Last Updated Saturday October 06, 2007
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We picked the week of February 14 to 21 because that is when Carnaval peaks in Mazatlán. It's really a big deal and bring the city to a halt for several days. You might be familiar with Carnaval in Rio de Janeiro, but this Carnaval is more a family affair. One of the two major sponsors was Pacifico Beer, as you would expect, but the other was Home Depot. Somehow this foreign country doesn't seem so foreign.
Roy is ready for Carnaval. The Pacifico beer claims to have a normal amount of alcohol in it but somehow it doesn't have much effect. You can drink the stuff all night long. And no the pink face is sunburn, not the booze.
There were dozens, if not hundreds of beer booths all heavily stocked like this. Every night the beer trucks came and stocked the booths up and someone sat there all night guarding the beer. For Carnaval they were price gouging. A 12 ounce can of beer was going for $US 1.35. That's more than the normal price for a liter bottle even in the tourist stores!
I'm not sure what this float was supposed to represent, but it was pretty, the girls were pretty and the music from the live band on board was pretty too.
They make these huge papier-mâché figures and have them all up and down the parade route. Most were beautiful women, but some were very strange men that would be scary if there weren't so many people around.
Here is the Queen of the Carnaval whose face was plastered all over town. She is a knock-out.
This float was populated by the Internationals Queens. The one on the far left was in the seat behind us on the plane coming down and all of them were right across the aisle from us on the way back.
One of the hotels on the Malecon arranged the lights on the balconies to form a gigantic heart for either Valentine's Day, Carnaval or both.
Talk about politically incorrect! In La Paz last year you were supposed to hit the guerrilla to win a beer. In Mazatlán you had to nail the negro and win a Teletubby. A young person would stick their face at the hole and you were supposed to hit their face with the baseball. They would taunt you through the loudspeakers. They got to wear a rubber mask, but it still has to hurt.
We got to wear our funny hats and drink lots of Pacifico. We certainly walked it off though. Nancy had a crown with blinking LED's on it and I got a lot of complements on my jester hat even though half the male population was wearing one.
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