Carnaval in Mazatlan 2.4.08
We arrived in Mazatlan yesterday – just in time for Carnaval! Michael was tired once we got in and went down for a nap while Chad & I walked the docks and over to the other marina in the area, El Cid. El Cid is a marina and a hotel/resort right at the entrance to the harbor. Michael & I stayed at the resort about 3 years ago when we came to Mazatlan to visit Scott & Liz. The resort is very nice and has swimming pools that are open to the cruisers who are at the marina. Our buddy boat, Someday, is staying in El Cid marina and we met them at the pool to chat. Michael called me on the radio letting me know he was up and about so we walked back to Marina Mazatlan, where we are staying. Our other buddy boat, Seabird, with John & Linda on board is tied up two boats to our left and Michael was chatting with them when we arrived.
Chad made up some wasabi and cut up the Dorado he caught and we had sashimi for lunch! Yum… :-) We all got washed up and headed into town for Carnaval.
The parade started at 5:30pm and we were dropped off at the end of the parade route. I asked some locals and was told it wouldn’t get to this end until 9:30pm!! There were a TON of people! Everywhere you looked, all down the malecon, everywhere!! I have some photos, but it’s impossible to portray in pictures! There was a magnificent sunset and we walked down maybe ¼ of the way and found a lamp post to stand on and watch the parade. It started and I laughed as the first 3-4 floats were all sponsored by the beer companies – Tecate, Pacifico, etc. After the beer companies, the snack/bread company, Bimbo (like wonder bread) was next, Home Depot, a local car dealership with about 10 cars, etc. Stuff was thrown into the crowds – candy, pens, water bottles, packages of cookies, & CD’s. Again, I thought no way this would happen in the states! People were getting hit in the head with everything…it was really funny to watch & duck!! After about an hour, the parade seemed to have a break time! We decided to leave our post and find a bathroom. We were walking past a restaurant on the parade route and noticed a football game – wait it is SUPER BOWL!! We had totally forgotten. We walked in at 4th quarter, the score was 7-10. Seems we came in at the right time as it flipped and the Giants won – woohoo! We watched Super Bowl and met 3 people, Sylvia, Jaime, & Alex who were on their bicycles – bicycling down from Canada! We chatted with them for some time and ate dinner with them. They are also maintaining a website www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/myrtle check it out when you get a chance.
OK, back to the parade. There was about a 1 hour lull from the first floats to the next group. The first floats were like a flatbead with dancing girls & guys, then there were delivery trucks with the back opened up, throwing goodies out of the back. Then there were the cars for sale…then came the good floats. The 2nd ‘session’ were home-grown floats not sponsored by major companies. They were floats also with dancers on board, but with very elaborate decorations similar to the Rose Parade. I hope you can see the detail in the pictures. Since we missed a couple floats because of watching superbowl, we headed down to the end of the parade route. It was a squeezing match to get through and took us a ton of time. Everyone in the crowd was having a wonderful time! People were hanging from everywhere – building tops, hotels, restaurants – to get a good view. On the streets adjacent to the parade, there were tons of people selling their goods – hats, balloons, food, drinks, etc. About every block there was a big beer tent that sold beer by the can and if you purchased 6 of them, you got a plastic baggie with ice in it too. Ice blocks were on the street and they chipped them off to keep the beer ice cold. Once the parade was over, there were a ton of pneumonias standing by to take everyone home. Pneumonias are the local taxi service – they are open-air VW’s that zoom tourists around town. We hopped in one and were back at the marina.
This morning we’ve been doing some boat maintenance, laundry, watching the jumping fish, listening to music, & visiting with others in the marina. At the morning check-in on the VHF net, I counted over 30 boats chime in.
I’ll write more later, I hope you enjoy the pictures of the Parade. I’ve also uploaded several more photos into the photo album so check them out when you get a chance!
More to follow…
Rene
Chad made up some wasabi and cut up the Dorado he caught and we had sashimi for lunch! Yum… :-) We all got washed up and headed into town for Carnaval.
The parade started at 5:30pm and we were dropped off at the end of the parade route. I asked some locals and was told it wouldn’t get to this end until 9:30pm!! There were a TON of people! Everywhere you looked, all down the malecon, everywhere!! I have some photos, but it’s impossible to portray in pictures! There was a magnificent sunset and we walked down maybe ¼ of the way and found a lamp post to stand on and watch the parade. It started and I laughed as the first 3-4 floats were all sponsored by the beer companies – Tecate, Pacifico, etc. After the beer companies, the snack/bread company, Bimbo (like wonder bread) was next, Home Depot, a local car dealership with about 10 cars, etc. Stuff was thrown into the crowds – candy, pens, water bottles, packages of cookies, & CD’s. Again, I thought no way this would happen in the states! People were getting hit in the head with everything…it was really funny to watch & duck!! After about an hour, the parade seemed to have a break time! We decided to leave our post and find a bathroom. We were walking past a restaurant on the parade route and noticed a football game – wait it is SUPER BOWL!! We had totally forgotten. We walked in at 4th quarter, the score was 7-10. Seems we came in at the right time as it flipped and the Giants won – woohoo! We watched Super Bowl and met 3 people, Sylvia, Jaime, & Alex who were on their bicycles – bicycling down from Canada! We chatted with them for some time and ate dinner with them. They are also maintaining a website www.crazyguyonabike.com/doc/myrtle check it out when you get a chance.
OK, back to the parade. There was about a 1 hour lull from the first floats to the next group. The first floats were like a flatbead with dancing girls & guys, then there were delivery trucks with the back opened up, throwing goodies out of the back. Then there were the cars for sale…then came the good floats. The 2nd ‘session’ were home-grown floats not sponsored by major companies. They were floats also with dancers on board, but with very elaborate decorations similar to the Rose Parade. I hope you can see the detail in the pictures. Since we missed a couple floats because of watching superbowl, we headed down to the end of the parade route. It was a squeezing match to get through and took us a ton of time. Everyone in the crowd was having a wonderful time! People were hanging from everywhere – building tops, hotels, restaurants – to get a good view. On the streets adjacent to the parade, there were tons of people selling their goods – hats, balloons, food, drinks, etc. About every block there was a big beer tent that sold beer by the can and if you purchased 6 of them, you got a plastic baggie with ice in it too. Ice blocks were on the street and they chipped them off to keep the beer ice cold. Once the parade was over, there were a ton of pneumonias standing by to take everyone home. Pneumonias are the local taxi service – they are open-air VW’s that zoom tourists around town. We hopped in one and were back at the marina.
This morning we’ve been doing some boat maintenance, laundry, watching the jumping fish, listening to music, & visiting with others in the marina. At the morning check-in on the VHF net, I counted over 30 boats chime in.
I’ll write more later, I hope you enjoy the pictures of the Parade. I’ve also uploaded several more photos into the photo album so check them out when you get a chance!
More to follow…
Rene
posted by Rene & Michael at
11:51 AM
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