Tuesday, January 1, 2008

Happy New Years!

Fireworks-Locura.jpg
This was the grand finally of our own little fireworks show in the park around midnight last night. You wouldn't believe the quality and size of fireworks they sell here in the city.

The fireworks were a great ending to a nice night with friends at our apartment in Belgrano. We had our Ecuadorian friends Gaby and Estaban and a family of fellow US expats over for diner, wine and fireworks.

Stuck In the Elevator after Diner

My wife made the best chicken tacos along with black beans and mexican rice. It tasted just like back home in Texas. And we found out that Malbec goes almost as well with Mexican food as Beer, but not as well as say a Shiner Bock.

We were having such a good time, we lost track of time. At 11:45 we realized we needed to high tail it the park about 4 blocks away to setup our fireworks show. We all grabbed the Champaign and fireworks and headed for the elevator.

At the last minute, one other person jumped in and the elevator got stuck at the bottom. We didn't realize it at first. We just kept chatting away. The other part of our party finally gave up and went down the stairs.

The extra weight and the power problems caused the elevator to freeze up. When we all started to realize what was going on, it scared Mijo. He started crying for his mother. At that point, we decided to force the door open and hop out.

Now, we only had 5 minutes to get to the park. We did some pretty fast walking and made it to the park right at the stroke of midnight.


Our Own Private Fireworks Show

We started with one rocket on a 5 foot stick that came with it's own launch tube. It was a real crowd pleaser. We also had a 10 pack of rockets on 3 foot sticks. These were not your wimpy bottle rockets. Think bottle rocket on steroids. They packed a loud explosion with plenty of light. We had various other canon like shells about the size of a coke can that made for some nice displays of light and sound.

However, the one in the pic above we saved for the last—and it was by far the best. For several minutes it sent up one spectacular display after the other. Just when it seemed it was over, there was a loud thud and up went the biggest and loudest display that rivaled what you see in the professional firework shows.

The park is surrounded by several large apartment buildings and everyone was out on their balconies. When the "Locura" finally finished, everyone on the balconies broke out in applause.

I was blown away too.

3 comments:

My adventures said...

that sounds like a blast... no pun intended

Longhorn Dave said...

It was the best 4 of July... I mean New Years I have had in a long time.

(It was as hot as our 4th of July normally is and Fireworks to match unlike New Years back home.)

Anonymous said...

We had a great time!! pero... I was a bit afraid about Esteban hands carrying "locura" all the way to the park. Thanks for everything, it was a wonderfull night.
Hope you guys have a great time traveling across Argentina and hopefuly through route 40 by car!!!
Gaby and Esteban