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- Simple Trick to Get Free Alcohol in Colombia
For those who are a bit younger and still like to party heavy, here is a trick that I used to get free alcohol in Colombia and enjoy the nightlife here
It isn’t the most honest trick and is very simple and basic to get free alcohol
But works best if you are looking to maximize the amount of free alcohol in Colombia that you can get
So what is the story?
A Crazy Night in Barranquilla
Check out these nice photos of Barranquilla by TripAdvisor
On a Friday night with one other American and a few Colombian friends, we decided to have a few beers at a local tienda (store) inBarranquilla
While there, a thought came to my head after I purchased my beer
Which was that they never asked me for my ID when I bought one of their aguila beer
How do they know what day is my birthday?
Given some places here in Colombia have promotions for birthdays where they offer you a free shot or a free beer, I had a simple idea
What would it be like if I decided to go to a few bars in Barranquilla and simply go from bar to bar saying it was my birthday?
I told one of my friends about this idea – a guy named Jorge – and he said it wouldn’t work
Why?
They’d ask for my ID if I wanted to use their promotion
Which makes sense – if they are going to give me a free shot or a free beer, they’d want to confirm it was my birthday first and I was telling the truth
But I thought to myself – how many people here would lie about if it was their birthday or not?
And would they be willing to trust me for being a foreigner and that a foreigner from the US wouldn’t lie about this after all
So I figured it would be worth a try
At any rate, we were planning on going to Calle 84, which is a street known as “calle de la rumba” which is to say that it is the “party street”
Or basically where a good deal of the bars are all along one specific street in this city
So we grab a taxi that was nearby and off we go
We go to one bar and my friend Jorge decided he will be the one to ask if they have any birthday promotions
The guy says we can have a free shot for everyone in our group as long as we all buy a beer also
He asks for our ID’s but I said with my accent that I forgot my passport at my apartment
The guy had to listen to me say it again because he didn’t understand at first my Spanish
But then took a look at me and my friend Jorge repeated what I said also
Then with a small silence, he took another look at me and said it was fine
So then we go in to Jorge’s surprise and probably to the surprise of everyone else
The other American in the group – a guy named Chris – was surprised it actually worked
But regardless, we are in and we all got a free shot as long as we all bought a beer
Now, to be fair, this place was mostly dead
It didn’t have a lot of people in it at that hour so maybe they were just trying to get customers however they could
But after we drink a little bit at this place, we try it again at a few other places
And according to my notes, there was 1 place that didn’t have any birthday promotions and 2 that wouldn’t give anything for free without proof by passport
However, in short, we found 5 different places that gave away free alcohol
Two of them gave away free shots and 3 gave away a free beer
So 3 free beers and 2 free shots
Not bad
And given that all the bars on this street are right next to each other, we didn’t have to go very far to find a place
We would just go from place to place to see what worked
So in the end, if you want to ever try this, you can get free alcohol in Colombia
Just some notes below to give a better explanation of how this works in practice in Colombia since I did it more often in my younger days when I had less money and partied more
Some Notes
First, this story happened during my first year of teaching English in Barranquilla. Many years ago. Having said that, I don’t see why it still can’t work because….
There are still quite a few bars and nightclubs here in Colombia that do not ask for ID/passport when you go there
Now, of course, I look well over 18, but anyone in their 20s shouldn’t have issue
Especially if you look decent and are dressed well with a nice dress shirt or some decent dress shoes
And of course, some places will ask for your ID but it’s also not difficult to just say that you forgot your passport. Being from the US, Canada or Europe, they are likely to assume that you are overage and that you are going to spend decent money at their nightlife venue
Which has often been my experience and “gringo benefit” that comes with living in Colombia – which is that sometimes people treat you nicer here at certain businesses because they assume you might bring more money to their business
Another thing to mention here is that outside touristy cities like Bogota, Medellin or Cartagena, places in Colombia are much less likely to ask for an ID than in those cities
But regardless of the fact that this story was in Barranquilla – it worked well regardless
But I would imagine that this story would have worked even better outside of Bogota because you are going to have less places asking for ID
Also, there are some issues with using this method
It may not be the best thing to do if you want to be honest with them always
And in all honesty, I don’t necessarily encourage people to do this since alcohol is so cheap anyway in Colombia
But it is nice to know that it works occasionally!
Also if there is a very specific bar you want to go to and they don’t have any birthday promotions or insist on seeing your ID, then this trick won’t be useful
And of course, you can’t use this method every single weekend at the same places – it will get obvious that your birthday is not every weekend
But overall, just keep those things in mind if you ever try this method to get some free alcohol in Colombia
It can provide a lot of fun on a night when you are younger and perhaps don’t have much money
And you would like to enjoy this tip to get some free alcohol in Colombia so that you and your friends can get even more drunk for cheaper on a certain night
At any rate, I hope you enjoyed this article. If you have any questions or insight, let me know below in the comment section.
And if you are interested in reading about other advantages of living in Colombia, check out this article I wrote on that topic
Or perhaps you already want to live or spend time in Colombia? Then check out my article on how to support yourself while down here
Thanks for reading and take care!
Hasta luego parceros,
Seth
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