"Wow! These Mexicans sure know how to party!" - the lady in rm #9
It's 7:44am and the Band is still going strong. i slept through most of it. After midnight i decided to 'rest' for awhile and let the amateurs leave the scene. (the party does not start till after midnight mass. it's quite a juxtaposition with half the crowd standing in the doorway of the church and speakers pointed out into the town square filling the courtyard with 'church'. the other half of the crowd is sitting at reserved tables, all dressed up with party hats on.) during my rest i fell asleep twice and decided i might be tired. At 5:15AM i awoke to the band playing and a deep bass pumping through the foundation of our building. It's still dark out but the same band is still going strong and the crowd is still about a thousand strong.
Lots of 'happy' people, but no real drunks. (police are very noticeable and protective. thick as flies) it is a dignified well dressed dancing crowd. some sleeping children. some sleeping parents. hundreds of locals. the locals outnumber visitors 20 to 1. Lots of great photo ops to be had as the sun slowly rises in the east and the band plays on...
8am exactly and the band stops. i now hear the rustle of the palm trees, the pounding surf replaces the bass beat that band played from midnight till 8am. i never heard them take a break between 5am and 8am. maybe they took a rest between midnight and 5?
i just hope everyone is quiet today during nap time!
Happy New Year from Isla Mujeres, MX. Xo Pirate Skip
You say ‘tomatoe’, I say ‘tomato.’ I forgot to mention the photo of the vendor holding two Roma TOMATOES is mayan. I stopped to ask directions and “had a conversation” with him. (conversation?) I am informing him my Spanish is poor and he laughs, informing me he is mayan and speaks Mayan to me… then he proceeds to tell me the Roma’s are called, “Poc.” (sp?) I did get enough info to find my destination!
Another quick note you cant see. In the photo of the Tacos from yesterday lunch, notice the far right corner. She is making individual tortillas’ one at a time and then cooking them on the grill. (the silver thing is a tortilla press. She grabs a handful of doe, rolls it out and then squeezes that thing over the top of it) This takes place in a storefront just down the street from my hotel. At noon locals gather and line up to buy them, very fresh and hot. Speaking of hot. The little room they cook in has no window, no fan and gets roasting. The space is about 14feet x 20 feet. Now imagine a crowd pressed in there all standing. Sure makes the breeze feel good! (yummy tacos)
The fireworks. I forgot those till I saw the photo… at about 12:45am they set off a round of fireworks a few feet behind my hotel. (there is no safety zone, no OSHA, no big brother here) I’m thinking the party is going along fine and this is the noise level? Then a barrage of explosions starts. I run over and look up to see these monster fireworks going off almost directly overhead. This was a world class party!
The P.A.R.T.Y. I estimate 3,000 plus people in the town square. There was seating for about 1,500 and many more surrounding who could not get a table. ($500 pesos) Plus everyone milling about all over town. From my balcony I could hear another band south of the park and I saw and heard four others along the restaurant row. It’s safe to say the entire village, the entire island was partying. I put in earplugs when the band kicked off so I don’t know for sure how loud it was. But the quiet now is so smooth and relaxing I can only guess it was way above healthy levels. You can see sunrise in the photos of the dance. I mentioned that I ‘accidently’ fell into my bed asleep between ~ midnight and 5am. Well when I got back at 5:30am, it was still going strong and the band didn’t take a break, the dancers never left the floor till 8am. This was truly some kind of wild fiesta! The band was exceptional. (I’ll try to find out more about them and report) they never said one word of English. (duhh) they played all over the charts, not ever getting stuck in one rut, and all of it was great. Clear crisp vocals with harmony and some hot lick guitars along with traditional Mexican instruments. No, I didn’t recognize a single song. Not one. But I sang along to several and found myself whistling them.
(this just in. the band is Super Crack. they are from Marida, in the Yucatan.)
I just woke up from Nap #1. It’s about 11:45am and I think I’ll try to find another taco for today! Hope your new year is going great? xo from Mexico.
Pirate Skip
