Night Tour

You can also go on a Night Tour aboard a chiva, a typical Colombian bus, with a band playing vallenato. Chivas depart around 20:00 from Av San Martín between Calles 4 and 5 in Bocagrande for a three- to four-hour trip, and leave you at the end of the tour in a discotheque - a good point to continue your party for the rest of the night.

Vallenato is a typical musical genre of the coast. A classical vallenato ensemble includes the accordion, guacharaca and caja. The guacharaca is a percussion instrument of indigenous origins. It consists of a sticklike wooden body with a row of cuts, and a metal fork. The sound is produced by rubbing the stick with the fork. The caja is a bucket-shaped wooden drum which is played by hand. It has clear African roots. The accordionist is usually also the principal vocalist of the band.

Vallenato has four major musical forms: the paseo, merengue, puya and son. Generally speaking, the paseo and son are slower and gentler than the puya and merengue. The paseo is the youngest and most varied of all the four forms, and it has come to be the most common vallenato species over recent decades..

Once you arrive on the Caribbean coast, you will quickly learn that vallenato is everywhere - in bars, restaurants, discos, hotels and buses, on the street and on the beach. You may love it or hate it, but you can't escape it.