I was asked recently what the best part of Colombia is, and for some reason the first thing that popped into my head was- Celebrations! Like I have previously posted, Colombians love to celebrate in the forms of school assemblies, days off (appropriately called “festivos”) and of course, festivals. I’ve been fortunate to enjoy the international theater and book festivals, and they just keep coming! Just this weekend, I attended three different celebrations. Appropriate for the weekend before Bogota's 474 birthday on August 7th. Here's some of the highlights of festing!
Festival del Verano
The summer festival is a two-week-long festival held in Simon Bolivar Park (bigger than Central Park!) annually. It's hard to pull off summer in a city without seasons and where the only weather change is apparently "windier this time of year." The festing consists of food, concerts, a fake beach, "swooping" (sky diving show?), sports competitions (just like the real olympics!) and kite flying. Stay tuned for the giant kite, or cometa, festival in Villa de Leyva at the end of the month.
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| Enjoying Mazorca (corn on the cob), I probably wouldn't have a sweater and jeans at any summer festival in the US |
The other weekend some friends of mine scored free tickets to "Ladies' Night" at the Colombian Circus Convention. It's not quite a festival, but it was just as fun and outlandish. The tagline to the show was "where the only animal is man" which they take quite literally. The circus played a 10 minute video about circus animal cruelty before the show. I am of course already 100% behind this cause, and the video was horribly graphic. I was glad to see the performers raising awareness and getting political of course. Then we watched this wonderfully hilarious show of jugglers and acrobats and more. Totally worth paying nothing for!
Alimentarte
The next festival is a play on words meaning food and art. Two things I am quite fond of. And this festival's proceeds support the "green heart" foundation for widows and children of killed police officers. There were food tents from nearly all the famous Bogotano restaurants. There were way too many options, so I went for an Indian samosa and a pata"cone" (plantain) with mexican ceviche inside. It was delicious, of course. And we all topped our bellies off with some classically delicious Popsy ice cream.
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Bogota's botanic gardens hosts regular "ecoyoga" events which, you guessed it, is basically a Colombian hippy-fest. There are stands with all the local vegetarian restaurants (there are tons, acutally!) Fresh products like homemade peanut butter (heaven!), hemp bags and shoes, and meditation/yoga necessities. This month's theme was "Returning to our indigenous roots" complete with dance shows and drum circles. There were also teenagers asking people to adopt trees and to sign up for group tree-planting excursions. Obviously, I have found my people. The gringas and I decided to opt out of collective yoga, and laid in the grass nearby for some sunshine. It was a lovely afternoon, and now I have a list of new veggie-friendly places to explore!
And that, in a nutshell, was this weekend. There's a heck of a lot going on in this big city, and I love taking advantage of all the benefits these celebrations bring: we explored new places, conquered new bus routes, tried new foods, and added to our list of reasons why Bogota is a great place to live.
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| The Wax Palm, national tree of Colombia. |
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