Las Varas and Chacala Kids, in the Parade

After Chacala's parade headed up the hill, I hung around at Marcella's,waiting for the collectivo. I was headed for Las Varas to drop off my laundry.

The collectivo came quickly and we headed into Las Varas. The driver offered to drive me over to the lavandaria.But all the roads were blocked off for the LV parade. So I started walking.I am glad I had to walk because I got to see all the Chacala kids who go to school in Las Varas, walking with their school groups.Some of the Mom's from Chacala kept pointing out the Chacala kids who go "Patria" for grades k-8. So I took some photos of the local kids.

And then a ton of photos of the dancers and marchers and the little children in costume.
Las Varas had a huge parade. Marchers, acrobotic troupes, drum corps, beauty queens, bands, dancers, horses, wagons, floats. All filled with kids and young adults in various costumes.

It took me an hour to get from the corner where the taxi driver let me off to the lavanderia. About five blocks. After dropping my stuff off, I went a couple blocks to the east ,and got to see the parade as it swung by around.It was a hot day and the kids doing marches and dance and acrobatic routines were soaked in sweat and wilting by the time the parade ended. Around 11am. The sidewalks were lined with family members and little parade drop-outs.I had a great time. Chacala kids and kids from my computer group in Las Varas a few years ago waved and called to me. I was nice to not feel like a total stranger.Got back to the collectivo stop to go home to Chacala. There were only four of us waiting, and usually they don't take off with less than five. So we were sitting in the shade, sharing my cacahuates(peanuts) in the shell, and making jokes and laughing. And looking at photos on my camera.

Then the fifth passenger walked up. We piled into the van. And within 20 seconds 9 more passengers showed up. We were really crammed in. Thank god I had the passenger seat in the front.We kept eating cacahuates and I gave the driver a big tip because of the mess. We tried to clean it up, but it's hard with all the feet and bodies in the way. Plus I gave him the remaining peanuts.

Nice trip. Lots of laughing. Trini, who teaches Spanish in Chacala, and takes rental reservations, and runs her family's van service, was on the van coming home.
During the parade I thought she was a teenage cheerleader (from the back) until her son Sylvestre, pointed her out to me.