Durban July

Ever been to the Kentucky Durby?
Me neither. But I imagine that Durban July is on the same scale. On Friday morning Michelle and I wake up in Durban and hear everywhere, on the radio, the news, the street posts, about this Durban July. By chance, we are here on that very weekend!! Here's a webiste you can browse to find out more information on the event: http://www.vodacomdurbanjuly.co.za/.
Lady luck was with us! We ran to the mall to find shiny bright outfits and high heels to wear to this event. It turns out that the rest of the Gautang Province was in the same situation. Gautang Province is where Michelle and the rest of the big-city-lifers reside. Durban is their holiday getaway. The Mall was packed with Lexus, Mercedes, and BMW cars with GP on them. Despite the competition however, I think Michelle and I rocked up to those horse races looking like royalty. The only thing we were missing were the huge hats.
Bold Silvano trained by Mike de Kock (For real, that's his name) won the main race. Michelle and I continued to socialize with people of all kinds. Some interesting ones were the locals who approached her asking if she was a swimmer simply by looking at her shoulders. Another is a Spanish and Chilean guy that I stopped in their tracks to talk to because I overheard them speaking spanish. This is rare in South Africa.
The horse races were exhilerating. First you here the thunder of their hooves on the grass, then in an instant you watch these huge animals fly by with teeny tiny very very tiny riders on their backs. What fun!
My favorite part, however, had to be the very last and very unique race. As Michelle and I started to wander away from the course we hear loud cheers from the crowd. I looked up to see where they were all looking then realized there were about 25 guys walking onto the racing track in their underwear. Suddenly, the underwear was off!...then they were off!!...racing, Mustang Style, down the track commando. Stay tuned for pics of that one. ;)