Ten historic sailing ships arrived in Cartagena Wednesday, after 107 days on the open sea, to celebrate the bicentenary of Colombia’s independence, reports El Universal.
On board the ships, which departed from Rio de Janeiro in Brazil, are crews from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Ecuador, Chile, the U.S., Spain, Uruguay, Colombia and Venezuela. The ships stopped off at ports such Buenos Aires in Argentina and Valparaiso in Chile, during their three month voyage to Cartagena.
While in Cartagena, the crews will attend the Sail 2010 Cartagena de Indias festival, which will be inaugurated Thursday with a ceremony in homage to the Independence hero Simon Bolivar, followed by a parade performed by the 4,000 sailors attending the event.
Sail 2010 will run until Saturday and will feature a gastronomy festival, concerts and sports competitions.
Expecting 150,000 visitors, organizers say 50,000 passes to the free event have so far been distrubuted.