November Festivities

Hello Everyone..

Sorry I haven't blogged in almost a month.

We went on home leave for almost 3 weeks,  as soon as we returned to Colombia it was November Festivities.  The last week has been crazy busy. 

Every year during the month of November,  Cartagena celebrates its independence.  Locals and tourists can witness and participate in parades filled with decorated floats, traditional dances and costumes.  This is also when Cartagena hosts the Miss Colombia pageant,  which the winner participates in the Miss Universe pageant.

It's been a wonderful experience watching the people celebrate.  The locals love to throw water, flour, dye and foam as  part of the celebration.  The first night of the celebration Robert decided to kick off our evening with friends by joining in on the fun.  Our group of friends were all sitting at our local hangout, "the yellow bar", and Robert sneaked across the street to buy some foam.  There is another bar across the street and I thought he had gone to talk to someone.  Well let's just say HE GOT US!!!  I actually thought a local had foamed us because it all happened so fast!  Now what happened next was not at all what Robert expected....

Pay backs.....

Everyone thought it was funny!!!

We also had fun experiencing the Whaleboats Parade.  This is held in the harbor in Cartagena and the Miss Colombia contestants are paraded around on boats.  We got lucky and ran in to a guy from Alabama who now lives in Cartagena and runs a Parasail boat business.  We booked his boat for the day of the Whaleboat Parade and along with 5 other couples got to experience the parade from the harbor.  It was so much fun partying with all the locals.

This is how they parade the Miss Colombia contestants around the harbor.  If you look in the back ground you can see all the people lined up on shore to watch.  We actually thought this is how we would have to watch the parade, but instead we got lucky and experienced it from a boat in the harbor.

As far as you could see it was boat after boat.  It was great fun and by far the best way to watch the Whaleboat Parade.

Overall, the 5 days of festivals was exciting and so much fun.  I'm so glad we didn't leave town and instead decided to stay and join in on the celebration.

If you ever get to visit Cartagena in November there is a full week of partying to be had during the Independence Celebration.