Fat Tuesday in Barra

Jim and Diana caught a taxi to the airport from Barra de Navidad on Tuesday morning, a week before the Catholic holiday of “Fat Tuesday”. After seeing them off, Gail and I stayed in town, having a leisurely lunch on the upper deck of a restaurant overlooking Bahia de Navidad (see photo labeled “Bahia de Navidad” from our post of “New Times, Old Friends, New Friends… ”). Mid afternoon, we were ambling down the street when we ran into friends from s/v Serendipity. Hugh and Ann asked if we were interested in staying for the “Fat Tuesday” parade (here in Barra the parade was actually 1 week before Fat Tuesday) so we replied, “Why not”!



Some floats, like this one, were really quite colorful
and very well done.



It was a real treat to see how the locals celebrated the holiday with a street carnival during the day and a parade in the early evening. The parade itself was really quite casual with no police motor cycles or crowd control. Locals of all ages from kids to adults participated in the parade, with most in costume. Some of the parade entries were quite simple, consisting of someone’s car or truck with a bunch of kids or teens sitting on the hood or standing in the back, while others were actual floats pulled by farm tractors or trucks, see photo in the side bar.

As the parade progressed, someone on a float was tossing candy to the kids lining the route, and I happened to look into the face of one of the kids disappointed at missing out. With that, I hoped across the street, passing between floats, and ducked into a tienda, neighborhood convenience store, where I bought a bunch of candy. To the delight of both moms and kids, I handed out candy to as many kids as I could while walking along the parade route in our area. – What fun! Public festivities concluded with men dressed as vaqueros, or cowboys closing the parade. Hugh and Ann headed to a bar or restaurant for dinner while Gail and I took our dinghy back to Music. While sad to see Jim and Diana leave, the evening was a sign of more adventures to come.