Carnaval festivities continue to dominate Mazatlan. The hotels are at capacity, with most tourists being Mexican nationals. I think most of them arrived yesterday and everyone was ready for a party last night.

At eight there was the ceremonial Burning of Bad Humor. The effigy burned was one of the ruffians from Culiacan who lassoed the Venado monument at Olas Altas last year, pulling it off its pedestal and destroying it. The Venado (deer) is the symbol of Mazatlan and this crime was a real slap in the face to the city. They also crowned the Queen and some other royalty.

We didn’t attend the burning because we were getting ready to head to friends to watch the Naval Combat. On our way we headed through the gates in order to check out the festivities and buy some beer to take along.

Friday night had actually been mellow mellow compared to Saturday. The crowds were intense and the music even louder. As we passed through the gates (women on one side, men on the other) everyone was given two condoms!

Streams of people were heading westward and up the hill for possible free viewing or parties at homes with views. You could see the “French” ship in the water by the lights strung up in its rigging.

At 10:30 the fireworks began, and I can truthfully say I have never seen a better display or been closer to them. The French fired and Mazatlan fired back from the beach, better and stronger than the French. It was truly amazing. And I also realized that those green “doors” to the beach stairs were actually put there so the beach could be closed off for the fireworks technicians. At the end of the “battle” they somehow made it look as though the French ship was taking on water by some tricks with lights.

It went on for twenty minutes and was just wonderful. A big Thank You to our friends for the invitation. It was great.

Back home at midnight we were amazed at the total gridlock of cars and people walking still streaming in. It was really hilarious. We headed to bed at two and had a couple of hours of sleep before some sort of convoy of Banda musicians played full blast right outside for an hour. It infiltrated my conciousness a little, but we were able to keep dozing until a more civilized hour.

This afternoon is the first of two parades. This one goes North from the Fisherman’s Monument to Valentino’s. The one on Tuesday comes South and ends up at Olas Altas. We may walk down and check it out but more likely will just go on Tuesday.

I hope tonight is a little less packed so Paul and I can get a little more dancing in! We need to control ourselves a bit though, because Carnaval or no Carnaval we have Spanish class tomorrow!