Costaleros

So these are the men and even women who carry these ginormous and heavy images through the streets for hours on end. When Kirsten and I first saw them, we were like, Who do these dudes think they are wearing do rags? Then we realized who they were. There are anywhere from 30 – 70 costaleros carrying each image and oftentimes they are underneath cloth and cannot see out or where they are going. They are also situated VERY close to one another and can only take baby steps…no wonder they move so slowly. They have certain pasos (steps) that they do in time with the music and usually rock the image back and forth. It’s quite amazing actually and takes lots of practice. This is one of my favorite pictures of a costalero smoking a cigarette…