm then go back to the hotel to wash up and rest a bit before heading out in the night.
We didn't hit up any of the big night clubs (we almost went into one but the cover was 50K, a bit much), I don't even know if BAQ has any big clubs, but we found this cool area of bars and small food shops on calle 84 in the north. The club we partied at is called "Barcelona Shots", it has tables inside and out and a small dance floor, it was packed the two nights we went there, there's also 4 other bars beside it, one is called "The Hang Over", the other one only sold Aguila beer (the bar was painted all yellow and blue, just like the beer) that place had karaoke and was packed too.
Another awesome venue we hit up was this Club Colombia outdoor beer tent, when we arrived, we were surprised to find that the cover charge was 12K (for a beer tent?) but then we found out that the price included a bucket of 6 beers each! There was a band playing and probably about 300-400 people there, it was right across the street from the stadium.
Then there were lots of random street parties, we ended up meeting up with some local girls (more on them later) who took us around to a bunch of different events, live music and just people hanging out in the streets. I don't remember the exact locations but basically during Carnaval, you can't walk 2 blocks in any direction without bumping into some sort of party, big or small. There's also tonnes of people walking around with coolers selling Aguilas for 2k and lots of street meat being sold too. We also saw a few of the chiva party buses rolling around BAQ too, all packed with crazy partiers, one of them sprayed me in the face with foam while hanging out the window, into the open window of my taxi!
So basically for 4 days straight, that's how it went, sleep til about 9 or 10am, get up and grab some breakfast, hang out for a bit then hit up some carnaval event and drink our faces off all afternoon, chill a bit in the early evening then go out and continue the heavy boozing at various, somewhat random places around the stadium and in the north.
There were quite a few foreign tourists at some of the places we partied at (Club Colombia beer tent) then at others, it seemed like we were the only foreigners there. There were lots of party options and I"m sure if we planned things better, we could have gone to even bigger and better parties, but overall I think our Roosh team did well and we all had a fun time.
We hung out with local girls every night who showed us around, one I pipelined off the internet before I arrived, one I approached at Barcelona Shots (who came out the next night with her cute 19 year old sister) and one who hit on Rasta87 at a clothing store she worked at (I ended up hooking up with her friend who came out to the parade with us).
More about BAQ and the girls:
This is one thing that Rasta87 and I definitely DON"T agree on, I personally think BAQ is an ugly, hot, flat, run-down industrial dump with a couple of decent neighbourhoods, I wouldn't want to live there and I'd only go there for the carnaval. I also think that the Costenas I saw there were the least attractive that I've seen so far in all of my travels in Colombia, not very diverse in their looks (morena colour), not very pretty in the face and the asses have nothing on what I saw in Cali. Sure they are nice and definitely approachable, but I find almost all girls in Colombia to be nice and approachable. Also, with my mediocre Spanish skills (they've actually come along quite a bit in the past two months), I had a very HARD time understanding the local, they speak fast and with a difficult accent, Rasta87, with his impeccable Spanish skills (seriously, people mistake him for native Spanish speaker sometimes) had no problems with the local lingo.
Different strokes for different folks I guess, because Rasta87 LOVES BAQ!!! He's in Bogota now and so am I, we hung out all day yesterday and were walking around Chapinero and hanging out in Candelaria, I'd see a fly Rola girl and say "come on man, look at that chick, you can't say she ain't hot bud" and of course his reply "fuck that mate, she's got that ugly Bogota nose man, I can't stand that, I'll take a dark little Costena over one of those anyday". This guy loves BAQ so much, once he's done his business in Bogota (only reason he's here I think, he doesn't like Bogota, I love it!), I'm pretty sure he's going back to BAQ!
Anyway, thats about it guys, Carnaval 2012 was a blast, met some cool guys from the forum (that's 4 guys now so far, all awesome) and did some serious partying. I'm not too sure how well it stacks up against others like Rio, or if I'd travel from far away just to go to it, but for sure if you're close to BAQ next year during Carnaval time, come check it out!
QUIEN LO VIVE ES QUIEN LO GOZA!!!!
I wasn't too sure if I was going to go or not, so it was a bit of a last minute decision to go there and as usual, I didn't have any concrete plans or logistics set up. I PM'd Hencredible Casanova to ask about the city since he's been there before, after he recommended it to me (thanks again HC) I booked my flight and arrived there two days before and checked into a decent hotel (King George Suites on Calle 94 51B-88) 80K/night.
I was there alone but met up that night with two other RooshV forum members, rasta87 and 20nation, best thing I could have done because us three guys ended up partying together the entire time, hopefully they'll chime in on this data sheet too.
LOGISTICS: Getting to BAQ was no problem, I flew Avianca from Cali and it cost 250K ($140USD), the taxi from the airport (in the far south) to my hotel (far north) was 25K. One thing about taxis in BAQ, they don't use meters like they do in Bogota and from our experience, they WILL try to rip a foreigner off.
Hotels, if you don't prebook, try to get there a couple of days early to find one, they do fill up and prices go way up. I had to leave my hotel in the north after two days because they were full, luckily I found one in the city centre, Hotel Marseille (Calle 44 Carrera 43), it was basic (no WI-Fi but had AC and hot water) and cheap at 30K/night, except for Saturday and Sunday when in cost me $110K. This wasn't an ideal area to stay (shitty part of town, run down and a bit dodgy at night), I looked at another one in the north (a block from Buenavista mall), it seemed nice so I went in to ask the, a single room cost 1.7 million pesos ($950 USD) per night!
