Colombians really know how to dance & party!

---

What a day the wedding day of Maria Angelica & Juan David turned out to be. It started off with us catching a cab to the Unicentro shopping centre where, thankfully, I DID buy some shoes to go with my wedding outfit. We had lunch there, I had my hair done and then we had to wait over one & a half hours in a queue to get a cab back to the apartment. SO frustrating as the system was ridiculous; at least waiting gave us the time to ponder how we could have improved things with next to no effort!

The Unicentro shopping centre was interesting; amongst the many shops was a casino, there was a gun toting guard - who looked like a teenager - next to four ATM's, there were many very smartly uniformed guards all over the place with some of them on Skegways and there were even 'guard towers' in the centre car park. Mind you everyone was just going about their business without batting an eyelid - after all it's normal life to Bogotarians! And all those gun toting guards didn't have the sort of guns Australian police carry; they were carrying machine guns.

Back in our apartment, all dressed up to the nines, our driver arrived to take us to where the wedding took place; Cathedral Cartrense Jesucristo Redenton. A military cathedral providing pastoral care for the Roman Catholics in the Colombian Armed Forces it was housed inside a huge military complex so it was like Fort Knox to get into. Luckily our names were on the gate!

The cathedral was packed by the time Angelica arrived, looking gorgeous as she walked up the aisle on her father's arm. We then sat through a wedding mass for the next hour and a half; with all of it in Spanish we didn't understand a word. But being a wedding we certainly knew what was going on!

From the church we went to the exclusive Bogota Country Club which was also a heavily guarded building. Once inside it was champagne and nibbles while being serenaded by a fantastic South American band. By this time we'd already made friends with some of the other guests; the party had begun!

We'd been assigned to a table amongst guests who spoke English who all turned out to be very interesting people. The dining room was huge; it needed to be since there were 250 guests, all elegantly attired, the women in long glamorous dresses. The food was beautiful and the wine flowed freely although I did my best to drink water as much as my good sense allowed! Kev just blew caution to the wind! During the speeches, although we didn't understand the Spanish, we did recognise that we got a mention having travelled the furtherest to attend the wedding.

There was no wedding cake as we know it; just a choice of two different cakes for dessert. No bridal waltz either, instead Angelica & Juan danced the tango to rapturous applause. Once everyone got up to dance we discovered that we could indeed do the tango, rhumba and pasadoble ourselves! For most of the night we had a fantastic live band and singers; too good not to get get up and dance! Then around midnight we were invited to open the bags under each table which contained party hats, silly glasses and the like...on they went! The dancing seemed to get even wilder after that! Bowls of soup came out some time after 1am - after all we needed some more sustenance to keep us dancing! Waiters galore where there to fulfil our every need while all the time the music kept going. Finally at 3am when someone offered us a lift back to our apartment we decided to accept. Although the party was still going on, by that time many guests were starting to say their goodbyes. Angelica & Juan, who were flying to Cancun in Mexico for their honeymoon, were due to leave the party about twenty minutes after we left, heading straight to the airport from the party. It was some night - Colombians certainly know how to dance & party! Ole!

---