Carnaval in Cozumel 2008

[John]

Libby and I made our annual pilgrimage to Cozumel to celebrate Carnaval on January 26-27. This year, we had our relatives (and frequent visitors to Playa) Jenni, Peter and Kyle with us.

Although I am normally not a huge fan of Cozumel, I cannot deny the fact that their Carnaval celebration kicks Playa's celebration in the butt!

They have beer tents set up on every corner of the parade route, selling caguamas (940mL of beer) for 25 pesos. There are decorations all up and down the malecon. During the day, they block off sections of roads sporadically for impromptu dance routines. In the evening, the zocalo is filled with booths selling various foods and an endless supply of random trinkets.

The nightly parades should probably take an hour or two, but usually end up lasting about twice that long because things seem to be in a total disarray. You think you see the last float of the night, but 20 minutes later, more floats start coming down the street. After the parades, the concerts commence as well as the dancing in the streets until the wee hours of the morning.

Here are a few photos of the festivities. The rest are in our photo gallery.

The Cozumel Street Crew entertains the midday crowd in the zocalo:


It was about 6pm when we were accosted by some drunken Canadian teenagers. They had numerous commemorative Señor Frog's yards in tow. I'm sure they felt wonderful Sunday morning:


Parade dancers:


We called this float the Gringo Float... these folks seemed like they hitched a ride and were confused when they found out that they were part of a parade:


More dancers:


Even the kids were festive:


Some cowboys and cowgirls:


At midnight, the party was just getting started. The concerts were just getting started and people were dancing in the street:



We hope to be able to make it to the Carnaval celebration here in Playa, sometime in the near future... until then...

[DonIn KC]

Nice pics!!

[DeepBlueSea]

Very cool. It looks like everyone had a great time!

[Cosmo]

Looks like a fun time, thanks for the pics John.

[PlayaLove]

Thanks for the phots John we would love to take that in someday soon.

[Streckman]

Sweet pics man. I did like the float with the Gringos, like what was that all about??

[queencityfan]

That looks like so much fun John!



I love the little girl in her pink bunny costume, so sweet!



And I want to be on the Gringo float!

[jamnkats]

Wasn't it a lovely celebration? We headed over the 28th and stayed until the last (vehicle) ferry on the 30th.

We found it incredibly family friendly (we have a 13, 11, 8 and 6yo's) and just an amazingly fun celebration. We didn't stay out later than midnight and still had a great time. Here are some of our pics

http://www.flickr.com/photos/hopalog/2228857930/



http://www.flickr.com/photos/hopalog/2232367454/



http://www.flickr.com/photos/hopalog/2232367442/



http://www.flickr.com/photos/hopalog/2228070183/

these guys ROCKED!

[MsRubio]

Thanks for sharing the pics John.


We have been in Playa the past two years for Carnival...I always love seeing the kiddos in their costumes. Too cute!!

[DeepBlueSea]

Is there a Carnival schedule posted somewhere? We don't want to miss anything!

[Pbekas23]

John- How could you forget to put the picture of the gringos float buying all of the cotton candy up?