Delirio: Hecho en Cali!

Delirio is a salsa/circus/orchestra show that, as the title says, is made in Cali.  The performance we saw (which turned out to be the premier of the newest show) was "María, un Delirio de Amor", which Carlos explained to us was a Colombian version of Romeo and Juliet.  It is based on a novel written by Jorge Isaacs in which cousins Maria and Efrain fall in love, but are torn apart when Efrain must move to London to continue his studies.  Returning years later, he finds that Maria has died.  In the show I couldn't quite decipher what happened next, either Efrain married a ghost, Maria came back to life and they married, Efrain died and married Maria or Efrain married someone else all together.  Hard to say. 

Regardless, the performance was amazing and the dancing and gymnastics/aerobatics blew me away.  If you watch the dancers' feet on the video, it would be easy to think it is double time; it's not.  We got an extra treat when we discovered that there was also a Michael Jackson tribute portion of the show "Nadie es Igual".  This made the $120.000 pesos more than worth it for me; all of the free stuff they handed us as we walked down the read carpet helped too.  This is a production that I think is worth seeing again, although I would probably wait for the next show for a little variety.  Next time friends or family visit I would love to take them to see this because even if you don't love salsa I think anyone can appreciate the talent it takes to perform in this show.

Now, I thought about titling this blog "Why Technology Hates Me (But Really It's Usually My Fault)", but then decided people would be more likely to want to read about awesome salsa/circus shows in Colombia than hear me complain more.  That doesn't mean I'm not going to complain, but I'll try to keep it to a minimum.  You see, we went to Delirio a week ago, and it has taken me about that long to finally figure out a way to finalize and upload the video that I made of snippets from the show.  First, Windows Movie Maker would crap out anytime I tried to rewind in the video as I was editing it.  Weird.  Then when it was finally done (several hours and restarts later) it wouldn't upload to Blogger.  As I tried to upload it to YouTube, I discovered that it wasn't actually in a video, but a project file.  Oops.  Save as video file, wait ridiculously long time for save, upload to Blogger.  Wrong. No matter how long I left it to upload I would come back to an un-uploaded video.  Several days of trying and finally decided to upload the video to YouTube and then post THAT to Blogger...after it uploaded to YouTube for more than 230 minutes.  Por fin, I have a video for you, and while I am not requiring you to watch it, I think it is worth the 5 days it took for me to succeed.  Even if I have a shaky video hand and there are people occasionally talking in the background.  Insider tip: if you click "watch on YouTube" you can watch it full screen.  Enjoy.

Also, we're kind of famous as this is on the Delirio Facebook page,
along with a few others.

Quien lo Vive, es Quien lo Goza: Carnaval de Barranquilla

I couldn't have said it better myself Barranquilla.  Translated as "Who lives it, is who enjoys it," this serves as the slogan mantra for Carnaval de Barranquilla and seems to fit just about perfectly.  Every year Barranquilla hosts one of the world's oldest and largest celebrations to kick off the Lenten season, starting four days before Ash Wednesday.  We got lucky this year since because 1. we had a three day weekend the same time as carnaval and 2. we are friends with Kristin & Kelsi.  While I had absolutely no idea that Barranquilla had a very large and very popular carnival every year, Kelsi & Kristin have been trying to go for the last two years that they have been in Colombia.  Learning from past experience, they got on top of things in September with booking flights and hotel and were gracious enough to invite everyone else to join in the fun; we ended up having a group of 10 in total. 

 

Colorful and fun shoes I wanted to buy.
Unfortunately 8 is not a common size.

After what seemed to be an endless day of teaching, we flew out from Cali at 7pm on Thursday and spent our first night walking around close to our hotel before calling it a night.  Friday called for some very necessary poolside time and reading before we made our way out in search of some costume wear for the parade on Saturday.  There was plenty to choose from with so many traditional parade costumes, like the Marimonda: a long nosed, floppy earred, bright vest and suspender wearing character.  This is typically the most popular since it is unique to Barranquilla.  There was street after street of costumes, it was a bit overwhelming.  In the end, most of us decided on crazy neon shirts cut and retied so be extra obnoxious.  Needless to say, this was a great addition to my hot pink shorts I was sure to pack.

Traditional carnaval costumes turned into purses!



Jeep decked out as a Marimonda

Friday night after dinner we found ourselves a cumbia (pronounced (kūm'bē-ə not kum-ba-ya as my brain seems to always revert to.  Embarrassing.) concert in a very large open field; yeah, I judged it too when I first realized I was standing in a big open field, but it was actually a lot of fun.  We eventually made it to the very front near the stage, which I thought would be a nightmare, but as it turns out, Colombians are pretty tranquilo; there was no pushing or fighting for space, everyone was simply there to live it, enjoy it and have a good time.  The cumbia music was practically non-stop the entire night; the shrill sound of the flute takes some getting used to, but the music is really quite beautiful and one can't help but move to the rhythmic beats.  Here is a clip of some of the music, not the best quality, but its all I have to offer.

