Postcards: One More Margarita

(Tuesday night at Kyla's)

We were busier than we had been for the entire trip the second we arrived in Melaque, and all that doubled when Jessy got here. Every night and, every day - or whatever was left of them once we finally all rolled out of bed - were full of plans... We never had particularly busy plans. When I say "plan" I don't mean hard work and lots of errands and productive stuff, I'm more along the lines of "We have to get up at a reasonable hour so we can go to the beach, get some sun while its still hot, and still get back in time for dinner at Kyla's..." Tough life... Not only that, but soon after Jessy arrived, a series of celebrations began in honor of St. Patrick's Day. As in, weeks of parties.

(A nice exciting surf day for the guys at Rachito.)

Every night in the square, everyone gathers and dances to the banda music being played in the gazebo.

(The square as viewed from Paco's bar.)

Vendors sell light up toys that give your brain a mild heart-attack, cotton candy, the usual tacos, and several other food items. There is a fair set up on a couple of the side streets complete with rides, games, a giant candy stand, and churros rellenos. The best part of the night is the castillo, a giant tall structure which, when lit, spins, and spits out fire crackers...INTO THE CROWD.

(Standing at the base of the castillo)

Everyone in Melaque gathers around to take a fire shower. You could not get further from the North American safety standards. Kids jump and scream and yell and run around testing how close they can get to the castillo. Every few seconds, one shoots into the middle of the people who THINK they're safe and explodes into a whole new storm of sparks. At the end, the crown flies off into the sky and lands in the crowd. IMMEDIATELY after this, everyone books it. The square pretty much clears within seconds, save for a few clusters of people. There is this sense of urgency in the air and even if you don't know whats going on, you just know you need to get to safety NOW. Kind of like in the movies when "something is coming!". A moment passes and you hear more screaming, you see a group of kids start running and jumping again, anda mass of smoke - And then you see it. A man holds a structure over his head in the shape of a bull. The back is rigged with firecrackers that shoot out at random directions. The man runs, swings, bucks, and generally wreaks as much havoc as possible - and people LOVE it. I've never been so thrilled to get shot at with sparks. Someone always gets some kind of nasty burn - one guy walked into the bar afterward showing off his burnt t-shirt and skin, grinning and laughing, and probably about to do it all again tomorrow night.

I can be 99% sure I am the only person in the square thinking, "What happens if it catches my hair on fire? What happens if it shoots some kid in the eye??" Nope, no one else cares about that stuff, its just fun - even after the burns of those unlucky few.

(This is a bunch of boots.)

We sort of accidentally always ended up doing the same thing. All the friends would meet up in Paco's bar - best view of the festivities in town. We'd have a few beer, play some cards, watch the castillo, and hang out until after it closes when Paco and the other people who work at bars can come hang out with us after-hours, banda music still going full blast in the square until long after we go home to our beds.

Just a side note before I get distracted again: I LOVE how all the Mexican kids learn to dance. Every person, not just the old people who were around for the foxtrot times, know how to banda. Kids, teenagers, and most impressively, teenage BOYS partner up and dance dance dance the night away. I think everyone should learn at least a couple dances from a young age. Something BESIDES the one-two-step and strange inappropriate grinding motions that happen with the kids up North.

Other than that, we spent as much time as we could on the beach.

(Our footprints and a nice Skim competition in the background.)

The boys did some surfing, but the swell wasn't great until about the last day or two....but there was a huge catch.

(Boys at play @ Ranchito)

(Some good chill dude time.)

A couple days before we left, Ryan, Arturo, Jess, and myself went out to a beach near Melaque so the guys could surf the swell that was reportedly coming in. After a little while out, and a few jelly fish on the beach (more than I'd seen the day before) we saw a girl come out with huge welts all over her body.

(Surfing in an ocean of Jellies)

Little by little other surfers came in and either stayed in or put on wet suits and went back out. Turns out the bay had FILLED with jellyfish that came in with the swell. Not just little clear ones either. Real stinging ones. Some that just make you red, and some that full of make you swell up. We saw Ryan come in first and I could immediately tell something was wrong. For one thing, he was looking into the water and stepping around in strange patterns, but the real frightening thing was the faces he was making. I imagine it was kind of like walking on hot coals...except all over your body. Jess and I couldn't help but giggle a little bit at the boys coming in all twitchy and frantic, but as soon as I saw Ry's chest, it was just unfortunate. All the guys had gotten ravaged by jelly fish.

(Suffering for his art.)

They told us stories about lifting up an arm and having jelly tentacles hanging and wrapped all around them.. It was insane. Needless to say, that beach day got cut shorter than it would have. They wanted to stay out pretty badly since there was FINALLY some good swell, but no one was willing to brave the jellies again. I don't blame them. I stepped in a tidepool full of them and my one foot was enough pain to keep me away from the water that day.

(Transporting surf boards...They get the good seats, we're the second priority.)

(Ryan and I soaking up the last rays of the day @ Ranchito)

(Total surfer dude, dude.)

(Arturo and Kahlua in tattoo form.)

Ok, what else is interesting...
Its hard to write about our days in Melaque after the fact. Most of our days weren't full of crazy stories, just...normal ones. The kind that are difficult to write about without remembering a conversation word for word...which I didn't. I did, however, get better at taking photos so I might have to do the old caption thing and let the words come with the photos.

(Evening skim sessions on the beach in Melaque)

At this moment we are sitting in LAX waiting for our flight to Vancouver. While our Melaque time might be hard to write about, our little trip to the Manzanillo airport today will be all too easy to talk about. Not in a fun way. Be prepared.