Colombia/barranquilla, my neighborhood

Barranquilla is a port at the North Coast of Colombia, a city with a little more than a million people. For many years, Barranquilla was a very important trading port and therefore, lots of those traders decided to settle down there.

As a matter of fact, I think you may have heard about a certain Colombian musician of Arab origin from Barranquilla, her name is Isabel Mebarak Ripoll but some also call her Shakira.

Shakria’s hips are reportedly some of the most honest in showbusiness

Above all, Barranquilla is where the biggest Carnival in Colombia is held. Due to its amazing cultural display, El Carnaval de Barranquilla was proclaime  by UNESCO, in November 2003, as one of the Masterpieces of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. It’s second only to the Carnival in Rio in terms of size and, of course, fun!

There are four main Carnival days, you can feel the ambiance changing weeks prior to it, when the Carebeann rhythm of carnival music fills the air in anticipation of the festival.

The Carnival of Barranquilla begins four days before Ash Wednesday and reaches its climax the following week during the Batalla de las Flores (Battle of the Flowers), where the gaiety and color of the Colombians come face to face in a unique battle of color, flowers, beauty, and peace. But, the “pre-carnival” officially starts with an opening ceremony in which the mayor gives the key of the city to the queen of the carnival on behalf of the people of Barranquilla and from there every weekend from mid-January to the beginning of carnival they have the right to celebrate on the streets as they please. I would never end if I start describing the dozens of pre-carnival parties, so I’ll just mention one of the main preliminary parades that starts two days before, early in the evening and is called La Guacherna.  “Guacherna” is slang for “Rumba”, “Fiesta”  or “Big mess” in English. As all the other pre-parties aside from the “official” carnival, La Guacherna is free to the public and consists on one big dancing, drinking street party with a high concentration of people of all ages…

Where I live is one of the greatest neighborhoods in the city to live in; however it does have its draw backs. Importantly it has nearly everything a resident might want, beautiful picturesque scenery, proximity to shopping, and many of the cultural centers. Nevertheless the roads can be some of the most congested in town, and the streets are not safe to walk late at night. Fortunately, I wake every morning to the most beautiful sun lit house. 

I live in a great and wonderful neighborhood. It is very pleasant and has lot many facilities. With a good park nearby, making it the main attraction, our neighborhood also has many other added bonuses.

The grocery store is nearby which makes it easy for all residents to make an immediate purchase, we have a bus stop close by, so that people do not have to travel long for means of transportation.

The park is what makes it a lot more beautiful as it is well maintained and makes it a gathering place for all my neighbors in the evening for chit chatting and playing for kids. There is good air and we enjoy the evenings while we are at this park.

But, like every neighborhood, among the good people that make it lively and great, there would some odd ones out that would spoil the entire fun. Some people in our neighborhood are very careless and untidy. They would just litter places and throw their garbage just like that outside. This is really troublesome and causes lot of difficulty to the others in the neighborhood. They also behave badly and have been warned several times. Such people spoil the fun and unity in a society and make it a nuisance to everyone surrounding them.