Carnaval - The Town Square

Carnaval, carneval, karneval, mardi gras. Any way you spell it, is always spells a good time. These days of debauchery leading up to lent are always a spectacular blow out party. Towns and villages all over Mexico celebrate in their own way. The grandness of the party is usually dependent upon the size of the town or village and the town budget. Our little island is no exception.

Not being Catholic, these past few years of celebrating have gotten to be a bit ho-hum for me. I think for most of the island inhabitants also. Last year seemed to me to be a bit tired, a bit worn out and there just wasn't that feeling of PARTY! Not this year though.

My take on it is that people are tired of the bad economy and not making any money. Tired of just barely, maybe scraping by. Tired of being worn out by life. So I am happy to report that this year seems to be the complete opposite of that. Everywhere you go, people are smiling and friendly and appear to be just plain happy.

Every year there is a theme to Carnaval. Our island's theme this year is "Aves de Paraiso", or Birds of Paradise. I think maybe they should have called it Birds of Rio Lagartos, because only one bird is represented. But, oh, is it represented!

The whole square is full of pink flamingos. Not the lawn decoration type. Actually flying in the air types. Here's the view looking at stage.




As you can see, I took these pictures the day after opening ceremonies. Some of the props did not weather the high winds very well.




When I heard that the square was full of pink flamingos, I rolled my eyes. As in my want to do. I was not prepared for what I saw. I actually like these things.





Some of them fly a bit to close to you for comfort though!





There is also one flying in to join the others. Here he is passing over our sad excuse of a fountain.
That stick it is on allows it to pivot with the wind.




The view from the stage the day after. They stack these chairs and tables (which are available to rent) every night after whatever show is being presented. Then they unstack them and set them up again the next night. It just seems like a lot of extra work to me.

Throughout the square they have placed these banner like things. It really adds a lot of color and a festive air to the square. And so simple too. They are basically fabric stretched over some PVC pipe and placed in a holder. Clever is the person who thought these up.

Here's a shot of the base. Just a metal tube soldered onto a metal base. It would be so easy to redesign this base for a home party without having to solder anything. Maybe a piece of PVC stuck into a pail or flower pot filled with cement?

I like these birds at night also.

Ok, so much for the town decorations. Tomorrow we move on to other Carneval venues.