Popayan, Colombia

Carnaval de Blancos y Negros

January 7, 2008

- Jimmmy Buffett

With my plans to get to Pasto foiled I decided to stay in Popayan for the Carnaval, which was supposed to be on the 5th and 6th of January, with the 5th designated as black day and the 6th as white day. The Carnaval has its origins in the days of slavery when slave owners would allow their slaves to dress up as the owners by painting themselves white and the owners would show their approval in turn by painting themselves black. From that evolved this mess of a Carnaval where apparently the main objective is to get as dirty as possible. The festivities actually started on the evening of the fourth when there was a parade of horses around the main plaza and people inside the plaza square were spraying each other with foam and throwing flour at each other.

I stood on the outside and watched the horses move around, one of them got spooked and knocked over someone´s motorcycle. A few people were spraying foam near me but I stood near a group of soldiers and that seemed to keep me safe. The parade ended rather promptly when a police vehicle entered the square and moved the horses out and everyone dispersed pleasantly.

The next day was the real beginning. After meeting up with another American that I had met in San Agustin we explored the town and had some lunch while trying to avoid the chaos that was escalating in the main square until a bit later in the afternoon. We hiked up to the top of the hill overlooking town while dodging some water balloons along the way.

After that we headed into the main square and the chaos. We bought some cans of foam spray so that we could defend ourselves and these came with a small bag of flour. Being tall and white made me the ultimate target here, well that and the fact that we were the only two tourists in town. The objective was simple, you walk around and through the main square and spray people with foam and throw flour at them while trying to avoid being hit by water balloons and with buckets of water that are thrown from the trucks driving around the plaza. Sometimes people would gang up on you and force you to run away. At first I had no idea why so many people were selling sunglasses, but I soon figured it out. A spray of foam to the eyes wasn´t bad at all, but a handful of flour to the face is really a killer, and a lot of the people were absolutely ruthless. They wouldn´t throw anything at you until they knew that you weren´t looking, and they always aimed for the face.

There were also people that would put paint on their hands and then sneak up from behind and put their hands all over your head, face, and neck. Before long we were both soaking wet and covered in flour and paint. At that point we decided to sit across from the plaza and escape the craziness. Soon, a group of Colombians from Popayan came up and sat with us. We talked with them for a little bit and then they invited us to walk around with them. Feeling less vulnerable now that we were surrounded by a group of locals, and a substantial group at that, we ventured back out around the square, spraying people and throwing flour around. It was really quite a lot of fun once you accepted being wet and dirty. My one learning experience was that I would definitely need to bring sunglasses for the second day; that much was certain. Since we were the only tourists there we received a lot of attention, people were offering us chicha, which is a kind of beer made from corn, it was actually pretty tasty, and there was plenty of rum and aguardiente flowing as well.

As it got later, things started to wind down and we decided to head back home before going out later in the evening with Colombians we had met to some place called the Coliseum. When we approached the hostel there was a woman with a hose standing one door down spraying everyone and everything that passed by, cars, motorcycles, people, anything. This presented quite the problem as to get inside we needed to ring the bell and wait for the old woman in the hostel to come open the door. While I waited my friend went to the door and rang the bell, he got soaked until he was finally able to convince the old woman to open the door amidst all the commotion. We hurried inside, I´m sure much to her dismay after she saw what we looked like, and cleaned up and rested for a while. We ventured out later to find the Coliseum which was in the old part of town but by the time we got there everyone was still arriving and we didn´t want to wait around until midnight or so when the locals said the real party was going to start so we went home after talking with some crazy drunk people and eating empanadas off street cart.

The second day of the Carnaval was equally fun. Knowing that I would completely filthy again I wore my same wet and dirty clothes along with the invaluable addition of my sunglasses. The sunglasses proved to be very useful as only once was I hit in the eyes with flour. With practice the people are skilled and know how to throw it at such an angle so that it goes under your glasses anyways. This time we were able to recruit another American from the hostel to come out with us and together the three gringos stalked the streets of the plaza spraying everyone and in return getting sprayed by foam and covered in paint. We tried to buy water balloons but by then every store had already sold out. The second day was apparently the same as the first, as now there is little to no differentiation between the original black and white days, although I think there was more flour being thrown on the white day but this would be hard to confirm.

All in all it was fun, but two days of this was enough for me. It was definitely something unique and nowhere in the highly racially sensitive United States would you ever find any event like this. Apparently the Carnaval in Pasto has big floats and the same paint and flour but no dousing with water, and it continues all night rather than solely during the daytime. For now I will put it on my list of future destinations.