Sojourn-Murphy: Fiesta in Chila (circa de Puerto Escondido)

Chila is a small town just north of Puerto Escondido. They have a fiesta that is a huge ten day extravaganza. There are fotbal tournaments, the ancient mayan game of pelota is organized into a tournament, there are bullfights, and galleto fights. We were invited to go to the dancing and fireworks show on Monday night with the couple managing our hotel and their 18 year old son. (no English spoken). Each of the traditional Mexican dancing groups were progressively more polished and interesting. But the grand finale fireworks show was the big event. The video above shows the beginning, when many older boys and young men chase each other with a wooden toro outfitted with lots of incendiary appendages. One boy will chase all the others like a bull charging a matador and fight over the possession of the toro. He will sometimes willingly give it up to another boy as the action continues. It becomes a complicated dance with more and more boys/men joining in as each of the 12 or 15 toros are started one at a time. Sometimes the tightly packed-in crowd becomes part of the show as explosives and sparks fly astray into them. After this macho fire dance is done, the main tower of sticks with fireworks becomes a more familiar show of giant pinwheels and flaming shapes. This was a fantastic show and a very Mexican event that we loved to be part of.