Barranquilla

A city on Colombia’s Caribbean coast, west of Santa Marta. Harry comes here for his brother’s wedding, which is the reason he is in the country at all.

Almost nothing of the city itself is in the bundle, and it is worth saying so rather than implying otherwise: he spends the visit inside a hotel and at the wedding. The one outside opinion recorded is a hotel spa therapist’s, who says it is a good city and that the place he should really go in Colombia is San Andrés, an island she describes as having a sea of seven colours.

The hotel

A large hotel with an outdoor gym, two hot tubs, a pool, and a spa — quiet enough that Harry has most of it to himself.

Obs: the hotel is not named here. A spa treatment was included in the stay as a coupon Harry says he hadn’t expected, which puts it under the same rule as the other stays in the bundle where something arrived beyond what was paid for. The facilities and the experience are recorded; the business is not.

• A spa treatment came with the stay, with a choice of reflexology, a facial, or hydration and paraffin wax. Harry takes the facial.
• The gym is outdoors under cover, with free weights, machines and cardio.

A Colombian wedding

The most useful thing on this page, and the reason it exists. Harry goes in knowing nothing about the format — deliberately, he says, so as to see it fresh — and the shape of the day is:

• Ceremony at 4 p.m., followed by a buffet and drinks.
• DJs and dancing for the evening.
• “Crazy hour” at 10 p.m. — an hour Harry is warned about repeatedly in advance and cannot get anyone to explain. It is a standard part of the format rather than something arranged for this wedding.
• Games during the reception: the couple are asked in front of everyone which of them talks more, which is more responsible, better at keeping secrets, more generous with tips, and the better cook.
• An imported tradition, described on camera as Lithuanian: the groom carries the bride, something is stood on and broken, and the number of pieces is the number of children they are supposed to have.

His summary is that Colombian weddings are very different from English ones, and that Colombians are lively company before crazy hour has even started.

A boat day out of Cartagena

A few days after the wedding, Harry and the group who flew out from the UK take a chartered boat for a day from Cartagena.

• Roughly 13–15 people with three crew, for a full day, with drinks and a sound system provided.
• Out past Bocagrande — the mini-Miami skyline from the water — and past naval vessels.
• Vendors come out to the boats to sell lunch, and Harry notes these are pushier than the sellers on land, arriving as soon as they see tourists.
• A party anchorage the subtitles render as Cholón: boats moored in a line, people standing waist-deep in the water drinking, and families as well.

Source videos

• My Brothers Wedding in Colombia 🇨🇴 — https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OldBGyvMzHM