A belated report on St Paddy's Day, as celebrated in Melaque, the town across the bay whose patron saint is San Patricio. They hold a week-long bash for St Pat's, since a national holiday, Benito Juarez's birthday, also occurs during that time. Thousands of people swarm to Melaque to honor Pat and Benny at the same time, a twofer. Fireworks every night, live music in the square, parades...
What I wanted most to see was the castillo, the big fireworks structure they light up at 10:30pm in the square in front of the church. We were standing behind it, since the crowd in front of it was so dense you couldn't have shoehorned yourself in. And the Capt and I are both a little claustrophobic in crowds. But we had a good view of the back, and didn't miss a thing. The letters were just backwards, that's all.
The castillo towered over the plaza and was made up of wheels of fire that took turns spinning and then revealed a star, a heart, a shamrock, a religious symbol, in colored light. When the top wheel had spun out, rockets began shooting overhead in all directions, an awesome and thrilling sight, as the crowd screamed in delight.
The Capt captured the whole shootin' match on video and provided a clip for this post, which we have to figure out to format so Blogspot will accept it.
St. Patrick's is the most significant holiday of the year for us because it marks the day we met in an Irish pub 20 years ago, the day we married 17 years ago (I wore a green dress) and the day we bought our boat 15 years ago.
And the fireworks of the castillo seemed the perfect way to celebrate. Reminded me of our first kiss...