Dia de los Locos

I woke up nice and early this morning to go explore San Miguel de Allende.   I'm staying outside of town so I have chosen to always take cabs into town, rather than dealing with driving through a busy city center.  I walked about a half mile to town before hailing a cab.  There was a ton of traffic.  Then the driver just stopped, told me that the road was closed and asked if it was an ok place to get out.

Yes?

I got out and quickly discovered that there was a parade of sorts happening soon.  I really didn't think much of it, and continued to explore.  However, I soon realized that this parade was ggoing to take over the entire city center.  I found some white people and asked them what the hell was going on.  "Day of the Crazies!" the lady explained.  

This is my weakness as a traveler- most of the time I don't care about what is going on, I just want to photograph it.  But this is what I gathered:  A long time ago, San Miguel was mainly orchards.  There was also a saint who helped these farmers.  Incentive to convert to Catholicism had something to do with making a giant party called "Dia de los Locos" or "Day of the Crazies".  Back then, people dressed up as scarecrows, or other weird things, and danced and drank and celebrated.  I don't know what that had to do with Jesus, or the saint, but again, sometimes I just like taking photos....

It was a sea of people having fun, and a great way to spend my first "official" day in Mexico....