The Carnaval: I've never been to a big carnaval party like this where most of the city is shut down for 5 days straight and everyone is partying and in a festive spirit, so I have nothing to compare it to. All I can say is that BAQ was live the whole time, there were plenty of party options.
There were big events and concerts in the stadium on calle 76, including fiesta de Cerveza, Marc Anthony concert, crowning of the Carnaval Queen etc. We didn't end up going in because the lines were so long, the one time we did try to get tickets, it was a gong show, people were all pushing and shoving and the cops were busting pick pockets all over the place, we waited for about a half an hour before deciding to say screw it, we'll party somewhere else. If you want to see a show in the stadium, I'd recommend getting there early, but once you're inside, you can't leave and some of the tickets are for sitting only.
Outside of the big events inside the stadium, there were plenty of other party options. We went to parades 3 days in a row, they were spectacular, the floats were amazing and of course, plenty of hot women in the parades from all over Colombia. Basically we'd post up in a spot along the parade route and drink copious amounts of beer and aguardiente and spray ourselves and random people with the canisters of foam the were selling. We'd do this from around noon til about 4 or 5pm then go back to the hotel to wash up and rest a bit before heading out in the night.
We didn't hit up any of the big night clubs (we almost went into one but the cover was 50K, a bit much), I don't even know if BAQ has any big clubs, but we found this cool area of bars and small food shops on calle 84 in the north. The club we partied at is called "Barcelona Shots", it has tables inside and out and a small dance floor, it was packed the two nights we went there, there's also 4 other bars beside it, one is called "The Hang Over", the other one only sold Aguila beer (the bar was painted all yellow and blue, just like the beer) that place had karaoke and was packed too.
Another awesome venue we hit up was this Club Colombia outdoor beer tent, when we arrived, we were surprised to find that the cover charge was 12K (for a beer tent?) but then we found out that the price included a bucket of 6 beers each! There was a band playing and probably about 300-400 people there, it was right across the street from the stadium.
Then there were lots of random street parties, we ended up meeting up with some local girls (more on them later) who took us around to a bunch of different events, live music and just people hanging out in the streets. I don't remember the exact locations but basically during Carnaval, you can't walk 2 blocks in any direction without bumping into some sort of party, big or small. There's also tonnes of people walking around with coolers selling Aguilas for 2k and lots of street meat being sold too. We also saw a few of the chiva party buses rolling around BAQ too, all packed with crazy partiers, one of them sprayed me in the face with foam while hanging out the window, into the open window of my taxi!
So basically for 4 days straight, that's how it went, sleep til about 9 or 10am, get up and grab some breakfast, hang out for a bit then hit up some carnaval event and drink our faces off all afternoon, chill a bit in the early evening then go out and continue the heavy boozing at various, somewhat random places around the stadium and in the north.
There were quite a few foreign tourists at some of the places we partied at (Club Colombia beer tent) then at others, it seemed like we were the only foreigners there. There were lots of party options and I"m sure if we planned things better, we could have gone to even bigger and better parties, but overall I think our Roosh team did well and we all had a fun time.
We hung out with local girls every night who showed us around, one I pipelined off the internet before I arrived, one I approached at Barcelona Shots (who came out the next night with her cute 19 year old sister) and one who hit on Rasta87 at a clothing store she worked at (I ended up hooking up with her friend who came out to the parade with us).
More about BAQ and the girls:
This is one thing that Rasta87 and I definitely DON"T agree on, I personally think BAQ is an ugly, hot, flat, run-down industrial dump with a couple of decent neighbourhoods, I wouldn't want to live there and I'd only go there for the carnaval. I also think that the Costenas I saw there were the least attractive that I've seen so far in all of my travels in Colombia, not very diverse in their looks (morena colour), not very pretty in the face and the asses have nothing on what I saw in Cali. Sure they are nice and definitely approachable, but I find almost all girls in Colombia to be nice and approachable. Also, with my mediocre Spanish skills (they've actually come along quite a bit in the past two months), I had a very HARD time understanding the local, they speak fast and with a difficult accent, Rasta87, with his impeccable Spanish skills (seriously, people mistake him for native Spanish speaker sometimes) had no problems with the local lingo.
Different strokes for different folks I guess, because Rasta87 LOVES BAQ!!! He's in Bogota now and so am I, we hung out all day yesterday and were walking around Chapinero and hanging out in Candelaria, I'd see a fly Rola girl and say "come on man, look at that chick, you can't say she ain't hot bud" and of course his reply "fuck that mate, she's got that ugly Bogota nose man, I can't stand that, I'll take a dark little Costena over one of those anyday". This guy loves BAQ so much, once he's done his business in Bogota (only reason he's here I think, he doesn't like Bogota, I love it!), I'm pretty sure he's going back to BAQ!
Anyway, thats about it guys, Carnaval 2012 was a blast, met some cool guys from the forum (that's 4 guys now so far, all awesome) and did some serious partying. I'm not too sure how well it stacks up against others like Rio, or if I'd travel from far away just to go to it, but for sure if you're close to BAQ next year during Carnaval time, come check it out!
QUIEN LO VIVE ES QUIEN LO GOZA!!!!
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