Dia de la Bandera (Flag Day)

Dia de la Bandera (Flag Day)

Today is Flag Day here, therefore there was a parade, no matter what the celebration there is always a parade. Today it was all little children in their school outfits, marching and just being absolutely beautiful. Alan, our landlords grandson was of course in the parade. The parade was held on P. G. Moreno Blvd. which is 3 blocks from our apartment. We, naturally had to go and watch. The children were all very young, the kindergarten-grade one type age. They were so cute in their uniforms, holding the banners and flags and marching so seriously. After the parade was over there was a ceremony with the mayor and other dignitaries, I thought that the mayor gave an excellent speech, it made me feel patriotic! Roy was busy watching the faces and antics of the children and having a good chuckle.

Last night we went to the carnival, we wanted to the see parade of bad humor and the burning of the bad humor. We wandered around the carnival looking at the many booths of food, drinks and crafts. We got some good laughs watching the faces of the little children on the rides. I was surprised at the cost of the rides, the small ones were 15 pesos (around $1.50) and the bigger ones were 20 pesos (around $2.00), I thought it was quite expensive. The parade of bad humor was supposed to be at 8 PM; but nothing happened. The reading of the will and burning of the bad humor was supposed to be at 10 PM. We had a very good place to watch and we waited and waited and waited along with lots of other people. Finally, after 9 PM a band started to play, the queen of the carnival arrived, the ugly king arrived and assorted other floats. These people are disappeared onto the square and everyone began waiting again. Finally, just before 11 PM the will and testament of bad humor was read and the dignitaries made their way to the balcony of the municipal building. The "bad humor" was represented by a HUGE pinata of a man, which was tied up to the top of the building, He was covered with fire crackers and incendiary type stuff. After a couple of fireworks, the fuse was lit on "senor bad humor" and he went up in a burst of flames and very loud firecrackers, he was twirling around and around and the red fireworks, fire, etc. lit up the night sky. A little boy sitting beside me almost jumped out of his skin when the firecrackers started going off. A few more fireworks and the bad humor was retired from Guaymas for another year. Perhaps this is why it is such a happy, friendly place to be. We decided that we would not stay and listen to the bands or do any dancing and started to walk home. It was 11:30 by this time and we were both tired and not looking forward to the long walk home. I spotted one of our colonias buses on the street and sure enough he was doing a run. He was the only bus around so we were not sure what kind of a route he would do; but we got on, deciding that wherever he went we would be a bit closer to home. To our surprise he did his usual route and we got off 3 blocks from home at midnight. A wonderful evening of enjoyment.