Last day of Pinal's annual fiesta

Today is the last day of Pinal Villa's annual fiesta for Our Lady of the Rosary -Talpa. The fiesta is nine days long with fireworks starting at 5AM every morning. Today it went on for 2 hours. Usually, we have a Castillo but enough money wasn't raised to pay for one.

Someone came up with money so we'll have a Castillo after all

A busy 3 weeks ahead

Carnaval rides

Castillo

The San Patricio - Saint Patricks week long celebration is supposed to start 10 days before Saint Patricks Day ..... and that would mean it starts tomorrow the 7th. Then we have the last day of school on Friday to start the Semana Santa vacation and that is for two weeks.

The carnival rides are set up in their usual place and I assume are open this weekend but I haven't been downtown at night. I'm not sure when is the big final Castillo night .... and there might be one almost every night. In the past, most of the surrounding communities will take their turns building the Castillo structure so there is lots of variety. After the San Patricio party, Melaque will be flooded with Semana Santa vacationers. I suggest getting all your important business taken care of before the craziness. 

Carritos, comida and Castillo

This will be my last evening in town during the San Patricio festival. We just picked last night as one that would not be too crazy with the amount of people and it was OK. Next week is Benito Juarez's birthday so this weekend is a 3 day "puente" and there will be many people in town.

I'll be witness to the number of tourists headed our way for the 3 day weekend as I was headed to Manzanillo for the 4th time to cancel my Telcel contract that they have told me twice before was canceled. It's just sad to say that the people that work at Telcel don't really care enough to make sure YOU - THE CUSTOMER understand what they are requiring.    Telcel service is generally acceptable and Telcel customer service sucks big time !!!

Finally stopped

Tacos Pedro on Taco Row - nothing special

The same three pinwheels were the whole show

Fiesta San Patricio

Fiesta San Patricio officially started a few days ago and we went the first day because the kids wanted to go on the rides and we wanted to see what was new. The only thing really new is the carnival equipment is newer, larger and more expensive this year. It even spills into the adjoining street behind OXXO. Fiesta San Patricio lasts about 10-12 days but the carnival rides will be here through Semana Santa.

We parked on the corner of the plaza early and after 3 hours the car was in the middle of a traffic and people jam.   Decided to make our escape early before we were totally trapped.  We'll go again tomorrow night to see the castillo fireworks between 11 and 12.   Thursdays usually have less people and we'll park by the highway to avoid traffic.

Big Ferris Wheel (Noria ?)

Little Ferris Wheel

The crowd in the plaza

Fiesta ends with a bang

Monday night was the grand finale of Pinal Villa's annual fiesta - Nuesta Senora del Rosario Colonia Pinal Villa. It's been a fun and interesting 7 days with dancers, parades and fireworks (cojetes). Groups of dancers from local communities would converge on our little church almost every evening about 7PM to be blessed by the Padre.

Sunday had a lot of activity, food and fun for the kids ... but Monday was the big one. A Banda Band, lip-sinking drag queen doing Jenni Rivera and finally a very talented pre-teen boy with a great voice. Of course the finale was the Castillo. I left before the Toritos showed up and I hear they were pretty crazy. End of a great party.

The carnival 

Castillo

Finale

Win one - loose one

I probably wouldn't have noticed that this "Friday the 13th" is a holiday celebrating the Niños Héroes who died fighting the Americans in the Mexcan - American war.   I did notice because Jania has a school project and was working on it here yesterday afternoon.  Funny that they didn't know what the war was about or with whom.   Although the war resulted in greatly rearranging the US - Mexican boundaries I hardly consider consider it a victory.   True, Mexico owed the US some money but his could also have been the first major expansion and control move that the US became famous for in years to come.  A victory but not a valiant one.

The Niños Héroes (in English: Boy Heroes), also known as the Heroic Cadets or Boy Soldiers, were six Mexican teenage military cadets. These cadets died defending Mexico at Mexico City's Chapultepec Castle (then serving as the Mexican Army's military academy) from invading U.S. forces in the 13 September 1847 Battle of Chapultepec, during the Mexican–American War. One of the cadets, Juan Escutia, wrapped himself with the Mexican flag and jumped from the roof of the castle to keep it from falling into enemy hands. The Niños Héroes are commemorated by a national holiday on September 13.

And then last night we watched the US beat Mexico 2 to 0 in the World Cup finals.   That means the US won a playoff seat and Mexico has to win remaining games plus other teams with better records loosing.   Interesting to sit with a bunch of Mexicans who's team is loosing and me from the US and winning.   No hard feeling that I felt.

So we have a holiday Friday (maybe only school) and Independence Day on Monday the 16th.   We'll have to see if this is a 3 or 4 day weekend.   Neighbors say there will be a castillo on the Plaza after the Grito Monday so be prepared.

Pinal Villa Fiesta

Last night was the finale of the annual 7 day celebration in honor of the local patron saint. All week long surrounding communities paraded into Pinal with a small band, dance group and maybe the town princess. Each parade rather small and non-impressive. All that ended this weekend with music, dancing and food on Saturday and well over a thousand last night for the castillo.

I've heard polka like music in Mexico before but never seen anyone dance to it. Last night there were 4 couples looking like they just dropped in from Bavaria absolutely dancing a very energetic polka. They were followed by 4 folklorico couples with the usual swirling of colors. Not sure why but the local female impersonators showed up and lip synced too many songs. Oh well!

They actually lit the castillo a little after 11 when it's usually midnight or later. Very impressive display and nearly as large as the ones in Melaque. Not quite as ornate but still a great show. What was different was the "errant" rockets that flew thru the crowd making us glad we had moved to the other side of the plaza.

Horse dancing to the band

The amusement center

The crowd

Putting together the castillo

Ajijic Fiestas San Andres

Lots of first time things to do in the Lake Chapala area and last night was my first to this Ajijic Fiesta. Elke and Vern came up from the beach for a day of business and their yearly visit to these festivities. We drove down to Ajijic from Joco before dark, walked around a lot, had tacos on the plaza and then found a plaza bar to watch the parade and drink Micheladas while waiting for the Castillo around 11pm.

The plaza parade is fun. Not the courting types of parades you may have heard of where the boys go in one direction and the girls the other. Just a mass of people pretty much going in all directions while a "cuban-latin" band plays from the kiosco.

My only experience with Castillo fireworks has been in Melaque and I do have to say these were more professional and the structure more solidly built. Lots of rockets going off next to the Castillo and real large fireworks were being fired from a block away. There also were no Toritos here which I didn't miss at all - dangerous and scare the kids. The excitement level in Melaque and Ajijic was the same and after all - that's what's important.

This is the second day of celebration (Lady of Pursisma) of our local Templo (church) here in Jocotepec (not the whole town) and I'm anxious to watch it through the eight day period. Starts every night at 7pm except for the bombs which can go off anytime. The cats love them