Today is the globos festival (balloon festival) - imagine making hot air balloons out of tissue paper - all shapes and sizes (some huge) then soak a maxi-pad in kerosene in the bottom, setting that alight (yes guys, fire and paper - a great combination) so it heats up the air and carries the balloon up into the sky - if you're lucky that is - if you're not, the whole thing catches fire and falls back down on whoever happens to be standing there. This happens ALOT and when the reckage falls back onto the soccer pitch all the kids run towards it to stomp out the flames. It is something to see that is for sure. The lady who owns the hotel down the street was telling us that one year they had a balloon and it came down in a farmers corn field and they had to pay for the entire crop since it caught on fire. I guess the lesson learned here is don't put your name on your balloon! Later that night trev and i went to have dinner at la tasca, a nice restaurant on the lake at the end of our street and a balloon came down in the lake. This was hours later.....they just keep sending them up until there are no balloons left. Here is a link from Youtube which captures the admosphere much better than I ever could: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WZCIkjXl0VI.
The crowd roars as the balloons head for hydro wires and applaud madly when they miss and soar off into the sky, or over the carretera (the mainhighway through the village)
This event is held every year around Sep. 16 (Independence Day) and is a huge crowd favourite. They have dancers and bands on the field and people selling baloons and cotton candy - quite the festival and very exhilerating.
Its sponsored by the Red Cross - so maybe they're trying to drum up business,, who knows, but everyone sure has a great time. It's held on the soccer field next to the bullring here in town, followed by the horse rodeo tomorrow.
No comments:
Post a Comment