¡¡He llegado!! - los hipicos

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Arrived safe and sound!!

We arrived around midday last Sunday during the last day of a week long festival here in Granada call los Hipicos. Driving into the city alone was quite the experience as people come from all over the country and other countries to take part in this week long celebration (the biggest fiesta of the year!)...and we arrived right before the parade of horses. This consists of about 3 thousand men and women on horseback! Quite the sight! Our langauge school picked us up at the airport and after many detours managed to drop all of us (theres 5 other volunteers in Nicaragua with me) at our homestays. My host family lives right in the center, not too far from the Cathedral or el parque central. (if you google Granada those are the places that will come up) soo you can only imagine how crazy it was around my house during the festival! All the streets were full of people all day and into the night. After the horse parade, there are normal parade floats that pass, each with their own music and many with chicas dancing. Since the streets are narrow it would take a long time for each float to pass because they had to be careful not to hit all the people (many of whom are drinking...helped by the fact that the floats passed out free alcohol!). It was very different than any parade I´ve been to in the US and a ton of fun! It was basically one huge party all over downtown Granada. In a way you could think of it as one giant welcoming party for us! 😊 lol just kidding..

..actually los hipicos take place every month in different regions of the country to honor/celebrate the patron saint of the city. In Granada the patron saint is la virgin de la asunción or ¨Virgin of the Assumption¨. The festival is a week long celebration starting with the running of the bulls and ending with the parade of horses (the parade of horses is actually "el hipico", but people use los hipicos to refer to the entire week long event). The horses are purebreds and considered the best in Nicaragua. Its considered one of the most important days of the year! Unfortunately we just missed los hipicos in Managua (Santo Domingo), but that´s something to look forward to next summer! Hopefully we´ll make it to at least one other (in another city) during our time here.. we´ll keep you posted!

Unfortunately I don´t have photos, but keeping reading and you´ll see some beautiful sights!

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