If you want to know everything about Barranquilla‘s carnival, its traditions and costumes, a visit to the Carnival Museum should not be missed during a trip to Barranquilla.

Barranquilla’s carnival is Colombia’s largest cultural and folkloric festival and has been designated a cultural heritage site. To preserve the atmosphere of the carnival 365 days a year, the Museo del Carnaval de Barranquilla was built in 2019. The carnival museum is located in the traditional neighborhood of Barrio Abajo (near El Prado), in the heart of Barranquilla.

The Carnival Museum is modern and interactive and consists of 4 different exhibits. There is a certain route to follow and it starts in the Sala Carnavales del Mundo.

Here you will take a journey through carnival celebrations in 16 different countries and find information about the rituals of Barranquilla’s carnival.

In this hall you can see masks, musical instruments and other attributes of the carnival.

After this, walk to the Sala de las Reinas, on the second floor.

On display here are the beautiful dresses of some 40 carnival queens crowned between 1918 and 2019.

The Sala Expresiones del Carnaval de Barranquilla is all about the expressions of carnival in music, dance and costumes.

A video is played of the carnival parade, where, as a visitor, you feel as if you have entered the audience.

Videos of authentic dances, such as the  Mapalé , and a traditional Quillero (old-fashioned record player) are on display.

One of the typical costumes of the carnival in Barranquilla, is the Marimonda.

This expression is very well known in Barranquilla: “ It’s not so much about the Marimonda costume, but the jumps you have to make” .

Marimonda is a popular name on the Caribbean coast for a monkey, jumping is part of the deal when you wear the Marimonda costume!

According to the legend, a man from Barranquilla did not have enough money to buy his costume, so he got the idea of wearing a jacket with a tie and an old pair of pants that he wore backwards. Part of the costume was a mask that he made from a bag with 3 holes. This the origin of the Marimonda costume! The mask has a long nose and the “pea pea,” a whistle with a funny sound.

Finally, you will enter the Sala Batalla de Flores, with photographs and objects from the main parade of Barranquilla’s carnival, the batalla de flores.

During this parade with colorful floats and-not to mention-the queen of the carnival, there is lots of live music and folk dancing.

Hotel El Prado in Barranquilla is a historic hotel in a beautiful colonial building located on spacious, fenced-off grounds on Carrera 54 in the El Prado neighborhood. The highlight is the large semi-Olympic swimming pool. Hotel El Prado is one of Barranquilla’s most famous hotels and is well known among locals. Because of its romantic atmosphere, it often hosts events such as weddings.

Hotel El Prado is part of Colombia’s national heritage. The hotel opened in 1930, during Barranquilla’s glory days, when the city became a very important international trade center and was called the “Golden Gate” of Colombia. 

We visited hotel El Prado in september 2023, as we wanted to taste a bit of the atmosphere of those days long ago. We walked through the gardens and had drinks and dinner at the pool bar. Besides the pool bar, there is a pizzeria and restaurant la Cabaña, for traditional Colombian food.

We didn’t stay overnight, but we we will certainly consider this for our next trip to Barranquilla. The hotel offers accommodation in neoclassical rooms, that look very comfortable and the hotel and its gardens seem like a very relaxing place to spend a few nights.

The idea to build a luxury hotel for the flourishing Barranquilla, came from American Karl Parrish, who also initiated the construction of the el Prado neighborhood, where the hotel is located. At the time, Hotel El Prado was Latin America’s first luxury hotel with private rooms with private bathrooms and telephones. Numerous celebrities stayed at the hotel such as Greta Garbo, Celia Cruz and star soccer player Pele.

The hotel has a troubled history, as in the 1980s and 1990s the hotel was claimed by drug lords who turned it into an operations center and used it for money laundering. As a result, regular guests stayed away. After the government seized the hotel because of skyrocketing debts, the hotel was neglected for years.

In 2016, an agreement was signed with the Marriot hotel chain to operate the hotel. The injection of capital from this partnership gave the hotel a new chance to flourish. Renovation work started and now Hotel El Prado is once again the elegant, iconic hotel of the 1930s.

Bocas de Ceniza is a fun -off the beaten track- trip, just outside Barranquilla. To get there, take a taxi + mototaxi and hike to the point where you can see the “meeting point” of the Magdalena River and the Caribbean Sea. Here you can find information and tips for a trip to Bocas de Ceniza here.

Bocas de Ceniza gets its name from its ash-colored waters, at the point where the river meets the sea. Bocas de Ceniza was discovered in 1501, and in 1842 the first steamships crossed the river from the sea. Partly due to the construction of a railroad between Puerto Colombia and Barranquilla, Bocas de Ceniza became an important international trade destination.

The expression “it’s not about the final destination but the journey to it,” certainly applies to a trip to Bocas de Ceniza. For our trip, we first caught a cab to the neighborhood of Las Flores. After this, we took a motorcycle for a bumpy ride along the old railroad line to the point where the motorcycle could go no further. During the ride, we enjoyed the scenery, the birds and the skyline of Barranquilla.

From here it was about a 50-minute walk to the lookout point. We passed huts of friendly fishermen repairing their nets, or preparing a meal on the fire.

The last stretch was mostly scrambling over rocks, driftwood and washed-up debris.

A fisherman who was fishing at the very tip helped us climb to the highest rock, the end point of the trail.

Once we arrived at the viewpoint, we were able to take a break and enjoy the nice breeze. Years ago, you could see the separation between the river and the sea very well (and close). Now we could only see the “meeting point” of river and sea in the distance.

Although the views were a bit disappointing, we thought it was a very enjoyable trip. We loved being in nature and experiencing Barranquilla off the beaten path.

It was quite confronting to see the conditions in which the fishermen live and work. While their families live in the city, the fishermen spend their days in primitive shacks without electricity. The mototaxi driver told me that the mototaxis play an important role for the fishermen in Bocas de Ceniza. The mototaxis ensure that bags of ice and other supplies are brought to the fishermen.

After the trip, we enjoyed a cold coke at the restaurant and man did we need that after the hike in the heat!