There seems to be a decline in enthusiasm that attended this year's Carnaval parade compared to previous years. It would seem very little effort or expense was put into the floats. In fact there were only two floats this year. The rest of the parade consisted of troupes of pubescent girls in Vegas-like finery dancing to various popular tunes.

In a town that's enjoying a surge of prosperous growth and a steady stream of well-heeled immigrants and investors, it's hard to understand the dissolution of one of its major attractions. Past parades well represented the effort and care that went into the event. There was always a good number of intricate and clever floats -animated whales and sharks, giant robots and animals, helicopters with whirling blades, dragons, Egyptian pyramids and the list goes on and on.

This year the solution for the meagreness in quality and quanity was to add extra portions of interval. The floats and dancers were spaced about 15 minutes apart, pehaps to fulfill some sort of parade-duration quota. The duration was, well, unendurable, for both the parade watcher and his or her camera batteries. It was more expedient to parade by the parade, which was for the most part a statue of a parade.

Maybe next year some genuine interest and attention will be invested in San Felipe's Mardi Gras. As it stands (and stands and stands), it offers a mere shadow of its former vigor. Maybe that's why it's held in the evenings now.