One A Day – 609 – Sabado Santa en Las Musas

Our "camp" for Easter
Our “camp” for an Easter picnic at Las Musas

Lunch at Las Musas
Lunch at Las Musas

The right of passage
Right of passage

Furious onslaught
Furious onslaught

Afternoon conversations
Afternoon conversations

With the tree for a backrest
With a tree for a backrest

Las Musas
Las Musas

Standing Tall
Standing Tall

  • Sabado Santa
  • Las Musas, Guanajuato, México
  • April 4, 2015
  • Copyright, all rights reserved

There is a tradition on the Saturday before Easter in Mexico, that brings families together for picnics in areas where there are tall trees, shade and water. In Cueramaro, if you go early, that means the river that comes down from Sierras Penjamo through the town. Unfortunately though, we weren’t going early and we knew it would be very difficult to find a place to park and have a nice lunch. So, we headed towards Manuel Doblado and an area on an other river near the border between Guanajuato and Jalisco at Las Musas. It is a larger area and the populations nearby are smaller so it is usually not busy as early as the river above Cueramaro.

Unfortunately, that wasn’t the case this year. We’ve been there in years past, so we thought we would find park benches and a place to grill some meat, but not this time. It was packed. We ended up in a dusty, rocky spot under a tree with no grill,  a lot less control in the park, and fewer amenities than in previous years. But, all in all, we were ready – we had plenty of food that didn’t need the grill so that was not a problem. Comfort was more of an issue, but we moved some of the rocks around and managed to find ways to enjoy ourselves.

One of the “traditions” of this holiday is the dousing of people with water. In Cueramaro, it happens as you come near the river. In Las Musas, it happens as you cross the river to get from the remaining parking areas to the picnic grounds. People (mainly young men and boys) with buckets literally try to drown people as they walk to the picnic area. They assault people in the back of pickup trucks with torrents of water. At first, it is all in fairly good humor and in all honesty, you know it is going to happen if you go. But as the afternoon wears on, it gets more aggressive as some of the participants go and leave the hard core players in place. It can become a difficult scene to watch as groups of young men prowl the campground for victims to either throw in the water or hold in place while they are repeatedly doused with buckets of water. I’m not a fan.

We managed to miss dousing and had a fairly good time after all. We all wished we had found another spot, but that was it seems, the luck of the draw.

Another year, another Easter picnic. There will be more, regardless.