The Barranquilla Carnaval has three main parades, Sat, Sun and Mon. The parade route is lined with covered stands some which require purchased tickets and others open to the public (we got tickets ahead of time). You get there early for a good seat (we got front row on the corner which was best for pictures), and they have staff which will get you food and drinks as you like (alcohol included).
The first parade is a mix of dance groups, live bands (which even the dance groups have live music with them - seems like nearly everyone in Barranquilla is a musician or a dancer!), beauty queens (who also dance here, I might add), and outrageous costumes. The populations must work the rest of the year on creating the costumes and outfits - some of the dance groups have over 100 people, all with
the same traditional clothing!
Here is just a sample of the range in the parade. As you can see, the parade is so au courant, even Obama made an appearance (3 times in fact - once with his whole family waiving at the crowd).
The parade goes for many blocks and take several hours. Young, old, and everyone in between participates. And it is just the first of three days! Now that is a Colombian party!
For dinner we ate delicious Latin-Fusion cuisine that was worthy of California - but at less than 1/2 the price, complete with Martini de Coroso (a tart red tropical fruit only found here). Of course we had to check out the gay night life, and each place was packed, with live music, live dancers and very alive drag queen performers. Que rico!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment