Hello everyone! I am back today with another awesome blog post for you today about our current time here in Colombia! So in case you didn’t know, in Colombia, it is currently the Carnaval season and everyone is going insane! Everyone is wearing fancy costumes and are making festive floats and decorations that cover the streets in bright colors. So we dropped in on the party right on time, got the first-hand experience of Carnaval in a big city, and why people love it so much. Carnaval was divided into 3 distinct parts called the “Battle of the Flowers”, the “Great Parade of Tradition and Folklore”, and the “Great Parade of Groups”(Also called the Great Fantasy Parade). Each day one of these parades are played and today I will share how those days were for me and how my experience in Colombia was so far.
After my family and I flew over to Colombia, we met our two hostesses for the rest of our time there named Narida and Elisa Sofia. They drove us to our new apartment and the apartment was awesome! I finally got my own room after months of waiting and the whole place was surprisingly neat and cozy.
So after an exhausting day, we woke up early the next day went to the first part of the Carnaval: The Battle of the Flowers. At this Carnaval, we sat for 2 hours in the blazing sun while waiting for the Carnival to start because we got there too early. When the parade finally started though, it was an awesome experience that I think everyone should experience at least once. Marvelous floats, dances, and costumes paraded down the streets and they were all so bright, funny, and traditional that I think everyone should experience is. People also threw flowers everywhere, hence the name “The Battle of the Flowers”. I thought it was a really fun day and later that night we visited a really cool monument and we had dinner at a really famous restaurant with Elisa and Narida.
The next day we went to the same Carnaval location, although this time even though we arrived near the exact time we had to wait another 1 hour because the people were late. After the parade started though, it was a lot more vibrant than the first one and there were many more traditional dances and costumes, hence the name the “Parade of Great Tradition and Folklore”. There were significantly fewer floats and more people in costumes, but some themes I spotted were life against death and to always be vibrant in the face of darkness. I thought it was an awesome Carnaval and we went to sleep after a long day and watching a film called “Romancing the Stone” which Troy and Aba picked for us.
The next day, our last Carnaval experience began as we entered the “Great Fantasy Parade”. Supposedly, it was going to have a lot more diversity than its predecessors and even though I didn’t know it at the time, it was the best performance out of the 3 by a long shot. After 1 and a half hours of waiting, the ceremony actually began and we saw a bunch of elderly and disabled people doing traditional dances and wearing traditional clothing. I was not expecting that at all and it was a very awesome thing to see that all these people could still perform iconic songs and dances. We also saw many other people doing marvelous dances and the funniest part of the whole thing was when the queen of the Carnaval fainted! Well… it wasn’t funny but it was ironic. I mean, the queen of the Carnaval faints at the Carnaval. Tell me that’s not ironic with a straight face. Also, just a little fun fact about the Carnaval. We saw lots of people wearing funny-looking elephant masks that were actually based off of a homeless person named Marimonda who was homeless and created his own elephant mask for Carnival. It became a symbol of freedom and independence in Colombia and that was why so many people wore the mask. It was a very fun day at the Carnaval and I haven’t had a better party experience on this trip yet(Well… aside from my Bar Mitzvah obviously).
The next day, however, was completely different from the other three days because unlike going to the Carnival, we went to an old town called Cartagena. Cartagena is filled with lovely little shops, restaurants, and ancient ruins that have protected the city for centuries. We first met up with our driver, David, and we drove for an hour and a half to reach the city of Cartagena. Once we got there, we drove to a department store where we bought supplies and had a delicious burger for lunch(Now that I think about it, I haven’t had a burger in a while!), which really filled me up and prepared me for the long day ahead. We drove to an old, but very crucial fort called “Paseo de San Felipe de Barajas”, which was massive in size and supposedly defended the city from English invaders in the 1600s. It was filled with mortars, cannons, and steep slopes that were all very crucial in stopping the enemy and protecting the city. Once we were there, we saw a short movie about the history of the fort and how it endured for centuries against all types of invaders, which was very cool to me. After the movie was over, we decided to tour the city of Cartagena and we had a nice calamari dish for lunch, which was very good. Then, out of nowhere, two ladies approached us and asked if they could take photos of us for their company, “Memories”. It was fun actually and pretty exciting because now people will get to see me whenever they go there! After a long day of touring, we drove back to our apartment as a fire raged in the distance near the old town.
My educational goals about Havana:
Before I go, I want to inform you that my family and I are going to Havana, Cuba, for one week as a part of our homeschool curriculum. We will learn about the people, the government, and the Jewish community there and these are the top three things about Havana that I want to know more about. The first thing I want to know more about is why Cuba’s relationship with the US hasn’t improved over time. Since the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cuba has been on bad terms with the US and I was surprised that since Obama made it legal to travel to Cuba in 2015 that they haven’t been on better terms. It really made me wonder how bad scarred relations can go and brings me to my next topic of choice: Why is Cuba stuck in time while the rest of the world evolves? I know that Cuba has bad relations with the US, but why hasn’t the place been improved to fit modern times? There is no free Wifi and cars there are all from the 1960s along with clothes and other stuff. Islands on the Caribbean evolved with time so why didn’t Cuba? I would really like to know the answer to this question because it has been bugging me for a while. Lastly, I want to learn about their culture and what religions they practice. There are many cathedrals dedicated to Catholicism and since it is a communist country, most people practice the same religion and live the same lifestyle. I would certainly like to know what it is like to live in the 1960s!