Il Festival de las Raices

This past weekend we participated in “Il festival de las Raices” in el Mangle. It was a nonprofit festival where we had a stand presenting information about the whale sharks. At the festival there were a lot of different people offering all kinds of organic foods and local products. They had a big opening ceremony with people dancing traditional dances and playing drums which lasted for hours.

It was a great event for kids, since there was an entertainment program for them all day. We got the kids for one hour at 12pm. After Darren gave a short introduction about whale sharks we had all kinds of games and activities prepared.

 We played the game “pin the tail” in the whale shark edition as pin the fin, had a ball game where the kids threw balls through a big whale shark mouth, a big picture with outlines of sea animals for the kids to color, face painting and a contest for the best whale shark made out of clay. The winner of the contest won a pencil with a whale shark shaped top. The kids seemed to have a lot of fun and time flew by.

 

On the same weekend Sarah and I went diving. The first dive was at Los Islotes where we got to play with the sea lions. The second dive was at a ship wreck. We got do dive inside the wreck, so we were a little nervous at first but it was a lot of fun, especially because we brought a lamp and so could get a better look at everything inside. When we were done with the dives we had lunch at a beautiful beach. After that day Sarah got her certification as an advanced open water diver.

On Monday night it was both, Sarah’s last night and Andréa’s birthday so we went to Harker’s for dinner. It’s the same place where you can rent kayaks and paddle boards but they also have a nice restaurant.

After dinner we went to a bar that served Mezcal, it’s a traditional Mexican spirit kind of like Tequila. We all got different kinds and some of them were really smoky. A lot of people eat grasshoppers with their Mezcal here so we ordered some just to try it. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it would be, they were just really crunchy and tasted like salt and spices, kind of like chips.

Sarah and Tobias were the first people I met here so we were all sad when she left, especially our dog Pepe. Safe travels!

Laura