Colom­bian Am­bas­sador Alre­do Ri­as­cos and his wife Judy host­ed a re­cep­tion on Fri­day at New­town Cen­tre, Mar­aval Road, Port-of-Spain to cel­e­brate the 202nd an­niver­sary of the In­de­pen­dence of Colom­bia and the open­ing of the new of­fices of the Em­bassy and Con­sulate. High­light of the evening was a spe­cial pre­sen­ta­tion of the Car­ni­val of Bar­ran­quil­la Band and the School of Ca­bil­do Drums.

In his ad­dress, Am­bas­sador Ri­as­cos said, "We are aware of the cul­ture and folk­lore as­pect of T&T. You be­lieve that you have the best car­ni­val in the world and we al­so be­lieve that Car­ni­val in Baran­quil­la is the best in the world." Am­bas­sador Ri­as­cos an­nounced three steps for cul­tur­al ex­changes. The first step told guests, was the bring­ing of a band from Bar­ran­quil­la Car­ni­val, which is on­ly two hours away from T&T by plane.

The sec­ond step he said, is that the Car­ni­val or­gan­i­sa­tion of Bar­ran­quil­la is go­ing to hold the first meet­ing of Caribbean Car­ni­val or­gan­i­sa­tions next Oc­to­ber. The fi­nal step the Am­bas­sador said is to have a re­al Car­ni­val in­te­gra­tion with the par­tic­i­pa­tion of bands from T&T in Bar­ran­quil­la and like­wise, bands from Bar­ran­quil­la par­tic­i­pate in the Car­ni­val of T&T next year.

Guardian's pho­tog­ra­ph­er AN­DRE ALEXAN­DER cap­tured some im­ages of the pre­sen­ta­tion of the Car­ni­val of Bar­ran­quil­la Band and the School of Ca­bil­do Drums.