Festivity, colorful costumes in diverse sizes and shapes, upbeat music, and crowds of dancing, smiling people in the city streets. For many tourists, Pasto is, first of all, a carnival where you can have a great time but, unfortunately, only once a year. It is excellent if you get there, but if you miss it, the loss of the opportunity will make you sad, and you will have to plan your trip anew.

The city authorities decided to keep a piece of the Pasto festival on a routine basis. So they opened the Carnival Museum in the city. Nothing can replace the holiday vibes, but masks, photos and carnival costumes still work miracles. Here, you can learn about the carnival history, get to know the festivities of the past, and imagine how these giant heads walked through the streets.

The variety and colorfulness of the costumes are genuinely shocking, but the museum does not strike you in one blow. It is divided into several halls. The first one displays photos, movies and documents about the history of the holiday. Here, looking at photo after photo, you find out how the festival appeared and what the first parades were like.

It is in the next hall where the real holiday begins. Starting with colorful posters, the exhibition moves to drawings showing the carnival events. Then you come face to face with a giant puppet. Its plump red lips are stretched in a smile, and an expression of delight is frozen in its artificial eyes. A clown cap tops its green-haired head. However, not all puppets and costumes are funny. Some look rather scary as if straight of the movie called Panic Room.

Clowns, mermaids, dancers, horses, parts of carnival platforms, whatever you wish. Some exhibits stand on the floor by the wall, and others are hanging on the walls. And the hall entrance is decorated as a huge face with scarlet lips and an aquiline nose.

The collection is impressive. The coolest thing is that, if you come here next year, there will be new exhibits instead of the old ones as the museum gets constantly updated with new assets.