There are some lovely things that occur in Merida, one being Carnaval which is similar to Mardi Gras. Carnaval is extra lovely because all of the schools close when Carnaval occurs! So we do not have class today or tomorrow!
Everyday of Carnaval there are parades (desfiles), so we decided to go one on Monday which included traditional clothes of the Yucatan. Our group met at the parada (bus stop) at four and the parade supposedly started at 7. We went to find seats and then eat a wonderful dinner of pizza. In Merida parades are not free to watch, we had to pay 26 pesos for one seat at the parade, which translates into around 2 dollars. So we bought our tickets, thus securing our seats and went to find the pizzeria that was recommended to us. We were very excited about pizza because it was something familiar and we had control over it! Needless to say the Pizza was wonderful, a bit different as sausage actually means hot dog in Spanish, but it was still delicious!
After pizza we went to our seats because we thought the parade began at 7. Here is the thing about Mexico, nothing is on time! For instance, sunday I went to church. Church technically began at 10, however we did not leave the house until 10:10. So the parade began at "7" which may have been true but it probably began late and because we were in the middle of the parade route it actually began at 8, so we sat waiting for the parade for about and hour and a half! And finally it began!
The parade itself was wonderful, there was so much traditional clothing that it got old after a while, however mixed in the the clothing were floats depicting the Seven Wonders of the World which is the theme for Carnaval this year. On these floats were various dancers and performers. It was quite extravagant. In the United States you think you will get candy thrown at you during a parade and this is also true in Mexico, but what else do they throw? Oh none other than cups and cell phone cases, in all seriousness I got a cup and a cell phone case! Also because we are all girls in our group and we look a bit different than Mexicans, hard to believe I know, all we had to do was scream and look at a male on the floats and we automatically got things thrown at us, oh the joys of being blonde. Anyways Carnaval was wonderful!
One small mishap happened after Carnaval for me, because it is so huge and covers much of the city, it just happens that the bus stops all change and I have no idea where my bus is! Thankfully there are other people also looking for my bus and a man offers to help me. Now this makes me a bit nervous because i do not know him and I do not speak the best Spanish. However I made sure i asked the questions to others asking where the bus was so he was not in charge and there were other people looking for the same bus as well, so it was alright, kind of nerve wracking, but finally I made it to the bus stop after wandering around Merida for around an half hour not knowing where the heck I was! And the nice man who helped direct me to the correct stop also paid for my fare! Kind of creepy, but ultimately nice.
I tried to put pictures on the post, but is not working, sorry, I shall try again later or send out an album!
Te quiero
6 comments:
glad that you made it home safe despite the bus craziness--that is scary!
I can't believe it costs money to watch a parade and they have cell phones in Mexico. So many things about Mexico I did not know. Just kidding about the cell phone thing.
Wow - sounds like a great time. I'm glad you had some fun together, good food, and interesting experiences. Yeah - moms aren't too crazy about getting such reports :-) However, those angels I am always praying for you are firmly in place!! love you, MOM
jill- sounds pretty crazy down there! stay out of trouble!! :-) I know you will. I hope you continue to have tons of fun!!!
hey smalls03 did you know they have the internets in mexico too? j/k.
glad you had a good time jill - no carnival here in denver. just snow and more snow - and not even a paczki to be found for fat tuesday.
I think you should do some things to make mom even MORE worried :) that way you'll have stories to tell for the rest of your life.
That is weird that you had to pay, the one we went to was free, but it was a lot smaller! Sounds like this one was pretty crazy! Funny, I had my bus mix-up right after our parade too, the routes weren't changed but it was too late and the our route had stopped running, so we got on the wrong one! Well I'm glad everything worked out!
PS, keep trying to make those pictures work, I want to see them if possible!
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