Carnival in Playa del Carmen

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February 28 – Friday – Today worked on my pictures and my blog most of the day, and then I walked down to a pizza place for some pizza. I then walked down to 5^th street to see if anything was going on there for the Carnival. 5^thstreet was pretty quiet as most of today’s events were taking place in the Main Plaza in the center of town. So I just walked over to Founders Park by the beach and relaxed a bit. For once those stupid Indians weren’t beating those drums and sticks, or maybe they had just finished by the time I got there today as they were standing and sitting around.

Tomorrow the parade will run from Founders park to Constituyentes and then up Constituyentes to 30^th avenue where it will turn South on 30^th avenue till it turns again to go to Main Plaza.

That is a long, long, way. I think I would do well to just walk it but those people are going to do it dancing all the way. That’s some serious stamina.

They have a stage of some sort set up on the plaza and although it is several blocks away I can hear the music in my hotel room. That’s seriously loud.

My plan is to go down to 5^th Avenue tomorrow evening around 5:30 PM and stake out a spot to watch the parade.

Cozumel is supposed to have fireworks as well so maybe we will be able to see them across the channel.

I was thinking about the high humidity here in Playa which was 76%!a(MISSING)nd I checked it in central Texas and it was 100%!!(MISSING)!!?? Can't get much higher than that.

March 1^st – Today I drank my tea and thought things over, caught up on my internet work, and then took my nap.

Then I eased over to Civic Plaza and checked out the setup for the carnival events staged there.

Then I eased down to 15^th street and stopped at a taco café for a fish taco and a shrimp taco. I didn’t want to eat a lot because the plan for today was to go through the public access hole in the fence at the ferry pier by Senior Frogs and walk down the Playacar beaches a lot. All the hotels and etc. in Playacar limit beach access as much as they can but the beaches in Mexico as in Texas are all public if you can manage to get access to them. Property owners and hotels do their best to keep you off “their” beach.

However by the time I did a bit more exploring and headed towards the beach access for Playacar I realized it was already 5:45 and the parade started at 6:00 so I went back up 5^th street and staked out a table at Hagen Das to watch it from. Since I was at their table I ordered something and ate it while waiting for the parade to start. I really didn’t want anything since I was still pretty much full from the fish and shrimp tacos I had eaten already but I had to order something to use their tables to watch the parade.

As it turned out when the parade started I had to stand up anyway and move out into the street a bit as people started standing in front of the tables to watch the parade. So got up and I watched the parade and then sat back down and finished my ice cream. I could have saved my $10 for ice cream that I really didn’t want anyway.

After the parade passed and I finished my ice cream I walked down to Founders park and sat on the stone wall there and enjoyed the sea breezes a bit. You could see the lights of Cozumel across the channel as well.

After a bit I walked up to Civic Plaza to watch the parade coming in as it ends at Main Plaza as well as check out the events at Civic Plaza. The parade was much bigger as only about 10%!o(MISSING)f it had went down 5^th street which is actually a pedestrian walkway. I will watch it again tomorrow from somewhere on Constituyentes or 30^th Avenue. The parade route is through 5^th street (part of the parade group) then up Constituyentes to 30^th avenue where it goes south to Calle 8 at Walmart and then East on Calle 8 to Civic plaza. I noticed that most of the people who appeared to live here had watched the parade on the West end of Constituyentes or 30^th avenue and then took the short walk over to Civic Plaza for the rest of the events. That’s what I will do Sunday night as well.

I stayed at the plaza a bit and listened to the music and then eased back to my hotel. As usual the music was much too loud for me. Even in my hotel room blocks away I could still hear it.

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