Well, guess what! I decided not to go to Carnival in Rio de Janeiro or New Orleans Mardi Gras again this year after all. Instead, here I am in Colombia’s fourth largest city, Barranquilla (“ba-ron-KEE-ya”; locals dub it Quilla), on the Caribbean coast a 2 1/2-hour Avianca flight from Miami. Next-door Cartagena is much better known thanks to its UNESCO World Heritage Old Town. But Barranquilla sports a nifty vibe of its own, plus a pretty cool claim to fame: the world’s second-largest carnival after Rio — and one that like others in Recife, Salvador in Bahia, and elsewhere in Brazil is considered more real, down-to-earth, and less glitzy than the Sambadrome mega-extravaganza (in ’03 Barranquilla’s got UNESCO’s nod as a World Heritage treasure). This in a country which officially recognizes inheritance rights and health care benefits for same-sex couples, and came very close to going all the way in 2007. Coming down here to Barranquilla is safe — safer, some might say, than Rio — and lemme tell you, it’s a blast (er, maybe I should rephrase that…). Anyway, the city itself is par for the course for Latin America — about a million and a half people, good nightlife and dining (love Nancy Cabrera’s Latin-Caribbean fusion at Naia), a few OK sights and museums — but you really wouldn’t go out of your way except for this big fiesta, which this year brought more than a half-million people out to watch floats; people in funny (and not sometimes pretty skimpy) costumes; firebreathers; dancers; and bands marching and otherwise. (Check out this video of the 2006 Carnival.) About an hour’s drive away, though, the spectacular colonial Old Town of Cartagena is very definitely worth a trip in its own right, so combine the two and you’re golden.

Anyway, quite an anything-goes party, this — several days of parades; boozing on the streets and in bars day and night; people dousing each other with white corn flour and cans of foam. Yesterday I spotted a cab trailing a pair of jeans, attached to which was a pair of stockings stuffed to look like a huge cock and balls. The small but pretty thriving gay scene swings into action, too. My 22-year-old friend Jorge told me, “It’s the one time of year when it’s absolutely no big deal to hold hands or kiss a guy in public, and you can even hit on straight boys and they can’t say anything.” A gay group marched with a rainbow flag and practically barebreasted transsexuals in Saturday’s Batalla de Flores (“Battle of Flowers” parade), and the local bars and clubs have gotten in on the act with gusto. There are a handful of spots, but the top ones are Studio 54 (Carrera 54, No. 72-154, tel. 348.9266), and Sky Bar (Calle 74 entre Carrera 52 y Carrera 53, tel. 300.483.5740). Both have good music and similar-size white interiors; Studio’s back terrace is roomier and more attractive, while my local friends tell me the crowd at Sky tends to be a bit butcher. There’s supposedly a fairly new dyke place, too, called La Farándula (Calle 68, No. 45-25, tel. 316.273.4754), and for guys who want to get right to the point, the tiny Casablanca Club Spa (Carrera 46, No. 74-101, tel. 312.680.0537) is the only game in town. As the name implies, it’s in a white house, but there’s not much to it besides a couple of rooms with cots, a dark room, a video room, and a steam sauna. During Carnival time, it’s been practically deserted.

For more info on Barranquilla, log onto Visit Colombia.com and GuiaGayColombia.com. But that’s it from me for now. Gotta rest up for one last night of partying…

yours truly,

Dave

This entry was posted on 02.4.2008 at 4:26 pm by Dave and is filed under BabelBlog. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.