After weathering pandemic-related restrictions on traditional festivities for the past two years, Lakeside inhabitants threw caution to the wind to celebrate Carnaval, Mexico’s habitual version of Mardi Gras.
Pared down in length and scope, the 2022 calendar of activities included a limited number of jaripeos, the ever-popular bull-riding and dance party hoedowns that invariably drew big crowds in both Chapala and Ajijic.
Chapala’s traditional Quema del Mal Humor kicked off festivities on Friday, February 25, running more than three hours behind schedule before a coffin representing the scourge of Covid-19 was marched down main street on the back of a traffic department patrol truck and finally torched on the Malecón beachfront. The customary recibimiento drinking and dancing shindigs that are midday preludes to the jaripeos attracted hundreds to the central plaza every day during Carnaval’s five-day run.
Aside from the happenings at Lienzo Charro, the highlight of Ajijic’s revived celebration was the spirited Desfile de Carnaval held Tuesday, March 1. Scores of Sayaco and Sayaca cross-dressing masked dancers were interspersed among the colorful floats that filed along Calles Constitución-Ocampo and Hidalgo, spewing flour and spreading hilarity among spectators before breaking up at the plaza.
Celebrants likewise let the seasonal good times roll in San Juan Cosalá and Mezcala, unwinding in the unbridled blowout that precedes the more somber days of Lent.