Veracruz has the largest and most famous Carnaval in Mexico and has some unique traditions, including Juan Carnaval, where an effigy receives a mock-funeral. The celebration lasts nine days and includes floats, parades, parties and special events all over the city. From 28 February to 3 March, our Veracruz community organized the Veracruz CouchCrash Carnaval to coincide with these celebrations.
Carnaval is celebrated all over the world as a period of festivities before observing Lent. It has its roots in the Catholic Church and these multi-day festivities, complete with parades and floats, are spectacular events to experience.
Couchsurfers have been meeting up at the ‘CouchCrash Carnaval de Veracruz’ to join in the celebrations every year since 2013. This year there were more than 70 Couchsurfers in attendance. The crash lasted four days with a range of activities leading up to watching the main carnival parade: salsa dancing, visiting downtown Veracruz and some sightseeing of museums, the fortress San Juan de Ulúa, the biggest aquarium in Mexico, and of course, tasting the local delicacies.
Carlos, one of the organizers of the event and a Couchsurfing Ambassador, said, “this kind of meeting is very fast, especially on Saturday, because you are going from one place to another, so it is more about giving a tour to the visitors. But after, we had time to meet each other and talk about Couchsurfing. I really loved this time because we could take a break and just talk. In groups of four, we started to introduce each other, and then two members of each group were moved to a new group in a circle. This would form a new group of four so everyone could meet each other. I told them that in some way we were recreating the reference system on Couchsurfing, when we are all connected and we could know about people even if they weren’t in our circle. After, we invited everyone to write references for each other because that’s the cornerstone of our community.”
Congrats on the amazing event Veracruz Couchsurfers! We hope you have many years of amazing Carnaval CouchCrash celebrations ahead!