The day after St. Patrick’s Day, Theresa flew to LA to take care of some business and pick up the remaining suitcase of boat gear we had ordered. I went to another St. Patrick’s Day event a couple days later at the rodeo grounds with some friends. We had the wrong time, so killed a few hours at a public feast where there were many local people being honored (reasons unknown). All you could eat stewed birria, aka goat (delicious), beans and tortillas with bottomless ice cold Corona beer. The bull riding event was very different from American bull riding. The riders hold on only with their legs via a small single horn for a spur on each boot. Instead of an eight second ride they are to ride until the bull is exhausted and gives up. We only saw one rider make it that long (perhaps 60 seconds?) There was the obligatory mariachi band, couples dancing and between riders people on horseback would take kids out of the crowd and ride them around. Other kids would run around the ring on foot and there was even a guy who walked out and decided to breathe fire. It was such chaos that the announcer had to repeatedly ask people to clear the ring so they could get on with the next bull ride! Very entertaining, very late night. I am convinced that the Mexican people are the happiest people I’ve ever been around.
One of the most interesting things in the town of Barra de Navidad is the church. One block from the beach, it was a shelter during hurricane Lily in 1971. As the story goes, it was packed with people at the peak of the storm and in answer to their collective prayers, the arms of Jesus on the main cross broke off! At that moment, the hurricane began to abate and everyone inside survived. The arms were never returned to their outstretched position but now hang down, disconnected.
We enjoyed a couple of very nice meals in the resort, including another fancy table-side caesar salad and Mexican coffee, and hung out in their pool complex for several days. The bar photo is nothing but tequila – 250 different kinds!
The big shipwreck in the pictures happened in hurricane Patricia, 1979. The pic of Bella is where we found her – on another boat! And for you history buffs out there, Barra was sacked by the English pirate Thomas Cavendish in 1587. He stole all the treasure from the Philippine galleons, burning the city and all the ships when he left. Miraculously, the giant shipyard cross was reportedly the only thing to survive and was around for another couple hundred years.
