Luck put us in Mazatlan just in time for Canaval. And Mazatlan has one of the biggest Carnavals in the world.
A major part takes place in a baseball stadium, with music and speakers and crowning of the King, Queen, and Child Queen. We skipped that, though, and got right to the fun part: fireworks! On the night of March 2nd, we joined the crews of Ramble On Rose, Rejoice and Wild Spirit for a night out, including dinner, and then the evening’s two pyrotechnic events.
The first was the Quema del Mal Humor, or Bad Mood Burning. They pick a figure (this year it was the previous president of Mexico; last year, it was Trump), and burn them in effigy. Actually, “burn in effigy” rather understates the activity, since it’s a sort of exploding piñata. It’s supposed to get rid of all the bad feelings.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get any good pictures of the exploding part. But not to worry, on the same night was the Combate Naval, or Naval Combat Fireworks, in memory of the defense of Mazatlan during the French Colonial invasion of 1864.
But first, more people arrived…
Then there was some waiting.
Then there was more waiting.
Then it was time for the fireworks.
But first, there was some more waiting.
And just as Suzana said, “I hope the fireworks are really good, to make it worth all this waiting,” there they were.
What’s hard to imagine from the photos is how immersive the event was. The fireworks came from barges on the water (like most fireworks shows), but they also came from on shore, maybe twenty feet from the crowd. And many of them exploded directly overhead. You felt like you were in the fireworks. So much so that we were rained on by bits from the explosions, some of which were still burning on the way down…
Not something you’d experience in the US. Too much potential liability…
And besides the fireworks were spouts of flame, right next to us.
The following day was the parade, which also attracted huge crowds. Unfortunately, I was experiencing some back issues that kept us on the boat that day.
But on the 5th, there was a second parade that retraces the same route with most of the same floats. It was not nearly as crowded as the main parade.
But just as pretty.
I hadn’t been to a parade since I was a kid — well, unless you count DisneyLand…
And following the parade (and a quick dinner at a temporary roadside diner — well actually an in-the-parking-lot temporary diner), as we walked home, we ran across a family of raccoons being fed by passers by…
