Our fourth day in New Orleans was just insane. Everything started around 11am, when after an hour of waiting for a cab that never arrived, and with only one hour left to reach our float, we decided to pick our gear and jump in to the street. “Our float”? Yeah! The trip included an amazing surprise: spending an entire day riding one of the Mardi Gras parade floats with the Krewe of Tucks!
Because of the parades and celebrations at this time of the year, the city transport is completely collapses. Streets are cut, taxis are always full, buses run often not at all and there are not many street cars´ routes. Everything becomes slower during Mardi Gras, except time. In fact, time goes faster than ever - especially when you are stuck somewhere in a city that you don´t know, far away from your float which is departing, with or without you, at noon. When something like this happens, there is only one thing to do: put on your costume, turn on the camera and start filming a new hitchhiking adventure to get to the Krewe of Tucks.
However, there is also one thing not to do: flag down the wrong car.
“Did you flag me down?”
“Emmm... Well, you know, I´m from Argentina, we are getting late to ride the Krewe of Tucks and I didn´t realise it was a police car. I´m sorry, sir”.
“But there is a ´POLICE´sign on the side...”
“I know mate, now I can see that there is a policeman under this ridiculous hat, but I swear that in Buenos Aires police cars aren't white. I´m in a hurry, so if you don´t mind I will go back to my hitchhiking position”, I thought.
I just apologized one last time and went back to my mission, which in fact was getting increasingly tough. Nobody wanted to take us. Either they were not used to picking up strangers or they were able to see my face under the mask. But the truth was that my plan wasn´t working as expected. So, I started asking every driver who stopped at the red light, one by one, if they would help us. Now, I would definitely pick up a weird guy who was wearing resplendent colours and feathers, so it was just a matter of finding the right driver.
We were lucky that this cool guy “Andre” appeared. He changed his route to drop us right in the place where the float was about to start parading. The rest of the day was just amazing. Going all around New Orleans, throwing beads, toys, balls, sunglasses, rings and other presents to the people in the streets was an unforgettable experience. We had been down there asking for presents the night before, when the Krewe of Muses paraded, so we know how important it is for people to grab a piece of plastic (made in China) in the form of a collar. There are thousands of people looking for this presents (called "throws"), and they all have been waiting for the floats for the last year - so they get pretty excited. And being up there on the float, with the power of making them all happy, is just an incredible and unforgettable experience.
We spent all afternoon dancing upon the float. By 6pm, the parade was finished and we went on to a great after party at the Marriott Hotel. But I´m not sure if we even went there, I don´t remember much about it...
