After a long night out at a nearby bar, we woke up early to watch the Saturday morning parade. This parade features the princesses chosen from the different towns in the province, but it is also geared more toward families. Many of the floats throw fruit (mostly grapes) to the audience, as well as melons, small bottles of wines, apples, and even choripan (a sandwich made with sausage).
The start of the parade, with the big grandstand, was right in front of the Park Hyatt, just a block from our hotel. So, we thought that would make a good location to see the action. And what action there was! Within minutes of the start of the parade, a group of hundreds of protesters (ranging from the Socialist party to those who felt the ceremony of selecting the Queens was sexist) came out in force. Starting on motorcycles and followed by hundreds of people chanting all sorts of things, the parade crashers marched directly into the other end of the parade route, causing chaos. Many in the audience booed and shouted, but the police did nothing to stop them. They finally disbanded about an hour later and the original parade went on as planned.
About three hours into it, we met up with Belen and her family to watch the remainder of the parade before taking a long siesta in anticipation of what turned out to be another long night, not returning to the hotel until 5:30 am, almost in time to watch the sun rise!
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