January 25, 2011

Bucerias Festival--Celebrating Life by Defying Death

 If Mexico had personal injury lawyers this country would be a lot less fun. Although I must say it’s become a much safer country over the past 15-years. Yes, there is that drug war stuff—but I’m talking about the fact your chance of being blinded by a random firework or injured on an unsafe children’s ride has been reduced considerably.
not sure how these shoes make sense anywhere let alone in a town of cobbled streets, but all the girls were wearing them...
But this is still a user beware kind of country. If something looks unsafe, appears poorly maintained, or seems like a bad idea—it probably is. It really is that simple. Beyond that, it’s a heck of a lot of fun to live without fences and warning signs and use your common sense when it comes to adventure.
Which brings us to last night:
 Festivals are the ultimate user-beware adventure: there are inebriated vaqueros with bb guns (whose pellets can ricochet back into the crowd even after they hit the target that makes the gorilla pee on their buddies…); there’s children’s rides that were either retired or condemned at some point in MY childhood; there are twelve-piece brass bands in every corner competing against the cacophony (and the performances on the main stage); and there are the fireworks.
 If Mexico didn’t already have a patron saint, I would have nominated the guy who invented fireworks. Their role in daily life really is really something to behold. Last night we realized we’ve probably seen more fireworks in our year here, than Maia had previously seen in her life to date.
the castillo before it's lit
 But last night’s lighting of the Castillo was something she’d never seen before. A Castillo (Castle) is a three story tower filled with fireworks. The fireworks go off in stages and as each stage fires, images appear and then spin--shooting sparks into the crowd. The show took about 20-minutes and culminated with Jesus’ crown flying off his head and into the sky where it exploded into overhead fireworks.
 And that was the point where we collected our very tired girl and caught a cab home. The revelry continued into the night—and no doubt the town will be very quiet today. But living with this kind of break-neck joy feels pretty right to us…

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

We were there and totally loved the spectacle, people, cerveza and all that was celebrated. It was such a fabulous evening in Mexico.