Innocence Day

Happy Innocence Day!

Greetings from the city touted as City of Surprises!

Yes, I have spent Christmas in Pasto, amidst some family members' protest. I decided t stay a little bit longer with a plan in mind to visit close good friends in the neighboring countries (namely: Peru and Bolivia).

Christmas was great! I have spent it with my friend's family and surprisingly even though I'm the only outsider I never felt out-of-place. They even made me sing in the tune of 'O come all ye Faithful' and one Filipino song. But one surprising thing is that I even received two gifts during the close in family Christmas Party! Hooboy...

Anyways, I'm supposed to write about Innocence Day. They came up with their own version of it :Dia del Agua...in which I still have to research how and why...

At first, nobody wanted to go outside for the fear of getting wet. And when I decided to bravely go out, all I heard was the BUENA SUERTES from them. Few minutes later I came back unharmed, safe and sound, and dry. At 9, the whole household decided to bring me to the streets to see how is it like outside. We were like thieves sneaking inside the car, vigilantly looking for possible water-thrower that were hiding behind bushes. We did get in safe, thanks God!

After successfully making the vuelta, we dicided to go home for a quick lunch. At the gate entrance we saw young people havig fun with water. The big barrel of water did escape my sight. As we were drawing near the parking lot, about 10 guys were also fast approaching. Julieta, Diana, Armando and I decided to stay inside the car for a while until the guys slowly disappeared out of sight. As I was in a hurry to get back home (tenia chichi) I opened the cardoor and slowly went out. And then the unexpected thing happened. All those guys suddenly appeared and snatched us (me and Diana) and forcibly dipped us in the barrel of water. Just imagine how wet I did get. Yet, surprisingly, I never felt a bit annoyed. Hell, that was fun!

And the fun didn't end there! In the afternoon we decided to join in PIAYO, which is like a dumptruck. It was loaded with ballons filled with water. In the streets were many people throwing each other water. I've never seen such chaotic yet very fun activity in my life!