Day of Our Lady of Peace in Bucerías, Nayarit, Mexico

January 24, 2017

So today we went to the tiny town of Bucerías a few miles from La Cruz de Huanacaxtle for the final day of a nine day festival. The local fishermen dress up their pangas and converge off the coast, eventually beaching their boats through the surf and onto the sand. They disembark and bring offerings to the church for a blessing and hope for a prosperous upcoming year. Needless to say, lots of beer and tequila is consumed, starting very early in the morning. The party goes all night. As I write this, I can still here the fireworks going off. The whole village goes crazy. In fact, the local farmers get in on the festivities by bringing in horses for a parade. Not to be outdone, the traditional locals, native to the area, show up for the party in full ceremony dress and put on a dance display in front of the church. The priests bless everything from the pangas to the horses, from the hand drums to bottles of tequila. It’s a wild time for sure. It’s dangerous, but Mexico dangerous, (my new self determined sliding scale like riding in the back of an open air pick-up truck, complete lack of working seatbelts in all taxis, or petting the omnipresent feral dogs) so it passes for everyday life. Todays swell and surf made for a bunch of daring panga runs. I’m sure the cases of consumed Coronas by the panga captains didn’t help them make the best decisions. Even Jesus, alive and hanging from a cross on a boat, didn’t feel confident enough to make the surf landing. The head priest must have consulted with his superior, because he, too, backed out of making a grand entrance. Maybe it was divine intervention, or maybe too much tequila.