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Along the Natchez Trace

Sunday, January 26, 2014

Everybody Loves A Parade....

As I wrote yesterday, there is a festival going on in Coco....  we see the banners and the signs.  There's to be bull riding, lots of food, other kinds of "carnival" type booths.  Apparently we were too early for all the festivities yesterday...  our friends Steve and Ann told us they went later in the evening...  they missed the bull events but saw the other festivities.

Like yesterday, we asked several people the schedule of events...  and again got several different answers.  But several folks seemed to agree that the parade participants gathered at the park that runs alongside the beach...  oh... from noon until the parade starts....  and the parade starts around 1pm...  or maybe 2pm....  or it could start at 3pm.

Bill & I headed into town after lunch today...  and took the route down to Coco Beach.  
Sure enough...
There's a horse tied to a tree.
Actually, there were 2 other horses tied nearby.  The cowboys who rode them were hanging out under a palm tree having a good time.
This looks like a good sign to us...  looks like the beginning of something.

The beach and adjoining park are jumping!
Lots of picnics, lots of family and friends just hanging out having a good time.

 Lots of food vendors...  
And souvenir vendors.....  and people selling lottery tickets...
A very laid-back, relaxed atmosphere.

Lots of cameras...  
That little girl in blue is taking a picture of her parents....
The lower right is a guy wearing a huge hat.  I saw lots of people getting their picture taken while wearing it.  I was busy with my camera...  and the cotton-candy vendor even stopped to pose for me.


 People of all kinds... dressed in all ways....  
The top left photo is of 5 people sitting on the wall opposite us...  All 5 of them were talking on their cell phones at one time.  That's a whole bank of pay phones just behind them...  I'm betting that one of these days those will be totally obsolete!
Lots of dogs...  A few police, but nothing I saw that they had to deal with.

 It's getting on to 2pm.... Bill & I head up the street.  We decide to go to a balcony restaurant and have a drink, thinking we'd have a good place to look down on the parade.  
More people watching...  those girls in the tall boots seemed to be selling tickets of some kind...  maybe to the rodeo.  That woman in the tri-colored skirt is selling lottery tickets.
On the upper right, that dog was riding in the trunk of the car....  seemed to be okay....
Lower left - a couple dancing on the sidewalk.  Music was loud enough to hear throughout the area.  
And lower right...  a car with a (paper mache?) bull's head mounted on top....  loudspeaker blaring...  possibly encouraging everyone to attend the festivities that will be going on at the nearby field.
We finish our drink...  decide to have a ceviche.....  seems like this event is going to be running a little late.

Finally, just after 3pm a group of mounted police go past...  and shortly after that a truck with 4 or 5 bulls....  and straggling way behind all this were about 4 horseback riders.  I will have to say that those horses did some fancy stepping, but not being a horse person, I don't know what it was.  It was every bit as fancy as the Texas Two-Step ;-)

It's 4pm by now....  and...  some folks are still sitting in their curb-side seats...
But most are putting their chairs away or moving on.

I ask the restaurant waiter what was happening...  he told me the parade was over.
So...  we paid our bill and headed down to the sidewalk.  We happened to run into a couple we'd met the other day...  she said the big parade would be later...  maybe 5pm or so.

I think it's that "or so" that made us decide to head on home.  I know, I know...  Tico Time and all that....  but both Bill & I had had enough of people, partying and parades for the day.

We'll see what the festival brings tomorrow....

That's All For Today!

12 comments:

  1. Another fun day, but the parade sounds like Carnival we attended in Mazatlan. We had reservation at a balcony restaurant, had to be there for 12 noon. Pre parade (a tiny one) at 4 pm, we finally went back home at 6 o'clock, the parade was over at midnight.

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  2. I probably wouldn't have waited around even as long as you did. :)

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  4. *Sorry* I deleted that, 'cause I need to do a better job of proof reading! Gah!


    One of the things we soon realised after we were in Puerto Rico for a while was, don't bother trying to be on time or go early. You'll be there either by yourself, or waiting a long time for others to show up. And that included company sponsored events where you would think that employees would try to be on time.
    Just didn't happen.
    Stamina is definitely the thing to have.

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  5. Looks like a lot of fun things going on! I think you probably had more patience than I would have!

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  6. Requires a lot of patience doesn't it! :)

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  7. I love the festive colors of Mexico and Central and South America..I guess I am a bit of a scaredy cat..I just wouldn't fee safe wandering on our own over there..It is a lovely place from you photos...at least we can tag along with you two!!

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  8. Not a bad life if you can get it, just hanging out waiting for something to happen.

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  9. Hurry up and wait. . . BTW, there is a guy at our local flea market that looks just like your husband, Bill. It is either his twin brother or his doppelganger.

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  10. This is quite a mystery as to what's going on. People seem to be having fun. I'm sure if there wasn't such a language barrier you would understand more of what's going on.

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  11. That would drive me crazy, not knowing what was going on, and things never being on time. But you got a lot of good people watching in and made a good day of it. I guess if you didn't want to dance on the sidewalk you might as well go home. :)

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  12. I just noticed your header - is that a new one? He's beautiful!

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