- Waiting for the parade to begin.
Though the parade on Friday night was supposed to start at 7:00 pm, we took our seats on the edge of the plaza in front of city hall by 5:30pm. Little did we know that many would not arrive until close to the actual parade time. Of course, we knew that it was going to be a long wait, so we took our books to read.
We were able to leave every once in a while for various reasons including getting a cup of coffee from a nearby 7-11 store.
Finally, the police escort appeared letting us know that the parade was about to appear in front of us. It was a long wait as the parade started quite a distance away from the city’s central square.
First up were the clowns followed by various floats and entertaining groups. One thing that really impressed us was the inclusion of physically and mentally disabled people in the parade. Even senior citizen groups took part.
Of course, there were a lot of nubile young women in skimpy outfits on a number of floats, espcially those put out by the beer companies such as Corona and Sol. There is no doubt that the Latin influence is strong as the Latin beat pounded out for many entertaining from the tops of floats as well as walking and dancing in the fancy outfits. Salsa and rumba were the order of the evening.
But, it wasn’t all just for the young adult crowd and the older crowd of young and restless wannabees. There were children groups taking part in the parade, dressed in the cinema costumes.
Some floats were quite small. The parade featured a competition for commercial entries which meant some business enterprises made sure they were in the parade as advertising for their businesses. Why not when you have an audience of thousands upon thousands of people cheering on the sidelines.