Tue 5
Constitution Day
Marks the adoption of the constitution of 1917 that codified the ideology of the Mexican
Revolution and is still the basis for the Mexican legal system. It was adopted under Venustiano
Carranza. It is a national holiday, government departments, banks, schools and some businesses will
be closed.
Tue 5 - Tue 19
"Chila 2002" Annual Fiesta, Bajos de Chila
The St. Valentine's fiesta in Chila is one of the best on the coast. It offers all the
traditional staples of the Oaxacan fiesta, but just a little bit more so.
You can spend an afternoon at the jaripeo, the local bull-riding rodeo, stroll the carnival midway or browse through the numerous stalls set up by itinerant merchants. There are dances many nights and on Feb. 14, the traditional castillo, an amazing fireworks display takes place.
There is also an area of makeshift cantinas and a palenque for cock fights.
Bajos de Chila gets its name, according to most sources, from a famous curandera or native healer named Lucila, who lived in the town in the 20s. When people were sick they would say "Vamos a Chila" (Let's go see Chila - a diminutive form of the name Lucila),
Chila's annual fair is in honor of its patron, San Isidro Labrador not St. Valentine. May 15 is the actual saint's day for San Isidro, a Spanish peasant who was adopted as patron by numerous agricultural towns. But May is not a time of great prosperity in the area, and what good is there in holding a fiesta when everyone is strapped?
Here's this year's schedule of events:
Tue 5
5 p.m. Official Opening of the Fiesta
Wed 6
9 a.m. Kids' Bike Race
3 p.m. Half Marathon
Thu 7
3 p.m. Mountain Bike Race
Fri 8
9 a.m. Women's Soccer
9 a.m. Women's Volleyball
Sat 9
9 a.m. Men's Basketball
Seniors' Soccer
9 a.m. Mixteca Ballgame, "Pelota Mixteca" is a tough game in which a large,
solid-rubber ball is pounded back and forth between the two teams using heavy nail-encrusted gloves.
(For more, see El Sol, Feb., 2001)
9 p.m. Beauty Contest
Sun 10
9 a.m. Soccer Finals
Men's Volleyball
Mixtec Ballgame
Wed 13
5 p.m. Festive Convite y Calenda
parades to invite participation in the festivities, through the main streets of town, led by the
band "Región Chatina"
Thu 14
8 p.m. Guelaguetza
folkloric group from the city of Oaxaca presents the color and excitement of the rich cultural
traditions of the state.
10 p.m. Castillo
magnificent fireworks display and the running of the little bulls, "toritos".
Fri 15
3 p.m. Jaripeo, bull-riding rodeo
10 p.m. Dance
Sat 16
3 p.m. Jaripeo
8 p.m. Grand Dance with international groups
Mon 18
8 p.m. Popular Dance
Tue 19
5 p.m. Greased Pole, Greased Pig contests and other games.
Fri 8 - Tue 12
Carnaval de la Costa 2002
The annual bacchanal to give vent to the pleasures of the flesh before
the austere 40 days of Lent. There's Mardi Gras, there's Samba-mania
in Rio, partying in Mazatlan and Veracruz and now Puerto Escondido revives
the Carnaval tradition on the Oaxacan Coast.
(See more on Carnaval below).
Fri 8
Carnaval Children's Parade featuring the local kinder and primary schools.
5 p.m.
Election of the Children Carnaval King and Queen plus children's arts fair
7 p.m. Municipal Esplanade
Sat 9
Election of King and Queen of the Carnaval and the ritual of "Burning Bad Humor," baton twirling
contest, samba percussion groups and dancing.
7 p.m.
Sun 10
First Grand Carnaval Parade Floats, dancers and musicians from Playa Zicatela (in front of El
Cafecito) to the Municipal Esplanade
6 p.m.
Drum and Baton Extravaganza
8 p.m. Municipal Esplanade
Mon 11
Entertainment Show
8 p.m.
Tue 12
Second Grand Carnaval Parade from Playa Zicatela (in front of El Cafecito) to the Municipal
Esplanade
6 p.m.
Closing Event Prize ceremony, fireworks and a dance
9 p.m. Municipal Esplanade
Tue 12
New Moon in Aquarius at 1:41 a.m.
