Carnaval 2013 in Mazatlan, Mexico

It’s Carnaval in Mazatlan — last night was the big parade down the Malecon, and Saturday night was the ‘Naval Battle’ (of fireworks) in Olas Altas (which it turns out is a little beach down by the Old Town, where apparently John Wayne used to moor his boat and Mazatlan’s tourism industry got it’s start).

We went for the heart of the crowd… down on the street, in between the Grandmothers cooking tacos for their families and the little babies repeatedly throwing coloured-confetti on their heads (seriously — it seemed like every little kid either had a hot pink wig or a bag full of coloured confetti… or both, for that matter 🙂 ).

The pink wigs of Carnaval in Mazatlan Mexico

And we had a fantastic time!

We learned quickly that despite the carefully marked signs (“the parade will pass this point at 6:37” and then a little further down,  “the parade will pass this point at 7:12”) nothing ever starts on time when it’s Carnaval, so we opted for the low-stress option and started the night right…

With fresh shrimp & salad, and a “Jon Special” (Guayanaba & Lime Juice with Tequila) for Leah’s sustenance…

And then down to the beach, to wait for the parade to begin…

And to watch the Police helicopters do some seriously low fly-bys!

All the while the crowd was gathering just behind us, so eventually we made our way to the streets where after quite a few hours of hanging out with the crowds, the parade began!

(I dug out my fake eyelashes for the occasion… we have a small boat, but some things are important! Treasures of the bilge and all hahaha)

This cotton candy was not as good as it looks I’m sorry to say… but the guy below distracted us with his serious moves…

This year’s Carnaval had something a little extra-special — Brazilian Carnaval dancers flown in to help the local ladies shake it 🙂

I have no idea how they do it… but these ladies have some seriously impressive ass-shaking talents!!

And if you’d like to see some of that shaking in real-time, here’s a little clip for you 🙂


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