Easter Week

Easter Week signals a mass exodus from the cities; Anybody who can afford a bus ticket, squeeze into the family subcompact or Uncle Manuel's truck heads for the coast and the countryside. It is said that utility consumption, water, electricity etc, falls by as much as 30 percent during this period in Mexico City.

The preferred destination, of course, is a beach resort. On even the most isolated beaches you are likely to encounter large families of campers and day-trippers. It is a good time to stay off the highways and to just enjoy the community in which you find yourself. Hotel rooms are booked solid, as are planes and buses.

In the past, this huge influx of visitors put a major strain on Puerto's infrastructure, resulting in shortages of supplies in the stores, ice, gasoline and cash at the bank machines. This is no longer a problem as major businesses and the local authorities are now prepared for the obvious. The city's garbage trucks have even managed to deal with the mounds of trash that this sudden explosion in population inevitable generates.)

Equally inevitable is traffic congestion, and nobody has figured out how to handle that yet. The traffic snarls, and not be able to get into their favorite restaurant, is what most vexes residents. But there's also the insensitivity of the mindless idiots who leave their trash on the beach. That really makes us mad.

I know that you aren't one of those people and it isn't your trash, but it is your beach, so help us out and pick it up. Keep Puerto beautiful.

To meet the sybaritic needs of our visitors there will be all manner of entertainment activities taking place around town: carnival rides for the kids, dances, beach parties, sometimes cock fights and almost always rodeos. Mariachis, street entertainers, arts and crafts vendors and far too many young kids with conga drums work the crowds strolling the Adoquin pedestrian mall.

Here are some of the regularly occurring events (although we were unable to confirm the details as we went to press.):

Festival of the Sea is a three-day program of music, sports, games and prizes from a stage on the town's main beach, (Playa Principal) sponsored by the other beer company.

Boca Barra Festival in Barra de Colotepec, which sits at the mouth of the Colotepec River, hosts an Easter weekend fiesta each year that includes a fishing tournament, Surfing and Miss Bikini contest, a Beach Rodeo The entrance to the town is just before you reach the bridge over the Colotepec River.

Ecology & Folklore Festival in the other Barra, Barra de Navidad (located on the far bank of the Colotepec River). On Easter Weekend the town will show off its eco-tourism preserve, with its iguana and crocodile hatchery, offer tours of their small lagoons to view the bird activity and the other abundant wildlife, including the release of baby marine turtles. Plus fun and games on the beach and a program of live music and other cultural programs, regional food and drink specialties.

SHOPPING TIP: Look out for the campesinos how arrive in the towns to sell crucifixes and Spring-inspired ornaments, woven from wheat sheaves and reeds. They re quite lovely and this is the only time you come across them.

FAR FROM THE MADDENING CROWD

If you are (and can find a place to say) it is a particularly interesting time to visit one of the nearby indigenous communities to experience the passion and faith of the people expressed in rites and customs that mix both Christian and pre-Hispanic beliefs. One such place is Santos Reyes Nopala, an attractive hill-top town that is located in the coffee-growing foothills of the Sierra Madre del Sur, where the Chatinos from surrounding communities gather in huge numbers for this Spring celebration.

Nearby in San Juan Lachoa, noted for its waterfalls, is the Finca de las Nieves, a project of the Hotel Santa Fe, offers elegant accommodation plus hiking, bird watching and other eco-activities, as well as producing some of the best coffee in the world. (More on this and coffee country next issue)

The area surrounding the town of Pinotepa Nacional with its mix of Mixtec, Amusgo, Chatino Indians and Afro-Mestizo communities also celebrates the season with particularly colorful ritual and pageantry. In some towns pitched battles with rockets and spears are enacted, with one side smeared with mud, representing the Pharisees.