New Year’s Eve started off with meeting up with our good friends Ian and Ellen from Kasasa, having a delicious fish dinner at La Costa and then a rousing game of cards aboard Tapatai to kill time; didn’t want to peak too early. After cards we headed down the Malecon to the party that the City was sponsoring and listened to live music while wandering around admiring the firework launchers that were here and there in the street and on the beach. We watched the guys loading the rockets on racks and placing the mortars around. The police were out in full force with at least 5 different forces but they were very mellow as was the crowd. There was a tent set up as a bar and you could buy beer and a rum and coke for $50 pesos ($4.00 US). The crowd wasn’t too big but quite a few families and a few working girls dressed to the nines. At midnight fireworks and flares started to go off but not at the Malecon as the clock that was counting down still had 5 minutes to go. I think an official who was giving a speech ran overtime and they reset the clock.
When they did start we watched the guy who was smoking cigarette use it to light off the displays. We were right next to them and directly under them so it was pretty spectacular for us as in the US you can’t get within 2 miles of them. But here there were no permits needed and no stinking computers to foul up and set them all off at the same time. The display went on for 15 minutes and was very well done and very good. After it was over we walked through all the debris from the fireworks but the street crews were already sweeping up.
We walked back to the boat and said goodbye to our friends and hit the bunk at 1:30 AM. The next morning was business as usual with coffee at the clubhouse at 9:30 and cribbage until about noon. It was a quiet day as it was a holiday and not much going on but Penny made a delicious pot of posole and a good time was had by the Tapatai crew and friends. Sorry but I forgot to take my camera and left the iphone at the boat so no pictures.
Penny’s Two Cents: How do you spell YUP as in “I agree” with everything that FG described . . . so anyways, as we have said before, Mexico is a “Personal Responsibility State” which translates into “watch out for what you do, because if you screw up you are on your own”. Hence the amazing access to things that are (or can be) dangerous! Since we were a little early for ringing in the New Year, Fred and Ian decided to have an ice cream cone and I decided to see what all of those “ladies” that Fred described above were up to – and it was pretty interesting! Having been raised strict Catholic I must admit that I am a voyeur, haha.
Anyways, the lighting of the fireworks was thrilling! Here is my viewpoint: First of all the fireworks, seeing them close up, they were huge! I have never seen such big fireworks, but then again when are we allowed to be close up to really look at what is going off?
So when it’s finally time to light them, there is a Mexican seriously dragging on a cigarette - we saw the red burning end of the cigarette, and then he rushed over and ignited the cannon and then ran like the dickens to protect himself! It was amazing! We were right under all of the debris – there were some injuries (none serious, burned eyelashes from looking up, someone’s arm was slightly burned, etc.) . Very exhilarating!! Local families came over to us and offered drinks, grapes, I don’t know, just such love and happiness.
We hope that each of you have a Happy and especially Healthy New Year. -p