Sun 24
Flag Day
There have actually been many versions of the familiar tricolor over the years. The three
colors were first adopted in 1821, each one representing one of the principals of the Plan of
Iguala, on which the first constitution of the nascent Mexican Republic was based. The color green
represented independence, white the purity of the Catholic faith and red the unity of the nation.
The official day to honor the flag was proclaimed in 1940.
Wed 26 - Thu 27
Founders' Day Festival
Santa María Colotepec
Feb. 27 marks this neighboring town's 288th anniversary. Previous celebrations have included
sports contests, a rodeo, fireworks, horse racing and a big dance.
Wed 27
Full Moon in Virgo, 3:17 a.m.
Music
Wed 13
Sunset Jazz
Veteran jazz record producer Bernie Brightman, a perennial winter
visitor to Puerto offers his always entertaining presentation on
America's art form
6 p.m. Poolside, Hotel Arco Iris, Playa Zicatela
Art
Fri 8 - Thu 28
Fantasy Masks
Inspired by the original masked carnivals of Venice, artist Esperanza
Castro Bocanegra has produced a collection of extravagantly fashioned
Fantasy Masks, so that you can participate in Carnaval in high style.
Opening Reception for the Artist: 5 - 7 p.m., Fri Feb. 8 Gallery at El
Sol de la Costa, on the Adoquín
Radio, Radio
Sunday 8 p.m. to 10 p.m.
Chiles y Chocolates, a bilingual radio
program hosted by "Lucy Sonido", actually Canadian musicologist Helena Szutska, an eclectic mix of
music from around the world.
Wednesday 9 p.m.
La Luciernaga (Firefly)
Lucy's midweek, commercial-free hour of free-flowing music. Radio Esmeralda, 94.1 FM.
While we lack the spiffy sports fishing yachts of some ports, Puerto's fleet of 18 to 23 feet lanchas and the knowledgeable skippers from the Sports Fishing Cooperative are capable of hauling in anything from grouper to marlin.
The going rate is 300 pesos an hour, and the lanchas can normally accommodate four people on a fishing trip. You'll want to leave at dawn and return by noon. That's when the fish are biting and you'll avoid the hottest part of the day. Take a hat. Prepare your food and drinks the night before because few stores are open at that hour near the beach.
Most hotels can arrange for a skipper or you can stop at the office for the local sports fishing and tour boat cooperative, located on Av. Marina Nacional, near the Adoquín (Tel: 582-1303 or 582-1678).
Sailfish and marlin are caught all year off Puerto's shores, as are dorado (mahi-mahi or dolphin fish) and bonito, but the cool winter waters bring greater numbers of tuna.
Sailfish are found in warmer blue waters and typically range from 35 to 50 kilos. They are most
plentiful from June to September.
The blue marlin and black marlin (Makaira indica/Makaira nigricans) which can weigh up to several hundred kilos are much more elusive; an average of two to five are caught here each month. And, like the sailfish, summer is the best time for fishing them.
Yellowfin tuna (atun aleta amarillo, Thunnus albacares) are most common from November through March, ranging in size from 3 to 100 kilos, but eight to 10 kilos is the norm.
Perhaps one of the most exciting thrills for a fisher is to catch a dolphin fish or mahi mahi (dorado). These electric-blue and emerald-hued fish grow to about 55 kilos, but they can fight, jumping and twisting out of the water and they are capable of amazing bursts of speed. They like to hide among floating debris.
Rooster fish (pez gallo, Nematistius pectoralis) is another prized catch for the serious fisherman. An iridescent black and blue, about three-feet in length, distinguished by its "cock's comb", it is found in shallow beach areas, often near a river mouth.
Other fish you might encounter: The bonito (barrilete) is particularly common. Black, about two-feet in length, it's not valued as a food fish, despite its good flavor, because of its red flesh. There is a deep sea variety of barrilete known as barrilete de diente.
The Pacific mackerel (sierra, Scomberomorus) is gray with gold spots, about two-feet in length, and provides delicious firm white meat.
The needlefish (aguja tylosurus crocodilus) is one of our favorite eating fish. Normally found in deep water, it is commonly fished at night when it comes closer to shore attracted by the lights. It has delicate white meat with blue bones. Red snapper (huachinango, lutjanus peru) is also fished at night. Reddish pink, up to two-feet in length, this local staple is commonly found in deep rocky pools.
