Student Teaching in Sayulita, Mexico: The Mexican Carnival

The carnival is in town! For the past two weeks my students have been chattering non-stop about it. My roommates and I finally decided to see what all of the commotion was about over the weekend and ventured out to the soccer field, which is where the carnival has set-up camp.

The Mexican fair is a blend of traditional and

contemporary cultures. Seeing this man with his caballo

seemed odd to be considering the SpongeBob

blow-up ride in the background.

The Mexican carnival is similar to carnivals and fairs we have in the United States. Food, music, fun houses, and rides. But it differs in that there are little to no regulations. This means the rides are pretty unsafe. I am amazed parents let their children go on any of them! I watched as some of my students rushed to the front of the rollercoaster ride, which to my surprise didn’t even have seatbelts! Cynhia and I agreed to go on one ride. We chose “Amor Express” which is the ride all of the boys throw-up on in The Sandlot. After going on the ride myself, I totally understand how they must have felt. It was the longest ride I have ever been on—I seriously think it lasted 10-15 minutes. I sat on the inside, but the force of the spinning motion caused me to gravitate to the outer edge of the car, leaving Cynhia and me uncomfortably close. No wonder they call it “Amor Express!” Once the ride was going so fast we thought we were going to spin off the tracks, the ride slowed down. But only so that it could begin going in the opposite direction! We stumbled home that night, nearly kissing the ground because we were so happy to have survived!

The ride Cynhia and I endured.

It looks innocent enough but it's a killer!

One of the main attractions, namely for the adults, is the bottle breaking game. You literally are given rocks to throw at beer bottles. For 30 pesos you get three shots. If you hit one bottle you get one beer, two bottles: two beers, and three bottles: a six-pack. One of my student’s parents joked to me that people go there and pretend they are throwing a rock at their ex-boyfriend or girlfriend. We all tried it and won. And I have to admit, it does give you kind of a rush. But when I thought about it more it really isn’t that great of a deal. You could potentially not win any beer, and be out 30 pesos!

The favorite bottle breaking game!

Cynhia and I ready to break some bottles!

Another favorite game is a dart game.

The grand prize?

A bottle of liquor, what else!?

Although the carnival was really fun, parts of it were really hard for me. One aspect that was especially difficult was watching the animals. At this particular fair there is a real-life carousel in which donkeys walk around in a circle as children ride them. What a sad life for them. But then again, I feel the same way about most zoos back in the U.S.

The sad donkeys...

Cynhia and I also ventured into a fun-house type, freak-show. It only cost 10 pesos, so we figured, why not? But as soon as we entered we regretted it. The first thing we saw was the ticket man’s dog. I thought it was just his pet, but then he showed us the dog’s paws, which were deformed. I felt bad for the little pup on display like that. He seemed afraid of all the people and loud music. Just because he has strange paws he will live his life in a freak show. Once we entered the building we were in a long hallway full of horned roosters, and jars filled with liquid containing different deformed animals. Cynhia and I snapped some photos and ran right out. The only non-frightening, comical part was the main attraction: a woman-lizard. A woman literally sat behind a screen with her head showing. Her head was supposed to be attached to a lizard’s body, but it was obvious that the lizard was a stuffed animal. Oh well, it only cost 10 pesos…

The scared dog sitting at the entry of the

freak house. Below him is one of the

freak show's many horned roosters.

Even though I have talked a lot about the negative parts of the carnival, I also had a lot of fun. It was great to see students and staff in a non-academic setting. I ran into a lot of my students at the fair as they played games and went on rides. I even watched one of my students maneuver herself on top of a pool of water while inside of a giant plastic hamster ball. Now if that is not fun, I don’t know what is!