Garabato

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I got to Barranquilla on Wednesday. I was initially planning on staying for just a day but intestinal problems kept me there a little longer.

I went to school with my friend who teaches at one of the private schools. She teaches for the wealthiest kids in Barranquilla. If you would like an idea of their wealth. All her kids, fifth graders, have an iPad ... 2 I believe. I enjoyed being there, it gave me an idea of how teaching in another country is like. I know Korea will be differen in so many ways, but still gave me some things to think about.

There is a doctor who is at the school all day, so I got to see a doctor for free! She gave me some meds to help relieve the pain I was in. And gave me a prescription for some others. I felt 100 percent better yesterday!! I was in a lot of pain.

Well my stomach issues gave me an excuse to spend some more time in Barranquilla which allowed me to see some of the festivities of Carnival. Which Barranquilla is ranked 9 in the world, if you want an idea of what it's like Marty gras is ranked 10. Anyhow the actuall Carnival is not till February 18 - 21. But pretty much celebrated all month. They have parades and decorations and events going on all month! But the big party starts on Febuary 18 ... And last 4 days! This carnival ends the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday each year.

I was able to take part of the part of the pre carvinal festivities... The Garabato parade :]

I hope this is legal, but I took the information below from this website

http://www.festivalpig.com/Carnivals-of-the-World-Top-10.html

I can't type so much on my phone and the text does this weird thing where it combines words or combined just part of it.. Anyhow it's really annoying and makes the whole process of blogging that much slower, so please forgive me. But I want to give information on the Carnival. Also, my photos are not captioned just yet. I need to get to a computer to do... Here's my blog for now, hopefully I'll find time to work on it soon.

"In 2003, UNESCO declared Barranquilla's carnival to be a Masterpiece of Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. Every year thousands of tourists delare Barranquilla's carnaval to be a Masterpiece of Partying. This festival is a fusion of European, African and Indian traditions. This begins four days before Ash Wednesday and reaches its climax the next Saturday during Batalla de las Flores/battle of the flowers where the colour of the Colombians come face to face in a unique battle of color, flowers, beauty, and peace. The typical carnival characters of Rey Momo, María Moñitas, and Hombre Caimán are involved in this parade as well as the carnaval queen, dwarves and large puppet heads!

The following day the Desfile de la Gran Parada/the great parade takes place with torito folk dances, Garabato dancers, and the dances of the hilanderas/spinners. There is also the 84th Street Parade also known as the Funeral of Joselito Carnaval where the carnival queen dresses in black throwing flowers at everyone and mourns the loss of Joselito. Joselito is a festival character for everyone to impersonate or carry a figure of, it signals the end of the celebrations and Dios Momos big party."

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