EveryOne Loves a Parade

The day before yesterday was Fat Tuesday, the last day of the 3rd largest pre Lent Carnaval in the world. Right here in our own town, Mazatlan in Sinaloa Mexico. So me and MP and our friends Vince and Tammy as well as another couple, Craig and Candy head down to the Malecon at 2 pm for the scheduled 3 pm parade...of course its Mexico time and 3 actually means 4. So no worries, just more time for bacon wrapped hot dogs, pistachios and of course Pacifico's. Plus we were early enough to score one of the coveted cement benches on the Malecon for our group. We set up camp surrounded by mostly Mexican families and lots of kids.

I took this picture of MP, she's in the spirit for sure. You've heard that saying "dancing in the streets", well I think they must have known MP as when the music blares she just can't sit still.

It wasn't long before the big Kahuna of the parade, the Pacifico Float came by. They were by far the most generous of the parade throwing beads, finger rings with lights and coasters, someone must have decided that throwing Pacifico beers wouldn't work out but I'll bet you it was tried once upon a time. I thought my gym buddies would get a kick out of the float people, not bad eh? If you click the pic it will enlarge. As you can see theres alot of attractive ladies on these floats and it would be easy to burn up the 35 shots I have left on my camera....but nope, I'm looking for the interesting, the unusual when I spot this gal with wheels. Through all these years I've watched zillions of period movies with MP as she loves them and I had no idea old Queen Vic or whoever actually had wheels...stupid me.

This next pic just gives you an idea of the scene. Some of these floats are huge. They must be 30 feet high and have 2 or 3 honda generators powering the lights and music. Most are towed by airport pusher vehicles or huge diesel tractors. Each float has its own music, mucho loud but its amazing that for the few minutes that its right in front you only hear theirs.

Then I notice this guy selling cotton candy. There can't be a better way to get somebody to spend 20 pesos on cotton candy than to enclose a 200 peso bill with the candy. Theres a good chance the bill is fake I'd say but how do you really know unless you buy the candy. Absolutely brilliant. Right about the time I'm ready to invest in some cotton candy my all time favorite float comes buy. Its got the coolest guitars I've ever seen. I was so impressed with the guitars that I have to tell you the truth, I never figured out its theme. But even though it was late in the parade and we were close to a Pacifico tent I'm pretty sure it had something to do with music.

By now we can see the flashing lights of the police and firetrucks at the end of the parade. Theres some really cool horses that kind of prance and hop but I only have 1 picture left in the camera and I decide I better save it just in case I come across something really weird or one of our friends does something really stupid. Boy am I glad I saved it because we came across this beautiful Palm tree. It is now the most photographed Palm tree ever in the history of Palm trees. Don't ask me how they did it, but thats about as cool as it get...eh?