The Second Parade

Let's see, where were we before I was so rudely interrupted by health and other personal issues? Oh, I remember! In Merida for Carnaval. There are two big parades (and many lesser ones) during Carnaval. The second one is called the Regional Parade and features lots of local folks from Merida and surrounding neighborhoods/communities strutting their stuff. This was undoubtedly my favorite of the two parades. Despite a rather unpleasant personal encounter that I quickly got over. The crowds for this parade are no less abundant or enthusiastic than the first one. In fact, I think that more people may have turned out for this one. Like the previous one, we had reserved, box seats right on the street. There is something about being at street level with the marchers that cannot be equalled. Waiting for the parade to start. Finally, the first group appeared on the horizon and slowly made their way towards us. The whole parade took 3.5 hours to pass us by. (hint: go pee before you get there!) I believe these people are supposed to represent some sort of Mayan royalty.

Or warriors.

There was much dancing and performing. Although the groups at this point kept getting rudely interrupted during their performances by the people in the window who there throwing HARD candy at them. Much to the dismay of the crowd, who were getting quite viscious in their condemnation of these people interfering with the performances.

I'm not sure what the signifcance is, but most of the troups walked with their arms held up. Tiring.

This is just delicious to watch. A dancing group with the women wearing the formalized version of the huipil, the official dress of the Yucatan.

Some serious trumpet blowing was going on!

Toy story float?

Like most people, I do not particularly enjoy clowns. They just bug me and I want to slap their fake noses right off their faces.

One of my hosts plays a mean drum. I forget the kind but it is sort of like a bongo. One of the clowns thought it would be fun to help him. Get your fake nose away from me while you still have it!!!

The Coca-Cola float made another performance.

They were throwing those liter size plastic bottles to the crowd again. But unlike Friday night (this parade was Monday night), you would have thought the float riders had to pay for each one of them. Man, they were stingy with throwing them to the crowd.

Along comes one of my favorite groups. It is a Special Needs school, or organization. These kids (and adults) had such a good time. Their joy was contagious and the crowd went wild as they passed by. Smiles reached from ear to ear.

One of the city sponsored floats.

With a local rider.

This is very tradional Yucatecan formal wear. Including the hair decoration.

This group of drummers was really good. They really had the crowd going.

Lots of these kinds of costumes.

This float was unique. And fun. They had a bubble machine aboard and the street was filled with bubbles, reflecting the lights from the floats and the colorful costumes. It was magical.

A lot of the local area villages showed up demonstrating what their village/locale is famous for. Displaying their wares, if you will.

Tomorrow will finish up this parade and maybe return to Isla later in the week. We'll see how it goes.