Scenes from La Cabalgata in Medellin
Every year around this time Medellin, the “City of Eternal Spring”, explodes into a colorful and vibrant week long celebration. La Feria de las Flores, the Flower Festival, honors the regions flower industry, one of the largest suppliers in the world. The festival, which has been alive for over five decades, delivers all sorts of entertainment to Paisas and tourists from around the world.
Last Saturday, the main streets along the Medellin River where shut down for the annual Cabalgata (which can best be translated into “the horse & drunk cowboy parade”). Thousands of horses, cowboys, and cowgirls (more than I had expected to see) poured into Medellin and set out for a day full of riding and partying.
A group of friends and I set up a tent along one of the main roads first thing Saturday morning and we waited for the parade to begin. We barbecued and drank tons of Aguardiente and ron (rum), and by the time the parade kicked off, we were well into our tailgate.
A number of different military groups led the parade dressed in full uniform. As they marched through the streets of Medellin, the crowd cheered them on and the men and women smiled and saluted. A sense of honor and pride for Colombia grew stronger and stronger among the crowd as these brave men and women continued leading the parade.
Most of the cowboys and cowgirls that followed were dressed in traditional Paisa gear… a poncho, a sombrero, boots, and a bottle of Aguardiente attached to their mouths. As the day progressed the parade slowly evolved into a city wide party where the cowboys/girls began offering onlookers free rides and liquor and the crowd began offering the mounted men and women arepas and chorizo.
The Cabalgata is definitely an event worth experiencing and it’s a true representation of what Medellin is all about… family, friends, good food, and a great time!
_________
This post was written by Ana Rodriguez.
Dear Anna, could you please correct the first paragraph, the information is wrong. Bellow you will find when the first festival was done, more than 50 years ago, and the definition for DECADE.
The first’ flower’ carnival was realized the first of May in 1957, under the initiative of the illustrious” Antioqueño” Arturo Uribe, a member of the tourist and foment’ bureau, like a tribute to the month’ flowers. At this time it was only an incipient five’ day’ celebration without the today’ brightness, with stalls in many places of the city and private’ parties in the social’ clubs.
dec·ade (dek′ād′; also, and for 3 usually, dek′əd, -id; Brit also di kād′, də-)
noun
a group of ten
a period of ten years; esp., in the Gregorian calendar
OFFICIALLY a ten-year period beginning with the year 1, as 1921-1930, 1931-1940, etc.
in common usage, a ten-year period beginning with a year 0, as 1920-1929, 1930-1939, etc.
Mr F. R.
Thanks for reading Medellin Living, and the correction to this post, however there’s no need to be condescending about it.
Dave
(blog administrator)
Thanks for pointing that out. I meant to write “century”. I hope you enjoyed reading about the cabalgata.
-Ana