Snook (róbalo, Centro-pomus nigrescens), another excellent food fish, is blackish brown, two to three-feet in length, commonly found in and around the lagoons.
Mullet (lisa) is found in shallow, sandy bays, while the grouper (pargo), a rust-brown fish up to 3-feet in length, likes deep water and reefs, an environment that also attracts the sea bass (cabrilla).
Tranquil Manialtepec Lagoon, a short 15-minute drive from Puerto Escondido, is home to an astonishing variety of bird and animal life and magnificent displays of tropical vegetation. It's a popular spot for eco-excursions. The mangrove forests are an amazingly productive ecosystem; the roots nurturing the crabs, shrimps and mussels that attract a wide variety of fish species, that, in turn, draw the birds and other wildlife.
But when night falls on Manialtepec Lagoon and all the conditions are right, there's even more magical sights to be seen.
Manialtepec's waters are a veritable soup of tiny organisms: algae, protozoa, eggs, larvae and so on, known collectively as plankton.
One form of plankton is called cyanobacteria, a single-celled algae containing chloroform and a blue substance which gives off an eerie phosphorescent glow when disturbed by currents.
At night, the thousands of fish darting through the waters leave streaks like falling stars, and the wake of a motor launch looks as though it has been illuminated by powerful floodlights. If you swim in the lagoon, the droplets fall from your skin like a shimmering shower of sparks.
It's a remarkable and highly recommended experience. Before planning an evening trip, check with the tour operators or the resort areas at the lagoon to determine that the phosphorescence is still happening; the phenomenon disappears as suddenly, and as mysteriously, as it begins.
Carnival, or Carnaval as it is called in Latin America, comes from the Latin meaning "farewell to
the flesh." It refers to the 40 days of Lent, when Christians were forbidden to eat meat, had to
wear somber clothing and refrain from merriment.
So the days preceding Lent were the last opportunity to enjoy the pleasures of the flesh and Carnaval evolved as a period of sanctioned excess, of carefree abandon and indulgence in which wild behavior was accepted as a necessary outlet.
The familiar colorful trappings of Carnival, with its wild costumes, masked balls and parades, probably originated in Venice in the 12th Century. But the use of masks and other disguises probably has roots in ancient pagan times when they were used for protection against evil at inauspicious times when malevolent spirits were thought to be about.
The spectacular samba parades and lavish costumes of Rio are the benchmark for Carnaval, but local variations take place throughout Latin America.
In Mexico, the tradition is strongest in Merida, Veracruz and Mazatlan. In Oaxaca, Carnaval traditions remain strong in some of the Mixtec communities and Carnaval dances such as Los Tejorones from the region around Pinotepa Nacional are regular features of November's Coast Festival of Dance.
But two years ago, the government of the state of Oaxaca sponsored Carnaval 2000, to establish Carnaval as a regular attraction in Puerto Escondido. Government officials want to involve all the communities of the coast and there was strong representation year by delegations from the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, whose strong cultural traditions and brilliant costumes added a welcome colorful element to the festivities.
This year Carnaval begins on Friday the 8th with Children's Day and will include a children's parade and, in the evening, the election of their King and Queen of the Carnaval.
On Saturday the 9th the Queen of the Carnaval and the King of Happiness will be selected and ritual of "Burying Bad Humor" will take place.
The winners of these contests are those candidates that sell the greatest number of tickets, or votes. The money raised will be used to fund the schools and other civic projects.
On Sunday 10th the first Grand Parade will wind its way through the streets of Puerto Escondido. It will feature colorful floats, music and dancers.
One feature of Carnaval is the participation of the comparsas, or the choruses. These are groups of friends or colleagues who dress up in matching costumes to participate in the parades and dances. There will be contests to select the best comparsa.
Monday evening will feature a entertainment program and a free dance at the Municipal Esplanade.
Tuesday the 12th is the climax of Carnaval, this is Shrove Tuesday or Mardi Gras. (The following day is Ash Wednesday when Lent begins.) Another Grand Parade will take place and the festivities end with an awards ceremony for winners of the contests, fireworks and another dance.
So have fun, get your costume and participate!