Río Seco... con un Carnaval

By request, I wandered around the riverbed today and took some pictures.

This photo is taken from the main bridge. Here you can see, over on the left side of the frame, the small stream that still runs along one side of the riverbed. It's kind of marshy there, and in a few places there's a bridge that crosses over just that stream. People walk over the stream-bridge, then walk through the riverbed, which is covered with gravel now, and then back up some stairs on the other side. That little stream, though, only a few months from now will overflow to cover all that gravel and end up creating a full-grown river! This happens every year. Or so we're told.

Cross to one side of the riverbed and walk a little further on, and you can look back and see this view of the main bridge crossing over a river of gravel. A truck is parked there; the riverbed often becomes a makeshift parking lot, or even a campground - when we were here for the festival of Candelaria, pilgrims were camped out in the riverbed for the night, resting before the walk to San Juan de Los Lagos the next day.


Right now Lagos is being even more creative with their dry riverbed. Rather than a parking lot or campground, they've brought a travelling carnival in. Here you can see the stairs heading down into the riverbed - and the fun being had within. (We can see the lights and hear the music from our apartment - it's pretty cool.)


And it's a decent-sized carnival. They've even built a mini-coaster....but I'm not brave enough to ride it. (Even the lightweight Whizzer at Six Flags is too fast for me. Just leave me on the Lazy River attraction and I'll be fine...)


It's kind of weird to walk through the deserted carnival during the day. I half-expected a tumbleweed to come rolling through... but no. Just dust. Imagine though: This is all going to be full of water soon...


Walking past the carnival, with another shot to show the scale of the carnival-in-the-river...


And then one looking on down the riverbed beyond. You can see the stream continuing on - it apparently goes strong all year - but the rest of the river just looks like a giant gravel road. I hope we'll get to see it fill up before we leave...