Rumba (Party)

Friday was our friends Terrences birthday. Terrance and I refer to each other as primos (cousins) since we are both second generation Americans whose mom's family is Sicilian and father's family Irish...and he looks like he could be in my family.

We had been thinking about this party but when we found out it was the weekend of the elections, meaning it was Ley Seca (a dry weekend with no drinking allowed) the plans were changed many times...

His initial plan was to hire a Chiva.....A chiva, literally means goat but here in Cali it is a bus (picture below.) A chiva bus is commonly used for country people to come to the city and load up with goods or sell goods like goats or vegetables. When you see a chiva it is loaded down with both goods and people riding inside and on top. But a chiva is also a party bus that crawls around the city blaring music well the people inside are dancing (a lot of bumping and grinding) and drinking. Since it was a dry weekend the Chiva was canceled!

The next idea was a trip to San Cipriano, a place where we had all met. But when the Colombians found out about this plan our plan was changed again. We were told that Election weekend is a very bad weekend to travel, there is a lot of tension and in the past Revolutionary groups like the FARC have placed roadside bombs and set up road blocks for kidnapping.....which after some consideration did not seem like very much fun at all....especially for your birthday.

But finally it was settled we were heading just a little bit out of town to a finca where we would all party and spend the night but when that plan fell through on Thursday our roof top was the next best thing.

Since our house is an ideal party spot we have had the great experience of throwing a few get togethers but none quite as grand as this one. From the neighbors we borrowed a barbeque , and chairs, and speakers and music. We prepared some food, bought some booze before the dry law went into effect, made a play list and sent out the message.

Colombian parties are unique in many ways, one being that many people show up with out booze, another being that dancing is the main objective and another (perhaps the hardest to deal with) is the fact that parties go till dawn, even when the hosts want to go to bed!

I gave up at 5:00am and snuck into bed, leaving Aaron to deal with the stragglers. In the morning our tienda lady pretended to arrest us for drinking during ley seca and then told us the police where in the street wondering where the party was but couldn't tell where the music was coming from. I am glad they didn't find us.

Sara, Terrence, Bruce Lee and Me

 

A short video of the night