When Saturday morning rolled around, it was time to prep for the big parade, the Batalla de las Flores (Battle of the Flowers).  After breakfast, we gathered our things and eventually the girls left without the boys as they had things to attend to.  Later we learned they had made shirts with their picture on them and couldn't pick them up until 11.  After about a 15-20 minute walk we made it to the line to go through security into the parade area.  After waiting and walking in the sun, I got a little sass when some women tried to cut us in line somethings along the lines of "Hay una fila.  El fin es por alla" (dramatic point).  As you can imagine that got little reaction and then I decided to give up on being frustrated, which is good considering how much more difficult getting to our mini-palco seats would be. 

Although the carnaval is a massive event that practically shuts the entire city down, it was difficult to find anyone who could actually tell us where our seats were located, since obviously the cross streets on the tickets were inaccurate.  Of course.  After wandering down countless crowded streets I selflessly offered to the group "I have no problem if we start telling people I can't walk and we need to get to our seats ASAP".  This is because I was sporting a lovely hinged knee brace due to a very special fall during my volcano hike which may have left me with a torn MCL.  I digress.  So we started telling police officers a parade people I couldn't walk and they had to take us to our seats NOW.  Didn't really work.  Eventually we did find a very large, very helpful military man, who delegated to a significantly smaller badged security officer who escorted us to our seats.  This resulted in a gringa parade for all those already in their seats as we walked the parade route to minipalcos 46 & 47.  Por fin.  And then about 10 minutes later the boys joined, who ALSO had to have an escort because no one could tell them how to get to the seats either.  Go figure. 

Once the parade started, nothing else mattered; it was full of entertaining dances and music, extravagant costumes with absolutely gorgeous colors and patterns.  Not to mention that all of this went on for five hours.   Marathon parade.  I could continue my attempts at describing the event, but I think pictures do a better job in this case.

The sanitation men of Barranquilla, one of the best performances!

What a costume!

Creepy/Crazy/Cool

Two of the more traditional Carnaval costumes

Lots of people dressed as animals and/or warriors

Plenty of extravagant floats as well.

After we lost some friends to the parade (not casualties, they jumped in) we made our way back to the hotel and then found a sushi/pizza restaurant.  I'm sorry, I meant heaven.  My too favorite foods in one convenient location?  I think I love you Barranquilla.  After cleaning up, some of use headed to a a street party, but I didn't last long.  The day had taken its toll and I was definitely ready for some sleep.  Sunday we had an afternoon flight and therefore would miss the parades and activities for the day, so we spent the morning doing more street browsing and shopping.  I left Barranquilla with a new Wayuu handcrafted mochila, three art pieces for our apartment, a beaded necklace, a woven compact mirror turned earring holder, some sunglasses and of course my fancy carnaval t-shirt and bow. 

Typical artisan stand

Of course a great weekend can never just be great, we ended up with a 2 hour delayed flight in Barranquilla that led to us missing our connecting flight in Bogota by about 2 minutes, which meant we didn't get home until 1 am Sunday night, and had to teach the next morning.  Woof.  Regardless, it was a great weekend and there is definitely talk of going back next year.

Salsa!

Although learning to salsa dance is one of those to-do list things, I have spent a lot of time down here in Colombia avoiding salsa at all costs.  At school functions any and every man will offer a hand to take any girl to the dance floor, and unfortunately I have fallen victim to this on a couple occasions despite my "no se nada"s and "necesito aprender"s as we venture to the dance floor.  It's not that I have anything against salsa, I do want to learn, but through lessons, not embarrassment.  For my birthday in November, David got me 2 salsa lessons, which we have yet to take.  His fault, not mine.  I did take that one salsa class in high school and have been Zumba-ing my way around our little living room lately so perhaps my salsa skills will start on their upward trend. 

Last weekend two of our co-workers, Stetson and Beatriz, had a black and white party for their 30th birthdays at Tienda Vieja.  And I just remembered that David and I had our picture there, we're famous!  While I was hesitant to accept David's offer of a little salsa dancing at first, eventually I got onto the dance floor and practiced my salsa steps.  The basics are fairly simple and I did actually remember some from that one class I had my junior year.  While everyone else out there was still better than me, I was beginning to feel a bit more comfortable and enjoyed dancing a bit.  And while I am the last person David is willing to take instruction from, we have some patient friends who were helping us out.

We took a break from dancing and were surprised by some real salsa dancing entertainment.  I was beyond impressed with their fast moving hips and feet, especially considering how young they looked.

