Medellin day 7

Today I will most likely visit the Modern Museum that I didn't visit yesterday. I will be taking the Metro train to get there.

I seem to be resisting using my free bike registration that I spent a few hours getting. Even though there are bike lanes, the traffic scares me a bit. Today is Sunday. A couple things. They close streets to be exclusively used by bikes and it is Sunday. Maybe the streets won't be as busy.

Stay tuned.

I left the hostel this morning fully intending on going to the Museo de Arte Moderno de Medellin, the Modern Art Museum. Along the way I started seeing pride flags here and there. It is Pride Month. I decided to check the internet for when the Pride Parade would be in Medellin. It's today! The internet said it was starting at 11 am.

I asked a few people where the parade route was and I was directed to Parque de Luz. I had been there, so I knew where it was.

At Parque de Luz I found that this was the staging point for the parade, so I just walked around exploring. There were quite a few people there, but not anything close to how many would be there in a couple hours.

Another thing I noticed on the way was the reduced number of vendors on the street. I thought maybe because it was Sunday and some businesses were closed. Arriving at Parque de Luz, I think all the vendors from other parts of the city had converged on the Parque de Luz selling their normal fruit and snacks. Now all the Gay Pride paraphernalia was added to the mix. Flags, headbands, scarfs, t-shirts, pins and everything else you can imagine.

Shopping around, I was found a more suitable t-shirt and hat to replace the brown polo shirt and camoflage  had I had on. 

Several times during the day, when the photographers were not shooting flamboyant parade participants, I became their subject. I had to take a selfie of myself to figure out why. Must have had some relationship to my age.

I knew the parade would be big. I saw at least 12 semi truck with 40' trailers built out like stages to participate in the parade.

From what I saw on line, the parade was supposed to start about 10. I arrived at the park a little after 10. Although people were starting to arrive, it was not yet crowded. I think there were more vendors that marchers and observers.

11 am, there was no sign that the parade was going to start any time soon. The only activity was on the parked main reviewing trailer. 12 pm came and went. By 1 pm things start happening. There is active staging going on in preparation for the parade to begin.

In front of where I was, a marching band and their dance groups were doing their warm up exercise. The drummers included some tones, like notes in their drumming, I was trying identify how they were doing it, but I never did. 

Finally at 1:30, things were on the move. Lead by the band and dance group, followed by several smaller groups with banners representing different organizations. Then came the big trucks. Each one sponsored and decorated by a different bar or entertainment venue.

Each with a large, quiet industrial generator to power their sound system and lighting. They all had a stage structure similar to what you see at concerts to support the roof, decorations and side rails to keep the on board dancers from falling into the crowd.

Most had a DJ at the back of  the trailer blasting out the dance music on very professional sound system. 

Each truck was then followed by a thousand or more marches dancing and singing along with what must be very popular dance music.

As expected there were a lot  of  pretty flamboyantly dressed  people both on the trailers and in the crowd. 

My guess is there were close to 100,000 people either marching with parade or having come to watch.

I will probably do a few  more edits on this page, so If you want, check back later.