Carnival in tiny Telchac Puerto

Carnival is a very big celebration in most Latin American countries, and there is one in almost every town here in the Yucatan.  It lasts for a full week in the big city of Merida, with many parades and celebrations.  We were not able to attend Merida's Carnival this year, so we opted to just walk down to the center of Telchac Puerto to see what was happening on Saturday night.

There was a large elevated bandstand set up, and the band started playing around 10:30 PM.  Shortly thereafter the King and Queen and their escorts paraded into the arena.  They walked the circumference and threw candy toward the crowds in the stands.

Next came the dancing troupe, with the lead female and male dance couple, and all of the rest of the colorfully dressed ladies.  The ladies were in pairs, dressed in bright dresses of orange, blue, purple, green and red.  Each had a fruit basket perched on her head.  The dance troupe also walked the circumference throwing out candies and confetti.  After this they continued to perform a very long dance routine, which was very entertaining.  Most of these women were older, so I imagine they've been doing this routine for a number of years!

Now we didn't have the beautiful girls on colorful floats sponsored by Sol Beer or Coca Cola, but I think just about everyone who lived in Telchac Puerto was in attendance!

The last and most humorous entry for the evening was the troupe of young men dressed as ladies, including tight, short dresses and tons of makeup.  The crowd really got a kick out of this act!

Telchac Puerto residents enjoyed their Carnival.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Earlier in the week we had seen a big platform being built for the Carnival in Progreso, and after the big Saturday night extravaganza we saw the parade floats parked out near the main road, so we know we missed a bigger Carnival by not at least going to Progreso. Next year Lowell will try to take some vacation time so we may attend the Merida Carnival.