• 25Feb

  Whew! It was a blast!

  Carnaval, Mazatlan, parades 8 Comments

  Last night Paul and I headed out for our last Carnaval event, the final Mazatlan Carnaval 2009 parade. The parade got going quite a ways North of Centro at about 4:30, and it finally hit Centro around 7 pm. This is the final blow-out for everyone and there was enthusiasm to burn!

  The crowd kept building and building, along with the expectation and excitement. I don’t just have to tell you, I can show you what an awesome parade it was with the video I took, below.

  I had taken a lot of pictures at the first parade, so I decided to practice with the new camera and its video setting. Below is a 5 minute video that I made using the iMovie program on my new Mac. Five minutes sounds like a long time, but basically I boiled an hour and a half of parade down to five minutes! That takes some doing!

  I hope you take the time to check it out! And now, a nap is in order.

  
• 23Feb

  the first carnaval parade was most excellent!

  Carnaval, Mazatlan, parades 2 Comments

  

  We went to the first Carnaval parade yesterday afternoon.  We didn’t go to this one last year, as there’s another parade that passes right through Olas Altas that seemed more like “our” parade.  I am really glad we went, though.  Afterwards we walked into the Carnaval area, paid our 20 pesos, and watched them setting up for the evening.  We sat over a couple of beverages, and somehow got sidetracked by the main stage band and ended up dancing our rears off!
  

  

  Today was a recovery day.  I’ve put all the pictures in the Carnaval photo gallery, so I’ll just put a few teasers here.  I only took a couple short videos but they are fun, too. Maybe I’ll post them tomorrow.
  

  

  Tonight we’re off to Avenida del Mar where we will hang out with friends in a beach palapa and watch the second fireworks show.
  

  
• 22Feb

  Naval Battle re-enactment

  Carnaval, Mazatlan 3 Comments

  

  Last night was both the Burning of Bad Humor and the re-enactment of the 1864 Naval Battle where Mazatlan repelled the French.  It was quite a night!

  

  We were heading to Cerro de la Vigia during the Burning of Bad Humor, but we read in the paper this morning that they burned Héctor Carrillo, a judge in the election of the Carnaval Queen.  When the vote came out as a tie, he hastily said that he made a mistake, and cast his vote differently.  It was quite the scandal, and as you can see from his discarded effigy (below), he paid for it!

  

  The fireworks were amazing.  They went on for more than 20 minutes or so.  I tried to capture them with my new camera, and did get some nice video and stills.  There is a boat set up in the bay (the French) that shoots fireworks towards land , and the Mazatlecans shoot back from the beach.  It was the best fireworks show anyone in our group had ever seen.  I took a picture this morning of some of the remains on the beach, below.

  

  Below are a few videos for your enjoyment.  The first video is taken from the roof before the fireworks began.  All the bands were playing and Olas Altas was packed solid.  The final video is just a few seconds but was taken of the streaming humanity flooding off the hill.  I have never been in such a crowd, really it was a bit scary -- kind of the lift up your feet and be carried along kind of crowd.  But it was peaceful and everyone was laughing and carrying the kids on their shoulders.
  

  And finally, we thought you might want to see a picture of Henry, the ultimate Party Animal!

  

  

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