The social focus of the El Cedrál Fiesta on Cozumél on this night was the simple folk dancing of the town's residents, and the showing off of their traditional finery. Most of the women of the town, and many of the men, dressed in their once-a-year best dresses and promenaded for a couple of hours to the accompaniment of a Mexican brass band.
In between the cock fights, the crummy carnival rides, and the cheap food and trinket vendors, the annual fiesta in El Cedrál featured the folk dancing of the town's more traditional citizens. The women, in particular, were dressed in their finest embroidered and lacy dresses and sported colorful fragrant flowers in their hair.
In general, the men were all in white, and carried trays on their heads with flag-festooned agricultural products–ranging from roast pig heads to delicious cinnamon buns. If you were nice, after the dance, they'd give you a bun. Kris got one which we split in the beer tent.
We'd read about the traditional dancing and music, and the bull fights at the El Cedrál Fiesta. But, we hadn't heard about the cock fights until we stumbled on the arena as we were on our way out of town. The one fight we stayed for was odd in that the cocks fought for half an hour, until the fight was declared a draw and both bloody birds were withdrawn to fight another day. I asked the owner of one of the birds if it happened often that the fight ended with both birds still alive. “Almost never,” he said.
You can read more about our week in Cozumél here.
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