This year, I attended the Chivas and Flowers Parade, part of the annual Feria de las Flores, for the first time.
The staging area for the 60-80 chivas was a street behind Ciudad del Rio, where I live.
I quickly learned the event is more than just a simple three-hour parade of Antioquia’s finest chivas through the streets of Medellin.
It’s also a competition, and the judging criteria goes much deeper than the paint jobs. The chivas are scored on their engines and mechanical parts too!
The winning chiva owner gets bragging rights, a new car, and the chance to have his/her chiva featured on the publicity for the following year’s parade.
Viviana and I initially arrived at 11 AM, three hours before the parade was due to start, yet there were already people claiming seats on chivas, especially the 2012 winner, which had the honor of leading the parade. Tickets were 36,000 pesos ($19).
At first, I thought it’d be a long, boring ride, but when we returned at 2 PM to watch the chivas take off, the atmosphere was much more exciting.
Some passengers were dressed up, while others were armed with carnival foam, and happy to spray it at everyone in sight.
The scene quickly reminded me that chivas are party buses, so it was clear the passengers were going to have a blast rumbling through the city.
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