Parade!

Despite asking several people and googling a bit, I still do not understand why there was a MASSIVE "procesion" (relgious parade) yesterday.   There were at least two kilometers of roads in Salta filled with gauchos and their horses.  It was incredible.  Many others also marched the parade. All I know is that it had something to do with the Virgin Mary.  Other than that, your guess is as good as mine.  I was out in the morning yesterday (Sunday) for a bit, then I came home and was studying for a couple hours with the windows open and I could just hear loud projections of something over a city wide speaker system.  I decided to check out what all the noise was about (besides, I wanted to go out anyway to enjoy the sunshine and move some more).

 Typical gaucho clothing for the region.  I learned that the red is to represent blood and the black stripes to represent mourning.

 This is three lane road plus there a usually cars parked on both sides.

 The horses are on the shady side of the (four lane plus parking) street.  The horses continue past the second tall building in the photo.

 And they keep going!

 This is the crowed by the square where the main announcements were happening, however there is a speaker system throughout the city (V for vendetta style) so you could hear the announcements and singing everywhere.

 Many of the groups carried pictures of Mary with gorgeous floral arrangements.