The Busy Season

For two weeks from the end of July to the beginning of August, Medellin has its biggest festival, La Feria De Las Flores (The Flower Festival). During the time, the city is filled with people from all over the world, who come to see the many parades, free concerts and other 130 events that are packed into the 2 week period. The fair, was originally created in 1956 to celebrate independence of the region of Antioquia and the peak time for the blooming of local flowers.

The biggest highlights for the event are the three main parades. The first parade is called the “Cabalgata”, which means horse parade, where any resident of Medellin can participate, so long as they pay the 100 dollar entrance fee and own a horse. This parade can often be very comical, as many rich paisas with little to no experience with horses decide to participate in the parade, and can be seen drunkenly losing control of their animals in the middle of the event.
The second most popular parade is the “Desfile de Autos Antiguos” (Old Cars Parade), where citizens with cars older than 1980 can showcase them in a city parade. The main parade, and the culmination of the festival, is the “Desfile de Silleteros”, (Parade of Flowers) where locals carry large and colorful flower decorations on their back, displaying the rich variety of Flora that Colombia has to offer. After the event, a major fiesta commences, where everyone in the city consumes large qualities of Aguardiente, the national licorice-flavored alcoholic drink until the sun comes up the next day.
For Hostels, the flower festival is the peak time for tourism, as backpackers swarm to Medellin from all over the Colombia to find cheap accommodation and enjoy the festival. As it was our first year with the festival, we were not exactly sure what to expect. However, come the first day of the festival, we were absolutely slammed with reservations. Almost over night, we went from 15 to 36 guests, our absolute maximum. We even had some slightly desperate backpackers sleeping in hammocks, extra couches or whatever sleeping space they could find around the hostel.

The combination of the festival and large number of guests managed to completely transform the vibe of the Wandering Paisa. There was now a buzz of excitement throughout the hostel, as nearly all the common rooms were filled with boisterous gusts, sharing their common South American travel experiences over a pitcher of beer. As luck with have it, it was at this time that everything inside the hostel decided to break. Within the span of 4 days, the showers, the water pipes, the bar speakers, the computers and a bed managed to break. However, thanks to my dedicated employees, we were able to fix all of these things without them negatively affecting the experience of the guests.
On a final note, its great to be back in Medellin and working in the Hostel after finally finishing graduate school. Although it was slightly overwhelming going straight into the flower festival immediately after arriving, it helped me quickly get back into the swing of hostel management. I have 4 more months left before Miles comes back, so its good that I have some experience under my belt from one of the hostel’s craziest times thus far.