San Blas Day

 Por Carlo

For the last four years we have tried our best to be in San Blas, Mexico in the first week of February. This is because that’s when San Blas Day is celebrated. For those who haven’t experienced it or haven’t read my posts in prior years; San Blas Day is THE celebration here. People come from many miles around and the town is packed with people; there are almost no parking spots in a town that usually has more empty spaces than cars. One of my favorite pastimes is to bring people that have not experienced this celebration here and watch their faces. A few years back we were able to do this with our friends Marty and Brenda; a memory I’ll treasure until the end of my days. This year we have Donna. Donna is our friend from Cape Cod, Massachusetts. She is taking two weeks off and has blessed us by spending her time here with us. While she has been here before and has even helped in detailing our house, this was her first time here for San Blas Day. We did almost all the San Blas Day rituals. We saw the parade that lead to the Church to retrieve the statue of San Blas (the Patron Saint of the town), we visited the Church and saw many Baptisms and the beginning of the service, we went on one of the “Pangas” (boats abut 12 feet long) to witness the “blessing of the fishing fleet”, and saw the fireworks that end the evening. The boat trip was done pretty much by accident. We were with some other people we know at a local bar located on the shore. Some of the people had already set up a boat ride and there were unoccupied seats. Donna and I took two of the seats and the boat took off, along with at least twenty similar boats, to witness the blessing. The “pangas” follow the large shrimping boat out into the open ocean. The large shrimping vessel is carrying the statue of Saint San Blas. The larger boat takes the Saint to a large white rock that has a statue of Fatama on the top. Now, this rock is absolutely beautiful from the shore. It looms large and is the only pure white rock visible from the shoreline. However, as one gets closer to the rock, one can see that the color comes from years (perhaps centuries) of bird droppings that have completely covered the rock and most of the statue of Fatama. Donna, like most people we know, appeared disappointed that something so beautiful from afar could actually be just crap upon closer inspection. The evening is the time for the fireworks in the Plaza. These have been spectacular very year we have seen them; not n the sense of what we’ve seen in any large US city but, in a way that needs to be experienced to be appreciated. The year we were here with Marty and Brenda is still the most memorable to me. That was the first year we saw mortars in the Plaza. The first mortar went up only about ten feet (instead of the 100 or so it was supposed to) and exploded into the crowd! This year, the two most memorable incidents were the initial lighting of the fireworks and the (many) times the fuses went out. A model of a small plane (about three feet long) was strung up from one of the light poles n the Plaza and pointed towards the tower of fireworks. We realized it was there shortly before the fuse to the plane was lit. When the fuse was ignited we moved quickly as sparks started flying and the plane did not move as it was supposed to have done. One of the men that ran the fireworks display stood behind the flaming plane and hit it with a stick until it took off towards the tower. It, of course, did not hit exactly where it was aimed and the rest of the display had to be lit by hand. There were also MANY times when the display went out and one of the men climbed up the three story tower to the point where the display needed to be reignited. This was truly an exciting sight as everyone watched the white hot pieces of metal rain down upon the worker. As in other years, the top of the tower held the Corona; the crown of San Blas. It is a flying saucer looking thing that (is suppose to) fly into the air spinning as it shoots off showers of colors and land safely somewhere. It went pretty well this year. The only concern was when it landed on someone’s roof while still spinning and shooting off sparks. It was a great display. There were no fires and no major injuries. Someday you all should come here and experience San Blas Day for yourselves.