Dia del Locos: Sunday Part 2

Surprise, surprise...fireworks again at 6 am followed by the intense church bells. Another day, another party!

The day starts with a mass at the church. We skipped this part in a favor of a nice Sunday breakfast of crepes. We were conserving our strength for the long day ahead....

Here is a picture of Charles, Alex, and Owen ready for the parade.

Today is the Los Locos parade. The parade of "locos" consists of people from various neighborhoods, businesses and families who don elaborate and colorful costumes that range from political characters and animals to birds and cross-dressing men. People of all ages participated and the costumes and floats were just fabulous. You can't imagine the number of people. There were thousands upon thousands. The entire shindig started at the San Antonio church so from waking up we were right in the midst of the action.

Alex is doing a jig before the parade in his funny mask.

Alex and Owen were totally excited for this day as we had bought masks a few days early so that they could march in this parade. Pretty fitting isn't it since we have crazy kids! Each boy chose the perfect mask...Alex's was a goofy Mario character with a huge nose. Owen's was a devil with a smiley face. So totally funny. We realized that in order to march in the parade everyone had to wear a mask, so Charles ran out that morning and chose a mask for himself. He was the Dad devil and had a great big mask with horns.

When the parade started the streets were just lined with participants and spectators galore. Parade participants threw an inordinate amount of candy and we found that we had to be on the look out for random pieces of candy that would just hit you on the head. Many of the Mexicans held umbrellas upside down in order to catch all the candy that was thrown there way, which I thought was pretty funny. The parade starts at the San Antonio church and works its way up Zacateros, Hernández Macías, Insurgentes, Aparicio, Nuñez and down San Francisco to end in the the Jardín. Of course, then everyone eventually winds their way back to the San Antonio church to continue dancing and then for the fireworks tonight.

We were lucky that we knew someone who owned a bar right on the Ancho San Antonio which was part of the parade route. He opened up his second floor for a small group of us so we got to watch a lot of the action and be out of the sun. Our boys danced in the parade for a while and then made use of the bar for shade and a cold drink (water and soda for them of course). The parade was an incredible 2 hours long...yes, non-stop action and activity.

We all went home after the parade and rested for a bit, then went out for dinner and came home to tuck Owen into bed. He was just too tuckered out to make it to the fireworks which was just as well since he had school the next day. He went right to sleep, we shut all the windows, put on the noisemaker, and the rest of the gang headed out the door for the evening's festivities.

Instead of one tower of fireworks, tonight's had 3! It was incredible. Again, another live band and a million food vendors. This was such an amazing display of fireworks and sparklers. In addition to the 3 towers, they had regular, huge fireworks overhead (the kind we see in the US). The fireworks started at about 10 pm and when they were almost done we headed to our rooftop deck to watch the rest. The fireworks were truly right above our heads and at times we had to run for cover under the roof on our deck so the ash wouldn't hit us. It was a night and a day to remember!









Pictures of some of our favorite costumes...

Superheroes.....
















We think he was supposed to be Shrek and the donkey.

















More characters from Shrek. There was a large group of them!



















The Day of the Dead costumes.








Our children with their friends front and center of the parade route. This is after Alex got tired and hopped out of the parade. You can see Alex with his hand out for "dulces".











Do you see Charles, aka the Devil, waving? Owen is hidden from view amidst all those people but he is marching in the parade as well.

Charles is holding Owen for the picture. I'm way up high on the balcony of the bar taking the pictures!













In this picture you can see all the Mexicans holding out their umbrellas to catch the dulces!

















Hannah and her friend Gracie wave to me from the front lines.



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The bar scene on the balcony above the parade. Some semblance of space and cold drinks!












The boy scene after they got tired of being in the parade.












Devil squared!

















Action shot. The devil attacks!