It's been a week since this happened, but I owe a post to the craziness of El Dia de San Patricio as practiced in Melaque. There are several towns in Mexico that have St Patrick as their patron saint, but Melaque's celebration is one of the biggest, so I've read. I was anchored off Melaque for four nights, Saturday the 15th through Wednesday the 19th, and I went into town on Sunday and Monday night (the 17th and actually St Patrick's Day).
The most interesting thing about my Sunday night was walking around the carnival. Of all things, I regret most not paying 10 pesos ($1) to see Rubi ("la Mujer con 3 bubis"). I took a lot of pictures, and those are up at my Picasa share. Note that there were actually two tents full of foosball games. I only took pictures of one. Foosball rules in Mexico. I think I've only seen one pool table.
At about 9pm these guys brought in a huge burning-man-esque wooden figure with fireworks strapped to it. This was lit about 11pm and was pretty cool, but it took so long in between lightings that it was sort of boring, too. It was lit up with the background music of the 10-person mariachi I've previously mentioned, so there was definitely some dramatic flavor to it.
Monday night - the actual night - was even cooler and crazier. The fireworks lasted longer, as the the burning-man thing was going off I took lots of video and was amazed to see little kids running around in the sparks holding cardboard over their heads. As the fireworks on this thing are going off, the wind was blowing and sparks and hot ash was going everywhere, including in my eyes as I was pretty close. I started thinking... how soon would some government agency shut this thing down in the States? We're so damn over-protective in the US it's pathetic. Probably because we're so litigous. It's pretty sad, really, that we can't have this sort of crazy and stupid fun and put ourselves at risk if we want.
At the very end it got even odder. The band kept playing well past midnight, and shortly after the tall thing was done shooting its fireworks off, guys started running through the square carrying a basket-like thing that was packed full of fireworks. They're running all over the place holding this thing and swinging it around, and bottle rockets and roman candles are shooting out of it in all directions.
The danger / liability thing isn't the only thing that sets this sort of celebration apart from one that would happen in the States. The most amazing thing is this: the two nights I was there, for 5-6 hours each time, I don't recall one single mean look or agressive stance. No fights, no insults, no sneers, no name-calling. And not a single police officer outside the couple of unarmed officers helping direct traffic.
Feel free to check out
more of my pics from these two nights. You may need to sign up for a google account to view Picasa images if you don't have one already.
TT
