It was the first night of Carnaval festivities, and Thane and I went to town to check it out (it was also the first night for all on Oblivion to be down for the count with M’s Revenge, read Nancy and Jeff’s posts for those details)
The place for the festivities is the Malecon (Spanish for “jetty” or “embankment” but is better known as a public boardwalk along the sea in many coastal communities) fully equipped with Pacifico beer stands every 100 yards, food vendors galore, along with people selling masks, lighted whirl-i-gigs, and annoying noise makers. It reminded me of the State Fair, only no livestock, farm implements, or 4-H competition. (I guess it really isn’t like the State Fair, although there are Mexican Band competitions, cotton candy (very sticky) and real “corn” dogs—corn-on-the-cob-on-a-stick variety.)
As for the band competitions, the bands in Mexico have one volume setting—loud. They are usually comprised of one or two singers, trumpets, trombones, clarinets, and tubas. Yes, tubas. I learned from a server that the Germans immigrants had a big influence on Mexican music. (German immigrants also started the Pacifico brewery in 1900.) The music has a certain um-pa-pa, polka quality to it, and there is one microphone per instrument and behind each instrument is one red-faced, puff-cheeked player giving it all he’s got. The women we saw accompanying any band were scantily clad dancers, no band participants (musical instrument training must not be offered to women in school?!)
As we walked the Malacone with one or two cervezas in hand, we were tempted by the booth advertising “temporary” tattoos. We considered our options and asked about how long the tattoos lasted. The guy said 4-5 days. We looked at each other and said, “why not!” Thane worked a deal for two tattoos for 50 pesos, and the selection process began.
How does one choose a tattoo? A temporary one should be fun and something one wouldn’t ordinarily do. The selections were fairly tame. There were stars and moons, and fairly simple designs to work with the air brush technique. We just needed to choose the tat and the place we wanted it. While the tattoo “artist” suggested several options, I stayed fairly conservative with placement. A sticky stencil goes on the skin and then they airbrush the open area, remove the stencil, and brush the new tat with some type of powder to dry it? Or make it last longer? I don’t know? Thane chose a skull and crossbones—typical pirate! I wanted something a little more graceful and chose what I thought was a “cougar,” but in actuality is a puma—although a very sexy puma! Thane’s is located on his upper arm and hides under his t-shirt. Mine is a bit lower on my arm and peeks out under a short sleeve tee.
That was Friday. I’ve slept on it. Showered it. Rubbed it a bit. No change. It’s not showing any signs of wear or lasting only 4-5 days. Maybe that sealing powder was fairly substantial? Maybe they said 45 days—our Spanish is not so good. I’ll let you know when it disappears, or I have a permanent tan mark where it was. Either way, we must learn more Spanish!
Check it out. Not too bad for a semi-permanent memory of the first night of Caranaval!

Brenda