Carnaval

Carnaval.

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Carnaval

Carnaval, February 27 2014

What an event, many celebrations going on downtown, the Abasolo which is the main street along the water front is lined with tents in the downtown area. It leaves only a couple of lanes open to traffic during the day but many people walk in the street, making for careful driving. At 4 in the afternoon, the street gets closed to all but pedestrian traffic, and the party really starts in earnest. Beer tents everywhere, tents selling New Orleans style rum drinks loaded with rum & a little bit of juice, bars actually have this on tap, & put it in to go cups, more commonly known as Hurricanes.  All kinds of doodads being sold, leather goods, blankets, hats, you name it. Many games of chance & carnival rides for the kids, wall to wall bodies, people going all directions, plainly put, it is a huge week long party. Costumes & masks of all shapes & sizes, security is tight, but I notice many of the uniformed officers have no guns in their holsters, ah Mexico. On Sunday evening the parade starts at around 5 in the afternoon, parades of which I haven’t seen the likes of before, mostly made up of floats, led off by several motorcycle clubs all riding together in a group, then bands & the floats which are loaded with costumed people, dressed in all manner. The theme this year is on the universe, so many space costumes, the overall winner is the Avatar float. Everyone on the float is painted blue from head to toe, and it seemed there were at least 25-30 souls on board. Caesar & I watch from a table in the street in front of one of our favorite watering holes. Its very noisy at the start & he can’t  identify from where the noise comes from, the worst part for him was the sirens from police vehicles right in front of us, that he was unable to see. Wasn’t long before he was shaking in my lap, & he shook for the first 15 minutes before calming down, but he really didn’t enjoy it, that was the only time I took him to the parade. There were parades for the next 2 nights, reversing directions each night. On Tuesday nights parade I watched from the third story roof of a real estate office near the end of the parade. Just as the first float was arriving in front of us I pointed out to the others with me, there was a serious problem with the truck pulling the float with a band aboard, it had separated, was nearly five feet in front of the float when someone noticed the hitch broke or came undone, the only thing attaching them was the big power cord from the generator in back of the truck. Must have been more than just coming unhooked as it took 5-7 minutes to reattach, meantime the whole rest of the parade is backed up behind. Then the bands are warming up for playing from several different band stands into the wee hours of the morning, but I must leave, I am flying to Tijuana the next day.

I fly in to Tijuana then a cab to the border, walk across, catch the train to Chula Vista, call Enterprise where I have a car reserved. They pick me up at the train station & I head to Bullhead City. It’s already late so I stop in Palm Springs which is almost half way, & then get an early 5:30 start in the morning. Caesar has stayed on a friends boat in La Paz, he is very comfortable with them & spends a lot of time there.  A very quick week in Bullhead, get my divorce granted & finalized (nuff said) before reversing my ride back to San Diego, Tijuana and La Paz. I get to spend a night in Tijuana because of an early flight time, & stay right down town. I go out looking for a place to eat, finding a new little Italian restaurant. They have only been open a week, the owner comes over and introduces himself then gets his translator as he has only been here a short time from Italy & speaks no Spanish or English. I find out he has made a complete homemade lasagna for today’s special, which sounds great, but then explains they have no wine, of which I wanted a glass of. I was debating whether to find another place or not when he sends an employee in typical Mexican style to get a bottle of wine. Now of course I must order the Lasagna which was awesome. There was no red sauce, all white, and all ingredients were hand made in the restaurant, I was impressed, & the price was very low. Gotta love Mexico, off to La Paz in the morning.

Then its St. Patty’s dinner at La Costa restaurant, & staff there is relieved of cooking duty for the evening, as corned beef & cabbage is on the menu. Cruisers take over the kitchen & serve up fresh little potatoes, carrots, cabbage, corned beef, salad & fresh soda bread. Stuffed again, then dancing to the live band, I get out early as Caesar is guarding the boat tonight, & may want a shift change.

Then its off to Loreto for the Mexican HOG run for the weekend. I ride with the Californio motorcycle club again, & while there I am asked to join as a member. They are a fun group, all very friendly & many can communicate in English, most are business owners, but all professionals. After riding they sure can party, & we did in Loreto. There were clubs from Mexico City, Mazatlan, Cabo San Lucas, Los Cabos & many other places, all wearing their colors & all very friendly, no evidence of weapons, no fights, just a fine time. There were a couple of bad stretches of road to get there, we all successfully made it through but when another club was heading through the detour, they had 7 bikes go down in the detour; bummer not a fun day for them.

Today in La Paz is a world class Triathalon, first time here, CNN & ESPN filming, of course the main street is closed from 8 to 8, will be fun to watch, Caesar & I will head there shortly.

Must run & upload, no pics this time, tomorrow another sailboat race will be fun, hope all your weathers are improving, till next time, Richard & Caesar.

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