 

After about four or five songs each dancer broke off and grabbed someone from the crowd to bring to the dance floor.  Of course David was picked (thank God it wasn't me) and while I scrambled to capture the moment I managed to get a snippet of the dance moves in video (sorry you have to watch it sideways).  David, as well as all the other people pulled to the floor, were eventually pawned off to strangers as the dancers went to grab more people from the crowd.  Although I had begun to feel comfortable with salsa, my stomach still knotted up each time one of the male dancers approached the 5 foot radius around me.  Luckily I never got chosen, I'm sure they could sense my fear.

Once Was More Than Enough

Another part of the Christmas celebrations in Cali is a series of bull fights the four Saturdays before the holiday; after all, feria sin toros no es feria (feria or "fair" is the name of the of the time and celebrations leading up to Christmas) .  These events take place in at the Plaza de Toro in Cali, which happens to be the largest bull fighting arena in Colombia, and fairly large in comparison to others that our friend Wojciech visited in Spain.  When our Spanish teacher Nora offered us free tickets to the bullfight, we eagerly accepted, wanting to experience more of the Colombian culture while we are here.  I did not, however, know that the bulls are killed.  Did you?  How sad.  After Nora told us this I was a little less eager, but we decided it would still be an interesting adventure to see what the atmosphere was like t one of these events.  And so last Saturday, December 10th, we set off to the Plaza with Woj, Mike and Jeff (it turned into another boys + Cassie day) and an open mind. 

By the time the first bull was set loose into the arena, the plaza was nearly full with people and lots of families and kids, which I was surprised by.  David of course made a friend with the older Colombian gentleman sitting next to us who spoke pretty good English from having lived with an American family in Cali for nearly 20 years.  Situations like this are always amusing as we try to practice our Spanish speaking to them and they respond in English, it can get confusing.  I don't have a whole lot to say about the experience other that I would not do it again: once was more than enough.  Me and my open mind were able to see the skill involved in what the matadors were doing and I can see where the excitement and spectatorship come from, if you can get past what is actually being done to these bulls (which I will not discuss in detail).  And although the odds lie greatly in favor of the matador, my favor part was when one of them turned his back on the bull (something they all did) strutting with pride about whatever move he had just made and the bull came after him form behind.  Go bull!  Unfortunately, the end was the same for this bull as it was for all the others.  We were assured that they are well taken care of up until the time of the event, and they do not get thrown to waste, but are used for meat afterward, but I'm not sure that made it any better. 

Matadors entering the arena.

Pretty full plaza.

Woj, Jeff and Mike watching the bull fight.

So, yes, this could have been one of those things I take a stance on and refuse to go to for the sake of animal right, but the events were going to happen anyway and I looked at this strictly as a cultural experience.  In other words: please don't judge me.  I didn't enjoy it and I won't likely ever go again, but I think it is important to be willing to understand and at least attempt to find appreciation for the traditions of other cultures and countries, even if they may seem a bit gruesome. 

Christmas Time in Cali

This post is coming a little late, as Christmas in Cali sees to actually start mid to late November. I'm not kidding.  By the flirt week on December the holiday decoration section in Exito has turned into a toy and gift section as any Caleño clearly already has their decorations up by then.  But there's good reason for this.  In Cali, as well as the rest of the country, Christmas is a month long celebration, almost.  The season usually kicks off December 8th with celebration of the Immaculate Conception, the conception of Mary, not the conception of Jesus as many people quickly assume; do the math: December 8th to December 24th?  This isn't some creepy vampire-human pregnancy.  I can't believe I just made a Twilight reference (actually, I kinda can); if you don't get it just smile and read on.  Anyway, on the night of the 7th people celebrate the conception of Mary by lighting candles to guide her into their homes, also known as Día de las Velitas, Day of the Little Candles.  Bolivar invites the school community to celebrate the Friday before, which is where I go most of my velitas fix.  It was amazing to see so many families, faculty and staff there celebrating with candles, food, music and of course Santa.  Don't tell the kiddos, but it was actually Allain the physics teacher, not Santa.

Everywhere you go in Cali is decorated for Christmas, and there is an especially huge lights display in the north in the Rio Cali, the Alhumbrada.  The display itself is not specific to Christmas, the theme this year in fact was "Myths & Legends" and on the night of the 7th friends and I went to view the beautiful display after some cookie decorating and ornament making.

La Muneca

A favorite of my red-headed-mohawk-sporting-biology-teaching
 science neighbor friend Stetson.

Cutie Patootie

Although it was rainy and the ground was muddy (poor Lauren was in sandals!) and there were HUGE crowds, it was all together a pretty cool view and experience.  Can't wait to see next year's display!