Batalla de Flores, The Day After
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr")Every year, on the last Friday of August, the nearby beach town of Laredo holds the Batalla de Flores (Flower Battle), which consists of parade floats decorated with flowers and young girls. It's always a very beautiful event. This year the weather was terrible, i.e. raining and cold. The Batalla, however, is not really an event that can be postponed, since each float is decorated with 100% real flowers, all specially harvested and attached to the floats for that one specific date. So they had the Batalla anyway. We chose not to go, because the event is only barely worth the impossible effort to park and the crowds, so in the rain, forget about it! Luckily for my blog readers, however, we went the day after to examine the exhibition of floats.
The creativity and quality of the designs were absolutely staggering. Sometimes it's easy to forget that these are 100% real flower petals!!! In the 2D photos, it's sometimes hard to appreciate the shapes amongst all the bright colors. It's a contest, and every year there's a winner, but the winner seemed completely arbitrary since the quality of each float was so outstanding. I can't even begin to imagine how much work goes into these things every year.
Enjoy...
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") All the floats lined up on one street for the exhibition.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr")
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Wagon wheel of flowers.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") They really are real flowers!
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") A merry-go-round horse.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr")
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Some sort of dancing flame thing?
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") A Betty Boop sort of character singing with turtles playing the guitar.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Horsemen from Andalucia.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Some sort of parrot-like bird.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") A Phoenix?
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Some shoe-wearing insect.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Mermaids scare me.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Cats and birds, oh my!
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Polly want a flower?
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Sea horse.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") An octopus eating a lighthouse. Sure, why not?
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Some Chinese symbology.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Wait, how is the Venetian gondola gonna pass under that bridge?
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Pinocchio and his creepy puppet master.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Jousting knights.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Winnie the Pooh, with his friend the giraffe, the ducks, and the elephant. Christopher, I don't think we're in the Hundred Acre Wood anymore.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Mardi Gras-esque masks.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr")
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Nemo always looks so scared!
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Pinocchio from the other side.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") What a liar!
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Flower close-up. You can see the nail through the center of each.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr")
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Okay, so the hands aren't made of flowers.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Ballerina.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Freaky kitty.
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr")
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr")
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr")
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr")
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") An iguana?
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr")
by erikrasmussen, on Flickr") Smiley whale!
Needless to say, the whole exhibition smelled pretty good. It was almost more fun to see the floats the day after than it is during the parade when they move by so quickly. The amount of work put into these things is incredible. I applaud every last participant. Bravo!