We chose Saturday night to attend and thought that arriving 1 1/2 hours early would assure us a good viewing spot for the parade. Another lesson learned: one can't be too early for these parades. As we walked down Paseo Montejo (one of the main streets into downtown) there were spectators lined up 8 deep on one side of the street and in bleachers on the other. Indra spotted a blanket stretched along one bleacher seat with nobody sitting on it and asked the woman guarding it if there was any room for us. The woman graciously scooted the blanket down for us to squeeze in. Here's a picture of me and our new found friends...
The man in front of me was a very friendly guy and between my broken Spanish and his broken English I found out about a reportedly great grotto and cave system somewhere in Campeche. He also told me that this was the most family-friendly carnaval in Mexico. He noted that the one in Veracruz was particularly rowdy.
Isn't she cute?
Perhaps one reason we were all well behaved was the extremely large presence of Policia everywhere controlling the crowd. We never saw any drunks and there weren't any guys yelling, "Show us your naked chestal area!" Or whatever it is they yell at the women at Mardi Gras.
The parade kicked-off at 7:00 p.m. and lasted about two hours. And the floats were spectacular.....
And there were guys on stilts....
And more dancing groups of all ages than we could count......
In a few days I'll try load a film clip for you, but until then I hope these convey a little of what this was like.Larry
