Although this year’s parade was not as glitzy as in previous years, people were enthusiastic about the return of the festival
Hundreds of Ajijic residents and visitors celebrated Shrove Tuesday 2022. Photo: Arturo Ortega.
Armando Esquivel (Ajijic).- Hundreds of people attended the Ajijic Shrove Tuesday or “Fat Tuesday” parade and many ended up bathed in flour, including the municipal president of Chapala, Alejandro Aguirre, who accompanied the parade in a Can-Am van.
The Ajijic Delegation float led the parade decorated with Chinese paper, fabrics and colorful balloons, with clowns onboard throwing candy and confetti. Following were three golf carts with members of the Expat community on board, who threw candy to the attendees. However, the Expats did not finish the parade because their electric cart batteries died.
The San Sebastian neighborhood, together with the Martinez family, participated with a cart filled with costumed people throwing flour and candy. Young girls dressed in carnival costumes followed in another cart. The rhythm of two drum brigades and a band added flavor to the atmosphere. The fitness community presented a float with gymnastic Sayacas, traditional masked characters usually dressed as women. Another float had playboy «bunnies» throwing flour into the crowd.
One of the most anticipated floats was the flour “cushion”, renamed the «covicolchón.” Characters wearing wrestling masks would carry the «victims» to the cushion to be covered with flour. A cart with a papier-mâché bull and its rider, a mill with aides and another cart with revolutionary sayacos, carrying air rifles and a cannon that threw flour, completed the colorful – and flour-drenched – parade, which ended with a score of charro riders mounted on horses.
The mayor’s team set up a speaker at the last minute so his vehicle would have some music. He had popsicles to throw to the public. Many approached the mayor to greet him, make requests or even have their picture taken, although there was one who gave a whistle or two at him.
After an hour and 40 minutes, the contingent arrived at the main square, where a cloud of flour greeted the floats and the sayacos. The large crowd cheered what many consider the best carnival of Lakeside.
There were minor incidents such as the separation and distancing of the contingent, the departure of the golf carts in the middle of the parade due to the low batteries, two vehicles that were not removed from the parade route and the report of a senior citizen who fell in front of the horses at the end of the parade, which was not included in the Chapala authorities’ news report.
After the conclusion of the parade the streets of the Pueblo Mágico looked empty, with walls and cobblestones bleached by the flour and and covered with colorful confetti which echoed the joy and desire of the inhabitants and visitors to relive the tradition.
Translated by Nita Rudy
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