Hotel Carretero

La Feria de Manizales

by morgr

The Feria de Manizales, or Fair of Manizales, has been held every year (except 1980, due to an earthquake) since it's inception in 1954. It takes place from the beggining of January (2007 started on the 5th, though I don't know if that is the same day every year), and lasts for two weeks.

During the festival the streets are packed with revellers having good times, especially Plaza Bolivar, Parque Caldas and Carrera 23 between the two. There are plenty of street performances and hotdog vendors and all that festival type stuff, including 1L of Poker beer for 5,000pesos. During the festival there are parades almost everyday, and constant shows and concerts and other events held around town, especially in Plaza Bolivar and the theatre near Parque Caldas. You can never go bored.

Manizales is in the Paisa Region of Colombia, and the people from here are called Paisas. Due to this, the Feria is very Paisa oriented, and people walk around in the streets selling Paisa hats and ponchos and the likes. You will see lots of people dressed like this.

The opening night was a riot. They had a parade, introduction of the Reina de Cafe beauty pagent contestants, fireworks, and a concert held in Plaza Bolivar. The whole square turned into one giant dance floor! It was great! And this goes on for 2 weeks!

On the other hand, due to many tourists (99% of whom are Colombian, as I didn't see a single other foreigner other than my travel partner at the time) comming into town, most of the hotels get booked up, and they also increase their prices substancially. Once place we tried said the first night we could have the room for 20,000pesos for double room, but the following night (the day the Fair started) the price would rise to 60,000pesos!!! Also security becomes super strict, and all the streets around Plaza Bolivar and other gathering places are blocked off and you have to go through 2 seperate checks to get in. They confiscated my belt and almost didn't let me bring my camera in!!!

Manizales

by morgr

Manizales can be a fun city, during the Feria we had a great time, but I got the impression that outside of this it would be a rather dull place. It has some interesting architechture and artwork in the Catedral de Manizales and the Bolivar-Condor monument, but lacks any other real 'attractions' within the city. There is a gold museum (carrera 23 # 23-6), however having come from Bogota and seeing that one, I decided to pass on Manizales gold museum. The night life is rather glum as well, this despite the fact that I read Manizales has the most universities per capita of any city in Colombia...or perhaps because everyone was drinking in the streets due to the Feria?

Despite my opinion on the city, I think it's still worth stopping here for a few days, at least to check it out, particularily if you can make it during the annual Feria de Manizales. Anyways, the real reason to stop in Manizales is not the city itself, but what lies outside the city, the Parque Nacional Los Nevados. It would be worth taking a trip to the park, you can visit Nevado del Ruiz, the tallest volcanoe in the park and take a bath in the natural hot springs.