Hello from Yakima

Carnaval Queen for 2009, Wendy Ponce, makes her way to the stage where she is crowned. Carnaval Queen 2009, Wendy! And the celebration begins!! Daniela Romo performed. She is said to be as popular to the mexican people as Celine Dion is in America. Here is a link to her biography. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Daniela_Romo#Biography The evening after the coronation is the parade. It was hard to get good photos but here is a short video clip taken from our terrace. The last day of Carnaval, the parade lines up again along the malecon during the day. Lots of interesting snacks for sale along the parade route. Lots of colorful costumes. Dance teams line up. And strange, unusual characters. The parade begins with sponsors. Pacifico Beer released their new Pacifico Light during the week of Carnaval. Time to celebrate "Pacifico Light"! And we had a beachbum join the parade. La Banda El Recodo. Very popular banda music in all of Mexico. King of Joy. 2009 Carnaval Queen, Wendy If ...

For the past 6 days Maz has been very busy and noisey. Carnaval, with it's theme this year of "Fantasia Universal" ends today with the parade lining up again along Avenida del Mar (the malecon). It'll start at 4:00, so this time it will be daylight and we should be able to get some great photos of the floats. Last night, there was a fabulous fireworks show from the beach. We watched it from a friend's condo on the 14th floor of our building. It was like we could reach out and touch them. Just spectacular! I didn't get any real good photos of the fireworks but here are couple that can give you and idea of where they were being shot from on the beach. I'll be posting photos of the floats from the parade soon. Today is "Fat Tuesday". So what will you be abstaining from until Easter? Tomorrow is the start of Lent. I think my choice will be ceviche. I do love it though! :)

Greg has been keeping very busy this week at the orphanage. Among other projects, he has been working on painting this cement water cistern that is located in the patio area. It has been part of the orphanage since it opened it's doors in 1926. They recently painted the entire patio area and the cistern was red and they wanted it to match. They asked Greg if he would paint it for them. They are getting the orphanage spruced up for the annual fundraiser/musical on March 20th. After many coats of paint, Greg is almost done and it looks great. This is two year old Pablo. He has been at the orphanage since he was 6 months old. While Greg paints, I played with Pablo. We played a game of picking up the leaves that have fallen from the mango trees in the patio. He was entertained for quite some time with picking them up and putting them in the trash. This week at the orphanage a group of students from Sacramento where there. This is their 3rd year coming down and donating their time. T...

Our three bedroom, 2 1/2 bath, fully furnished condo is now available, June - November. It's centrally located between El Centro/Old Mazatlan and Valentino's/Gold Zone on the malecon. Here is the website for the property, Las Gavias Club Residencial http://www.lasgavias.com/ If interested, please leave a comment at the end of this posting and we will contact you with further details. Thank you. The Beachbums

On Thursday, February 19th, Carnaval begins. It'll last for 6 days and the theme this year is "International Fantasy". It'll celebrate carnavals around the world and the pageants and parades will carry out that theme in the lavish decorations and costumes that will be seen at every event. It's a noisey, splashy fiesta!! For those of you who don't know, Carnaval is a time here in Mazatlan to eat and drink and be merry before the beginning of Lent on Ash Wednesday, February 25th, which is celebrated by the Roman Catholics worldwide. In past years, the Carnaval decorations around the city have been much more lavish than we're seeing this year. In the past, we've seen gigantic statues along the malecon but here are a few photos of the decorations around the city as Carnaval approaches this year. We have tickets for the Coronation of the Carnaval Queen on Saturday night at the baseball stadium. Here are a few photos of historical costumes of Carnaval, and ...