In some ways, Carnaval is all about dressing up in outlandish ways — either to hide our true selves in order to temporarily be someone we’re not (and perhaps give ourselves permission to indulge in ways that we normally wouldn’t), to allow a usually buried part of our personality to take the stage, or to simply revel in the joie de vivre of life’s excesses, good and bad. And yet, even with all the feathers, the makeup, the glitter, what shines through most is our humanness, our oneness, our inherent beauty. So without further ado (at this point, I recommend cueing up “Human” by the Killers as your viewing soundtrack), I present you with a few of the faces, a few of the people — a few of all of us — who made Barranquilla’s 200th Carnaval an experience to remember. Continue reading
Tag Archives: travel
Prepare Yourself… This is Big
Something big is coming to Barranquilla. Very big. Bigger than Christmas. Bigger than New Year’s. Bigger than Mardi Gras in New Orleans. Bigger than the World Cup – oh wait, not as big as that. No one can compete with fútbol. But big. Very big.
It’s Carnaval – the traditional celebration that comes at the end of the church season of Epiphany and just before the belt-tightening of Lent. Continue reading
Posted in Arts & Culture, Photography, Travel & Tourism
Tagged adventure, barranquilla, caribbean, carnaval, carnival, Colombia, expat, futbol, Latin America, mardi gras, rio, travel
Fútbol, not Football
As the United States gears up for Super Bowl Sunday, I thought it would be a good time to provide a little taste of Colombia’s sport of choice – fútbol. We’re talking “fútbol,” the game with the round ball that you kick with your feet, as opposed to American “football,” the one with the pointy pigskin thing (is it really even a ball?) that you mostly touch with your hands, despite the name of the game (honestly, I have been confused by that ever since I was a kid).
Colombia is crazy for fútbol, and perhaps nowhere more so than Barranquilla. Continue reading
Posted in Sports & Leisure
Tagged adventure, andres escobar, barranquilla, Colombia, expat, football, futbol, soccer, south america, travel, world cup
Santa Marta and Parque Tayrona – Destinations in Transition
Waiting for the boat that will take us to Playa Cristal
This past October, Gio, Marcello, and I took our first official family vacation. (Trust me when I tell you that moving to another country with your family does not constitute a family vacation.) We made the easy drive – about 1.5 hours northwest – to Santa Marta and its neighboring national park, Parque Tayrona. Santa Marta, founded in 1525, is the oldest permanent settlement in Colombia and supposedly the second oldest in South America. It is tucked between the Caribbean and the Sierra Nevada, the highest coastal mountain range in the world. Continue reading
Posted in Travel & Tourism
Tagged adventure, barranquilla, Colombia, ecosystem, expat, international, Latin America, national park, parque tayrona, santa marta, travel
I Should Be in a Nike Commercial
Okay, no, I am actually not that vain! Or that deluded. I have neither the level of fitness nor the physique, even at its worked-out best, to warrant a Nike commercial. (And I’m not sure that I could in good conscience advertise for them, although geez, I do like their running clothes….)
At the finish line of the Reykjavik Marathon in Iceland, 2009 (I think).
But that is how running often makes me feel: self-delusional in a good way – the kind of way that makes you get more done, act confidently, and generally avoid being a neurotic stress case. After years of running (and almost 1,400 miles logged on that Nike+ tracker thing), I can tell you with absolute certainty that the “runner’s high” is real.
So it’s no surprise, then, that one of the first things I asked Gio after his April scouting trip to Barranquilla was, “Can I run there?” Continue reading
Posted in Daily Life, Running, Sports & Leisure
Tagged adventure, arroyo, barranquilla, Colombia, exercise, expat, international, Latin America, running, south america, travel
On Homesickness
I have reached a stage in our transition to Colombia that most expats probably experience but would rather skip – homesickness. Homesickness is a funny thing. We all experience it at some point. Sometimes it’s as a child, during our first sleepover at a friend’s house, or maybe as a “tween”, during that first week of summer camp. Maybe it’s when we leave college to set up our “real life” for the first time, or perhaps even later, after a divorce or a break-up, when the same house we were living in before suddenly ceases to feel like home due to the absence of the relationship that defined it. Of course, a move to another country can do it too.
Transition Point: Different colored stripes of water form at the horizon where freshwater from the Rio Magdalena, on which Barranquilla is situated, empties into the saltwater of the Caribbean Sea.
We never become completely immune to homesickness, and no matter our age, its basic anatomy remains the same. Homesickness is about identity. Continue reading
Posted in Making the Leap
Tagged adventure, barranquilla, Colombia, expat, homesickness, international, Latin America, south america, travel
The Good, the Bad, and the Seriously Tasty
I’ve been in Colombia six weeks now… long enough to miss a few things from the U.S., and long enough to fall in love with a few in Barranquilla. Here’s the short list of both:
I really, dearly love…
- Limonada Natural.
These tart, frozen lemonade drinks are on almost every menu. There are high-end and low-end versions, with the former being this all-natural, elegant granita concoction and the latter basically a mouth-puckering Slurpee. But they are ALL delicious! Mmmmmm! Continue reading
Posted in Food & Coffee
Tagged adventure, barranquilla, Colombia, expat, food, gummy candy, international, Latin America, south america, travel
Barranquilla or Bust! 
