The celebration started at about 7pm when people walk from the town with a full band to the hacienda's church. After a long catholic church service packed full of people they start the fireworks. Here fireworks are gun powder rolled up in a piece of paper and then tied to a piece of bamboo. After the church service the town's people walk to the plaza at the center of the hacienda where the band plays for hours. The people dance, drink, and eat food amongst a plaza filled with fire until they continue on to the next location where the party continues until the sun rises over the mountains. We unfortunately did not make it to the sun rise, but were happy to get some extra sleep.
During the party in the plaza not only are there bonfires(which made us think of the Pease party) and fireworks, but there are also trees lit on fire and castillos. There were two castillos, both of which are giant structures about 50 feet high which have fireworks connected to them. One man has various ropes connected to the castillo which he then uses to slowly spin the giant structure and make the firework images appear to dance or move around.While the fireworks of the castillo explode, everyone dances around and beneath it (especially the drunk people) while passing around bottles of liquor.
We had an extremely fun night dancing and socializing with the locals, Caye's family, and the employees here. Great memories were made and we are happy to say that no one caught on fire! We all hope you enjoyed your nights as well!
