2015 Carnaval de Guaymas

Guaymas holds one of the oldest Carnivals in the country.  It is a 4 day affair, with parades every day, one of which we attended this year.  It begins with the burning of an effigy which represents someone or something that has displeased the public that year-we missed this part.  There is a coronation of a king and queen and this year's parade was to memorialize a young female singer who, with her twin sister, was one of the best known entertainers in this part of Mexico.  She died tragically in a car accident a few weeks ago.

There really aren't words to describe the chaos, the humanity, the noise, and the colors.
We arrived a little early for the 2:30 start but, (Hey, it's Mexico), it didn't get started until 4.  People fill the streets probably about 20 people deep, packed tightly together and they spend their time eating all manner of street food and buying trinkets or candy for the children.  I didn't see another American the whole time we were there.

Don't know what the red balls in front were but other things
in the wheelbarrows looked like nuts and dried fruits and candies.

All kinds of ways to spend your money

Hot sauces to put on almost everything

Must be the vendors' biggest day of the year

Lots of colorful wigs and hats-lots of
bald people?

These two loved the sonoran hot dogs.  I stuck to potato chips-
the only thing I could recognize as familiar.

We wondered how they were ever going to clear the streets.

Enforced by these very serious looking dudes

They would have run over toes if the crowd didn't move.

 Once the parade began, it was just lovely, lively and colorful!

Our neck of the woods-claustrophobic much?

The end of the story is that we went back to find our car blocked in by all manner of cars that park every which way all over the streets.  We saw one opportunity to squeeze through but as we got ourselves thoroughly ensconsced between 3 cars, it became obvious that we couldn't move.  Luck finally prevailed and a group of 5 or 6 boys came along and picked up a couple of the cars and moved them to the side so we could inch through.  Got a few scratches and our nerves were shot, but otherwise, all was well and we were VERY HAPPY to get home to peace and quiet and a lovely bonfire on the beach with friends.

A glass of Susan's famous sangria finally calmed our frayed nerves.  We
watched the dolphins frolic, enjoyed the fire, the company of friends and a
beautiful night at the sea.