Chayacate dancers

Chayacate dancers come around once a year, on January 20th to be exact. These are traditional dances done by men, women and children in the town of Tuxpan. There are actually two types - chayacate and another type - but obviously I've forgotten the second name and Luis isn't here to tell me what their name is. I'll let you know when I find out. Anyway, the chayacates have face masks with long "hair" attached, and they carry maracas. The other group is more colorful and they carry rattles. The dances start in the town square at the main church. The dancers dance into the square, then into the church. They take their respective saints out of the church and then dance themselves all over the town to the different shrines set up for each saint. When they get to their shrine, they dance for a long time and place their saint on the shrine. Then they move on to the next shrine. It's a day-long event and I'm sure the dancers get very worn out. I hit visual overload by the end of the day, which is why this entry is a bit dry in my descriptions. I need time away from the photos to get some perspective and verbal inspiration. In the meantime, I'll let the photos speak for themselves. The kids in the photos, btw, are baby Sergio (Cynthia's son) and baby Luis (Laura's son).