Bernie's Travels: Riosucio and the "Carnaval del Diablo"

From Manizales I took a break from their week long festival and backtracked to a town called Riosucio to see the biannual "Carnival del Diablo"... the literal translation is Carnival of the Devil, but the celebration had nothing to do with Satanic rituals. Instead it was a four day festival celebrating act of partying, and if there is one thing that Colombians like to do, it's party. I missed the first two days which were supposed to be the best, but the last two days had plenty of debauchery as they geared up for the burning of the huge, ridiculous looking paper machete devil and she-devil. Apparently there was so much disappointment about how the goofy looking devil turned out that security had to be placed around it at night so it wouldn't be burnt prematurely. Besides the excuse for a good party the town itself was well worth the visiting. It was set against a gorgeous mountain range with green mountain peaks overlooking the town.

Besides enjoying the fair food and artisanry booths the main day time activity was watching the "coorileja" which was essentially a Bamboo stadium surrounding a bull coral filled with mostly drunk yeehoos, some dressed in ridiculous costumes, taunting a bull into charging them. I wasn't a big fan of seeing the bulls picked on but at least they weren't killed for the show of it, and they had plenty of opportunity to strike back, and they did. All in all it was good fun and I made sure to get in the coral to capture as much as I could with my camera. I have the photos from the first day but only in a small resolution, the photos from the second day are long gone. I had my good camera stolen when I returned to Manizales and with it the memory card. It's too bad since I lost the best photo of my trip so far.

At one point I was behind the bull as it took a charge at the crowd. Then without warning it did a 180 and I was right in it sights. I took the best photo of my trip as it was coming straight for me. It was beautiful. The bull took up almost the whole frame as it had it horns down and hoofs dug in. Behind it you could see the crowd dispersing in the opposite direction since it was just going that way. Of course I was backtracking but there was no easy escape. I took a horn to the ribs and it threw me in the air then trampled over me before moving on. I got up right away, but it's more than a week later my ribs are still sore. It wasn't what I was hoping for but it all worked out and miraculously my camera was still in pretty good shape although a little muddy. It was a huge crowd pleaser and everyone wanted to see the photo. Too bad it's gone now.

The festivities at night were packed with peopel in two different squares of the city. I met a woman from Manizales, Tatiana, on the first night and we hung out the next day with her Cousin Tavo but those photos are gone too. The first photo is the first night I was there. The next two are early the next morning. Ha. The burning of the huge papermache Devil and she devil was scheduled for the following day at midnight but apparently someone jumped the gun and we missed the grand finally only to see the ashes left behind.