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Published: February 21st 2010
Carnival weekend in Guardo
with Ana and two guys who entered the cross-dressing contest the bars held on Friday night.Hola a todos!
Last weekend Carnival was celebrated in Guardo and students in Castilla y León had school off on Monday and Tuesday. I was originally thinking of traveling over the long weekend to Valencia (where I studied abroad 2 years ago) but I ended up deciding to stay in Guardo for the long weekend and I was glad I did! Guardo becomes quite lively during Carnival and many people, young and old alike, dress up in costumes on the weekend to celebrate. On Friday night, the network of underground bars in Guardo (a.k.a. "los Bajos") held a cross-dressing competition and when I went out on Friday night with Ana and some of her friends, we saw a lot of impressive and hilarious costumes! We were playing cards in a bar and seated at some of the other tables was a girl dressed as Michael Jackson (looked a LOT like him!), two guys dressed as Cruella Deville and a female dalmatian and several guys with brightly colored wigs, short dresses and fake boobs that made me want to crack up every time I looked over at their table. Later on when we went down to bars in the Bajos we
Carnival weekend in Guardo
groups getting organized in the Plaza del Ayuntamiento (Guardo's main plaza) before the start of the parade on Saturday afternoon ran into them again. There I also saw several guys dressed as Barbies which were pretty funny. They even included the Barbie box as part of their costume so they were all lumbering around in gigantic cardboard boxes. I wish I had gotten a picture of them!
On Saturday afternoon there was a parade where members of many community groups dressed up. I thought that quite a lot of people turned out for the parade but others commented that there have been more in years past when it wasn't as cold outside. It was -6 ºC out on Saturday (about 21 ºF) and it was somewhat windy too! Sofia spent the long weekend in Guardo with me and we saw the parade together, following it all over town. On Saturday night I dressed up as a cheerleader and Sofia as a referee. We went out with Ana and her friends who were all dressed as superheroes. I loved their costumes. Around 3 am we left the house where we were and went to the Bajos which were more crowded than I had ever seen them. I ran into a lot of people that I knew and it was so
Carnival weekend in Guardo
the start of the parade! This was a social group for elderly people I think. much fun seeing all of the costumes. I stayed out until 7:30 am! That night the bars were holding a costume contest for groups. The winners of Friday's and Saturday's contests will be announced later this week I think and they'll get a fairly generous cash prize.
Sunday was a lazy day spent recovering from all the partying and on Monday and Tuesday I hung around in Guardo. I was able to play tennis on Tuesday with my friend Dani and we were finishing up our match when the second Carnival parade of the weekend marched right by the tennis courts. They were entering the municipal gym where hot chocolate was being served afterward. I wasn't expecting the parade and it was pretty funny attempting to finish a close match with loud music and groups of mariachis and cowboys (for example) walking by....
All in all it was a good weekend!
Besos,
Dana
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Dad
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Boy the folks there go all out on the costumes! What fun!