Mazatlán - Dia de la Revolución

We finally made it to Mazatlán. Between our car getting rear ended in La Paz just before we were planning to leave and the early season northers that kept blowing in, we arrived about two weeks later than we had originally planned. But we're finally here at the Marina El Cid, which is lovely, and we're enjoying it a lot. One of the great things about Mazatlán is the bus system. For only $7MX (~$.50US), you can get pretty much anywhere you might need to go. Tuesday was el Día de la Revolución, so I hopped on the bus to go downtown and take some pictures.

The parade was at least twice as large as the one in La Paz - it ran for about four miles along the Malecón. As in La Paz, it featured a lot of schoolkids, but also had dancers, bomberos (firefighters), cheerleaders, karate schools and more. Many of the groups would stop periodically to put on a little show. The firefighters even had an actual fire to put out:

I'm pretty sure this isn't OSHA approved - note the large bottle of gasoline in the arms of the guy on the left. This got sloshed onto the fire every so often to keep things sufficiently dramatic.

What better place to demo climbing/rescue equipment than the back of a moving truck?

The coolest thing was the towers many of the groups built. The bomberos used their ladders to help:

This tower from the maritime academy continued to march - and play their instruments -  even when they were three levels tall:

Of course, there were lots and lots of kids

Folkloric dancers:

There was a group of older people marching with INAPAM (the federal agency that serves people over 60)

And, lots and lots of cheerleaders. This was my only successful shot of one who was actually airborne:

It was a little worrying to watch these girls being tossed above the concrete street, but no one fell.

The parade lasted nearly five hours, and it was a hoot. We're planning to be here through January - possibly longer if we can renew our visas here instead of La Paz, in which case we'll also go to Puerto Vallarta before we return to Baja in the spring. Vamos a ver.