Today was tiange day, or for you gringos, traveling market day. We found the market about two blocks from our house this year. It seems like the location changes every time we come down and when it moves, it moves closer to our place. At the market was the usual fare, we quickly strolled through and didn’t buy anything. We were impressed with its size this year but there still was nothing that interested us, so we were in and out in about an hour.
At 1:00 PM we met everyone at the pool for volleyball. We had enough for two teams of four each with two subs. I decided to rest my knee a bit today so I only played two games. We were finished in a little over an hour. Larry had to drive to the airport to pick up some folks and we had to get the place ready for Bill and Terri Burch’s arrival.
When the Bill and Terri arrived we had a couple of cold beers waiting and cracked open the fresh salsa I had made earlier. Their flights went very smooth and naturally they were very tired. We walked into town and ate at Buena Gusto. When we were finished we walked to the plaza and took in some of the cultural entertainment before buying pastries and heading home.
Melaque is all a buzz with the events of the Festival. We can hear the music from our front room and it is clear that we will have to get used to this nightly serenade. I took a couple video clips of the music and dancing.
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Guadalajara Cops and More
Here is the video of the motorcycle group from Guadalajara. Their performance drew a huge crowd and everyone enjoyed the entertainment. As we watched the group, Linda ran into her Spanish instructor that she hired last spring. Then we walked over to the Festival
headquarters and registered Linda for the 10K run.I took a picture of her with the race instructions and her receipt. Later we went home and translated the instructions. It turns out that the race is more of a Mexican survival run. It go through the sand on the beach to Barra, up a big hill, through the
jungle and then along the highway back to Melaque. Running the Highway should finish anyone left after the jungle. I figure this will be Linda's favorite race shirt by the end of this day.
I put a couple pictures of the parade up, they include the skim boarders and the Canadians. Note how the Canadians are actually walking well and representing their country with pride. It is early and in about two hours they will be well lubricated. The one fellow must be the 10k run representative, wouldn't you think?
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Let the Festival Begin
Tonight was the opening night of a new festival in Melaque. First thing I said was “didn’t we just celebrate the Festival of Guadalupe?” Last week that was a religious holiday and this is a festival, see the difference? Each day for the next five days Melaque will host all types of cultural, arts and sporting events for the first ever Festival del Mar, Melaque. The parade tonight opened the event and it wound through the town right past our place. I videoed the entire parade and you can watch it on my You Tube post right here. It was short and enthusiastic but unlike the Coeur d’Alene parades there were no politicians or advertising rigs; just good hometown floats and families. Well, maybe the Canadians could be called a national semi-political group. The parade was early so most of their group was still sober enough to follow the parade route.
After festive start of the week of events we went down to the plaza and watched the motorcycle police from Guadalajara perform their tricks. They stacked up to 14 people on the three bikes and did various tricks for the crowd. It looked like there must have been 200 hundred spectators enjoying the event. I took some video of many of their stunts and this will also be posted via the Tube.
Linda and I broke away from the spectacle so that she could get signed up for a 10k run on Friday morning. We walked across town and found the place she needed to go and she paid her $20, got her receipt and the race instructions (in Spanish).
We walked back to the plaza just in time to see a pile of wood burning in the middle of the street. Kids were stomping on the flames and jumping back and forth over the smoldering mess. We found out later that the motorcycle group had driven the three bikes, with 14 officers stacked on each other, through the flaming wood pile as their faunally. As Linda and I, and 150 other people walked by, an old tractor pulling a plastic water tank pull up to the fire. The sign on the side of the tank read mobile car wash, I think, and he then started spraying the fire with a strong stream of water. The smoke and ash went everywhere! People were getting covered with a smoky mist and a grey cloud of steam. I grabbed Linda and we shot to the end of the block. Neither of us were hit by the mess, but boy did the crowd thin out in the square.
We walked back toward our house and decided to go to Rosa’s for tacos. The food there was wonderful! We sat and talked about the events of the evening with a couple who joined us at our table. They were from Vancouver Island and come down most every year. We all decided that none of the events of the evening would ever be allowed to happen back where we all came from. Kids would not be allowed to sit and ride on truck hoods in the parade. None of the people would have been able to even ride in the back of the trucks like they did here. You would definitely never see three motor bikes, with 14 officers piled on them, crash through a burning stack of wood in the middle of a huge group of people back in the good old USA. In fact I don’t think you can hold a parade without a politician, can you?
After festive start of the week of events we went down to the plaza and watched the motorcycle police from Guadalajara perform their tricks. They stacked up to 14 people on the three bikes and did various tricks for the crowd. It looked like there must have been 200 hundred spectators enjoying the event. I took some video of many of their stunts and this will also be posted via the Tube.
Linda and I broke away from the spectacle so that she could get signed up for a 10k run on Friday morning. We walked across town and found the place she needed to go and she paid her $20, got her receipt and the race instructions (in Spanish).
We walked back to the plaza just in time to see a pile of wood burning in the middle of the street. Kids were stomping on the flames and jumping back and forth over the smoldering mess. We found out later that the motorcycle group had driven the three bikes, with 14 officers stacked on each other, through the flaming wood pile as their faunally. As Linda and I, and 150 other people walked by, an old tractor pulling a plastic water tank pull up to the fire. The sign on the side of the tank read mobile car wash, I think, and he then started spraying the fire with a strong stream of water. The smoke and ash went everywhere! People were getting covered with a smoky mist and a grey cloud of steam. I grabbed Linda and we shot to the end of the block. Neither of us were hit by the mess, but boy did the crowd thin out in the square.
We walked back toward our house and decided to go to Rosa’s for tacos. The food there was wonderful! We sat and talked about the events of the evening with a couple who joined us at our table. They were from Vancouver Island and come down most every year. We all decided that none of the events of the evening would ever be allowed to happen back where we all came from. Kids would not be allowed to sit and ride on truck hoods in the parade. None of the people would have been able to even ride in the back of the trucks like they did here. You would definitely never see three motor bikes, with 14 officers piled on them, crash through a burning stack of wood in the middle of a huge group of people back in the good old USA. In fact I don’t think you can hold a parade without a politician, can you?
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