We somehow ended up at a pool party in Colombia organised by BAUM Bogota, allegedly the 23rd best club in the world.
The place was great, an unfinished villa with two swimming pools and a spacious garden converted to sand beach dominated by the stage. The music was amazing (mostly house/techno with live vocals).
Here’s why I write about it. We totally didn’t fit in. We’ve been backpacking for too long I guess, but it was really interesting to experience the atmosphere. The party, though awesome, was somewhat absurd.
It seemed we were among top 1% richest Colombians or expats, a totally different level. The beer was a disappointment - small Heineken was sold for 13000 pesos (/~/ 4EUR or 6 times more than usual in Colombia). Ok. Cocaine and weed were abundant. As was ice cream on the dancefloor - you could choose over 20 different flavours, something for the munchies. There were really hot girls in swimsuits to look at. And the music kept on getting better!
A gay guy asked me if I was gay and wanted to know what happened to me that I was straight. He was really disappointed. He asked me that 3 times. Wtf. I backfired the same and asked what happened to him instead. Then a girl from Manizales told me to come join them. We also spoke with a Canadian expat who lived in Colombia for 5 years. He praised the girls and parties in Colombia. Told us to go to Vancouver, because his friend told him everyone smokes weed there, the best weed in Canada is in Vancouver and that Canadians call it Vansterdam. Funny interactions! We smoked a blunt and became silent observers of this spectacle and really enjoyed it.
So the irony. First, the very location - just 200m from a “very dangerous” neighborhood, all the partygoers got a cab or car ride to the party to be safe. Of course we did things different and were the only ones who walked there, directly through the very dangerous neighborhood because we couldn’t find the venue. It was fine, felt safe. We couldn’t afford the overpriced beer plus really hate Heineken, so we went to the very dangerous neighborhood to buy it for 2000 pesos (/~/ 0.6 EUR). It felt like being in a different world. The clash between the rich and poor world was only 200m apart. And we kinda formed part of the two, so strange. But it was a really great night :)
BAUM Pool Series
Lineup:
- Mao Fonnegra
- Hernán Cayetano
- Mao Loading
- Bimol Project
- Letters
- Los Mellos Brothers
- Spin
- Julián Peña
- Seb Mildenberg
