In my little village of Tepakan, an hour outside of Merida, it is our annual Fiesta time!  Or at least, we are getting ready for the first official day of the fiesta, April 28th, which is the date of the feast in honor of the patron saint of the village.  The temporary bullring is being built, and there will be traditional dancing at the city hall accompanied by free cochinita tacos for all.

Here in Yucatan, our bullfights are rather different – in most cases, the bulls are not killed.  The ring is built each year from poles and palm leaves provided by the townspeople. It is a communal event as different families from the village build their own sections, and then have the right to rent out the seats in their section.

Every Friday, Saturday and Sunday for two weeks we will have very loud dances  with very loud music from midnight to 5 a.m. with many voladores being set off. Voladores are those home-made bottle rockets which are sent up into the air with a big swoosh, and make a huge BANG. There won’t be much sleep to be had and much beer will be drunk during that time.  I thought you might want to share the fun by seeing my photos of the preparations….

Click here to see our Facebook photo gallery (even if you aren’t on Facebook…) of the preparations. And if you are on Facebook, “like” our page while you are there! We update our Facebook page often, including a new feature: weekly real estate specials, sometimes with significant price discounts!