Happy Independence Days Nicaragua!

September 14th and 15th are Independence Days here in Nicaragua and they are THE celebrations of the year. The school bands have been practicing non-stop since July (seriously, more hours at practice than they are in the classroom), dancers have been learning routines and having costume fittings, primary students have been learning how to march in unison. It is a very big deal.

I must admit that I do love a good parade. In the US I didn´t think this was true but now I´m a fan of the Macy´s Day one and the ones here so...sign me up as a parade lover. I peeled myself out of bed yesterday morning, got ready, and headed out on foot across town (about 30 minutes) to the assembly point. Big mistake. I was sweating buckets before I even made it off my street! For relief I stopped at the bakery in the park. Yum :)

The kids were almost all there already. I dove head-first into the crowd of them and started taking in the spectacle and taking photos (which you can enjoy if you follow the new link under the photos section on the left). Everyone loves having their picture taken since they´re quite...done up. Here it´s sort of a cultural thing to have beauty and sexy mean the same thing; hence some of the more risquè outfits. But everyone was having a great time. Ice cream carts were abundant. The bands played as each best student was announced. It is quite the show.

Then it started raining, as I´m told it does every year. The girls ran for the cover of umbrellas to save their hair-dos. I think there were about ten people trying to fit under mine. The show must go on though! The parade started in a downpour (which let up two minutes later) and ended an hour and a half later in blazing sunshine. Oh weather...you saucy minx you.

I headed home to enjoy the comfort of my fan. There is just no way I can handle that heat for that long. And so I brought to a close my third and final Nicaraguan Independence Day celebrations. It was fun.