¡Esto es Carnaval!

i got back from carnaval in veracruz two days ago and have yet to put my pictures up, but it was an experience to be had. once. veracruz itself is sort of awesome in a terrifying industrial/post-colonial/edgy beach city way. it was where cortés landed and was the first spanish city in new spain, but today it is mexico's main oil port which has created a thriving and exciting urban nightmare on the water's edge. I hear that the city is generally fairly mellow as most beach towns are, but carnaval is anything but. i will put up pictures eventually but over the weekend i sighted trannies, masks, crowning the queen, huge/loud parades, sol (the beer and the sun), fights, dancing, the pemex hq, and a pay toilet where i had to give an attendant 50 cents for the privilege pee against a wall in a stairwell, and believe me when i say i am underselling that story. seriously, though, veracruz is intoxicating, even minus the alcohol, and i'd gladly go back sans carnaval to wile away some days on its beaches or malecon cafes in a technicolor city that definitely does not dress up for visitors.