Taíno festival

 

On Sunday, my town had a big Taíno festival.  This is how I learned about it:

Host mom: Adán, there is a party with a bunch of americans. They will probably give you popcorn. I´m not going.

Host sister: Yes, lots of americans.  They like pottery. It is someone´s birthday. I´m not going, I don´t care for pottery.

Me: Oh. Maybe I´ll walk by it. Where is it?

Host mom and sister, looking terrified: It is about a kilometer away, you will die in the sun.

It was about a half-k away, but Sugeidy, Cristian, and I took motorcycle taxis anyway.

It turned out to be this big indigenous art festival, and probably the only thing my town is known for, besides growing cacao and plantains (which… everywhere does…).  Quick note: Sugeidy found out that if you poke the above statue´s dong with your umbrella enough, a guy with a gun will tell you to stop.

Music circle!

This is Sugeidy and me enjoying a Presidente beer.  It comes in liters. As you can see in the background, Coca Cola can find its way even to small remote towns only known for growing cacao and plantains.

The below picture was explained to me as representing the indigenous religions.  In an interesting example of religious syncretism, which you can just make out in the picture, most of the people sitting are drinking lots of Presidente.

I arrived on the back of a motorcycle (hence my carrying around a helmet all day).  Others arrived on horses.

There was a lot of music and folkloric dancing.  The coolest thing was when they were dance-fighting with machetes.  Cristian had my camera then, and it was set to “video” mode, so all I have from that is 40 minutes of seasickness.

This is probably the only souvenir I´ve ever bought.  I think she is the moon goddess, and she is artistically displayed in this photo with my mosquito net draped in the background.