While I was in Barranquilla, it rained almost every day, aside from maybe 4 or 5 days that had no rain in my particular area. The rain storms are usually fast and furious, lasting 5-10 minutes, and generating tons of flash-floods and streams in the streets.

There were several occasions in which I was caught outside in the rain with zero protection. Or stuck at the gym, surrounded by ankle-high, fairly powerful streams that could make a person slip and fall. After the 2nd or 3rd incident, I “geared up” by always having my umbrella when going on errands, and often wearing my rainboots in lieu of regular shoes. When going to the gym, I carried my light raincoat and rainboot shoe covers.

They cost less than $18 on Amazon.com

It was weird (to me) to see that most pedestrians in Barranquilla weren’t wearing rain gear. Upon further investigation, I came to understand that Colombians almost never wear rain gear, and would regard as strange anyone that’s truly geared up for the random rainstorms and flash floods! 😂 It seems that to regular Colombians, when it comes to clothes, Form is more important than Function. I could be completely wrong about this!

That being said, I didn’t get TOO many strange looks when I started just walking around in my rain boots and carrying an umbrella. Not like I’d care anyway, haha! In fact, as the days went on, I noticed more and more people carrying their umbrellas.

Tip: To figure out which streets have the most flooding, check the sidewalk heights, especially on the corners. If you see a wall around a corner, that seems to serve no purpose… that’s basically a “flood wall”, to protect pedestrians and property from the rushing street water.