December 24th continued…..

Sitting in my room shortly before midnight on Christmas Eve listening to the music and the fireworks that are randomly being ignited around the town by the revelers. There are screamers and little bangers, poppers and big bangers and my guess is that they’re for the most part homemade. A little gunpowder and an old piece of newspaper can turn into some of the best and loudest of them all!

It’s interesting the little things that you notice as being so different here. The fireworks are one example. Kids of all ages have access to them and although I’m sure they’re very dangerous…I haven’t seen anyone with any injuries and there have been a lot of little explosions between Guadalupe and now. There was another example that Lynda and I saw on the beach yesterday morning. A family was bringing in their catch of lobster and fish from a net. The dad was wearing dress slacks and a golf tee-shirt with a face mask for diving……not your typical swimming or fishing attire…. He was fully immersed in the ocean gathering up the nets for the mom and daughter who were on shore. Mom and daughter were busy untangling the lobster’s sharp and spiny bits from the netting and retrieving the fish as well. Just a little further down the beach there was a young boy of about 6 or 7 running toward them with a small machete in his hand. We had to laugh because it was likely that the mom or dad had instructed him to run home (or back to the restaurant or somewhere like that) to pick up a knife and to do it ‘on the double’. At home we’d never let a little guy even carry a knife like that to the table let alone run along the beach for who knows how far with it. One of my favourite things about travel….is the differences and there are lots of them if you just keep your eyes open as you move through the experience.

Another difference is that in Mexico all special days are celebrated the night preceding the event. So…if for example your birthday is on the 10th you would actually celebrate it on the 9th with the celebration peaking at the stroke of midnight. And so on that same note….Christmas Eve is the big day here with the celebration taking place tonight up until midnight.

So as the fireworks continue and the clock strikes 12:00, I’ll say Merry Christmas from Mexico…may you all have a good one!

L & L