Carnaval de blancos y negros

The 31 of December I went to Cali  to celebrate New Year with the other exchange students. After two days in Cali we went to Pasto by bus.
There are two big carnavals in Colombia: the most famous one in Branquilla and the one in Pasto. The one in Pasto: carnaval de blancos y negros is a more cultural festival. The first day we bought a poncho, a hat, sunglaces and foam, lots of foam, ready for carnaval! You may question yourself: why did I need this..? Well, in the first place carnaval is a parade of beautiful cars. After the parade, there is the war with flower, talk and foam. No one is safe for this war, NO ONE!  I can honestly say that I was really happy I bought these things to protect myself.

Like I already said, carnaval in Pasto is a cultural festival. It's called carnaval of the blancos y negros. They celebrate the fact that different kind of races can live together.

The people in Pasto prepare the whole year for this. There were several days, the first day some guys from our exchange participated in the parade. The next day was the day of the negros (black), when you walked in the street and you were white, you would go home black.

The last day was the most important day. Beautiful cars came by. Amazing how many imagination they have to build them. I was really lucky that I knew some people on one of the cars and I was able to enter it, I loved it!

Off to the next carnaval in Baranquilla!!!

Medellin

After the trip to the Amazone, I went for 2 weeks to Medellin with a friend from Belgium who lives there. Medellin is the capital city of Antioquia. The city is more known for Pablo Escobar, who was a leader in the drugs traffic. I know Medellin as a city of art, technology and beautiful people.
City of art: I visited the modern art museum in Medellin. A beautiful place where you can find art pieces over the whole world. One of the most famous artists of Colombia is Fernando Botero. He is known for his special technic: big!

It's almost Christmas and this is one of the highlights of the year everywhere in the world. This is not different in Colombia. They love to decorate their houses and everywhere you look, you can see lights, many lights. We went to see the lights with the chiva (partybus). The lights in Medellin are famous over whole Colombia and with reason, beautiful!

A loooonggg time ago, before lights and technology, a meteorite landed a little bit out of Medellin. I visited the Peñol, it's incredable.

We went all the way to the top. I can't describe the view with words...

I also visited pueblo paisa, this was the very beginning of the city. It is a beautiful little town where you can find the typical native houses from when the city was founded.

City of technology: Medellin is the first city in Colombia with a metro and a metrocable. When you go in the metrocable you have the most beautiful view over the city.

After 12 incredable days I had to go back to San Andres. Preparing everything for Christmas. Christmas was very cosy and very nice, but also a little weard to me, I've never been at the beach the 25th of december.
Merry Christmas!