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Competition at its Finest

On Sunday, the competition began.  The 65 groups that were competing this year performed their routine at the stadium - Estadio Libertador Simon Bolivar.  The groups waiting to perform would parade through the streets to the Estadio and once completed, they would parade away from the Estadio.  In essence, they were dancing and parading all day and all night!!!!!  It was beautiful!

We went to the competition about 10 AM and it had already been going on since 7 AM.  When we left at 6 PM, they were only on the 55th group.  It was obviously going to be a late night!

As you can see in the pictures, the costumes were incredible!  The colors magnificient!  We never got tired of watching!  And the dancing......Each group performed a dance routine similar to our marching bands which was judged by a panel of judges.  After the parade through town on Monday, a winner would be announced. 

There were thousands of people participating - Omar said around 13,000, but I would guess closer to 50,000.  They were all ages, all shapes and all sizes!  I don't know where they got their stamina and they still had another day to go!

Each night after the conclusion of their performance and parading, each group would retire to a specified place and have an after party.  How did they do it???  We were exhausted just watching! 

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