Off the charts street party. Damn do these Paisas know how to party.

As soon as my head quits hurting and I detox my liver, I'll write about it.

Plop, plop, fizzzzz, fizzzzz!

OK. I am sipping on the hair of the dog again;

The ladies were proudly showing off their investments;

The plastic surgeons in the crowd were beaming with pride;

7,000+ horses in a parade that lasted well over 10 hours (I left at 11:00PM and they were still streaming by)

Big street party like Mardi Gras without floats or girls showing their (bare) tits but more cleavage and hard bodies than you would ever think about seeing at Mardi Gras.

Like a huge tailgate party without cars and barbecue grills.

Loud music blaring from competing stages and the people in the audience screaming delight with each new song.

Bottle after bottle of rum, Arguediente and I am sure lots of products considered illegal in the US being consumed, smoked, snorted or whatever;

Only three incidents reported in the paper;

1) Guy got his foot crushed when a horse stepped on it;

2) One guy had a heart attack but survived;

3) Some guy in the crowd made a "term of endearment" to one of the riders novias. She responded back to him. Her novia shot and killed both of them!!! Pretty brutal but he sobered up the net day and said he didn't even remember doing it......!

You would not probably party the whole week like the locals but the antique auto and the horse parades are something to see (well, the eye candy is anyway). Lot's of other concerts, free movies in parks, flower shows etc. going on all week. The whole city is in party mode for 11 days. Not a bad party to attend!

Now for the bad news. I arrived at my pre-planned viewing location, opened up my camera bag complete with extra fully charged batteries, cleaned my lenses, made all the settings on my camera for the location and vantage point and remembered......I cleaned off my memory card that morning and left my memory card in my computer!!!!! Oh well, something to look forward to next year. I did get some "OK" video but the crowds were just not conducive to getting good video footage. No matter how hard I tried. People kept bumping me, jumping in front of me with hats on, riders would pass by too quickly, a few stopped (and two are off the charts hotties) but most seemed intent to keep going by.

Later as the night turned into pure party atmosphere, I was kicking myself for not bringing my light attachment. Again, I got some good video of partiers and some excellent cleavage shots (some aided by their BF's) but it is with a dark background.

I can assure you, I will be fully prepared next year, have my vantage position staked out early so no one can obstruct my view, have plenty of batteries and memory cards and light attachments because I don't want to miss capturing this on camera again. Live and learn.

Just hope I live until next year.

Sandman, I will be there on Saturday. PM me your phone number and we'll hook up.