Palo de Mayo

The last weekend in May I traveled across Nicaragua to the Atlantic Coast to celebrate Palo de Mayo in the city of Bluefields.  I know what you’re thinking, Bluefields?  That’s not Spanish?  Precisely.  I bet you didn't know that Nicaragua has the largest population of African descent across Central America.   The Atlantic coast is heavily influenced by the English who developed the Eastern side of the country when the Puritans first founded colonies along Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast in the 17th century.  They also brought with them an enslaved populations of Africans to work on their plantations.  Enslaved Africans form Jamaica also later sought freedom in and around Bluefields after the British emancipation in 1834.  This area became a destination for free blacks from the British controlled Caribbean.  There fore the people of Bluefields speak english and creole, but a special kind of creole that has developed over the years and is spoken no where else.  Common phrases like “alright, alright, alright”(popular greeting), “ya done reached”(you have arrived), “lick-a-bit”(referring to a small amount), and many more phrases fill the streets as I walk past southern plantation looking houses and picked fences.

A large group of volunteers united and organized events over the long weekend such as a happy hour, parade watching party and a trip to the keys off of Pearl Lagoon.  Saturday was our big day of cultural events.  We kicked it off by visiting the central park where vendors, which were thick homely black women, served home cooked meals that they had been slaving over all morning.  The key ingredient in the Atlantic coast diet is coconut.  Everything from bread to soup here is riddled with coconut.  I had a plate of gallo pinto cooked in coconut milk with lobster in creole sauce and yucca cooked in coconut broth.  A stage was set up in the park where traditional Atlantic coast dances were being performed.  The costumes  are made of brightly colored fabrics and typical leave womens’ midriffs exposed.  These dances are much more provocative than what you find on the pacific side.  There is an overwhelming amount of booty shaking and grinding performed by all ages.  Later that afternoon the party really got started with the Palo de Mayo parade.  This holiday is focused around fertility and there fore the fertility dance is performed by several different groups as they make their way through the street of Bluefields.  This consists of several women surrounding a fertility tree, or in this case a large branch, and wrapping strips of fabrics around its branches while making some freakish grinding moves as well.  Over all it’s a great show and we couldn’t help but join the crowd and party through the streets.  At one point in the parade there were young men spraying spray-paint in to the air and lighting it on fire, awesome for the environment I know, and one of them happened to have a University of Arizona shirt on!  You know what I’m talking about, the gigantic blue and white “A” on a red T-shirt.  I totally flipped out, chased him down, and took a photo with him.

Lobster and coconut gallo pinto

Go Wildcats!

Hanging in the park

After the parade we found ourselves back in the park, but this time ten times as packed and with cold beers in our hands.  After a dinner of more typical east coast food, we made our way to the most popular and shady reggae club called Four Brothers.  This was my first experience with dance hall reggae and it was a blast!  Everyone was grooving and chillen to some serious beats, but the trippy thing was the lights were so low the corners of the club were left black and all you could see was the bar lit up.

The next day we rose early and painfully to take a small boat up the coast about an hour to Pearl Lagoon.  If you recall from my previous posts, I visited this place a year ago when I visited another volunteer during training and absolutely fell in love.  The people in Pearl Lagoon are some of the most friendly and warm folk I’ve ever encountered.  Animals run the white sand streets freely and English has basically vanished leaving only a very thick creole in its place.  Unfortunately we did not loiter long in Pearl Lagoon as our main goal was to reach the keys about an hour off its coast.  Twelve of us including our guide Jimmy took off to sea in a rather small panga.  After fighting the waves to push our way out of the lagoon we finally made it to the crystal clear carribean waters.  We parked our boat on a tiny island with nothing on it but us.  There we cooked a famous Atlantic coast soup called rundown.  The “run-down” comes from the act of the fish, shrimp and other seafood that is boiled on top of the stew and the flavor runs down in to the yucca, plantain and root veggies that are drowning in a coconut broth.  The flavor is absolutely amazing and for a seafood lover like me, heaven.  After bathing in the clear water, walking three times around the island and hunting for what coconuts existed on such a tiny piece of land, we headed back to Pearl Lagoon.  This was just a taste of what is took come when my mom visits in July and we head to Little Corn Island!  Can’t wait!  That night we took advantage of our last meal of coconut shrimp and listened to a fellow volunteer play some reggae on his guitar.  I actually fell in love with his music and bought the CD from his band back home called Reviva, check out their song Illegal!

The key

Alicia and I on the boat

The trip was quite long, totaling 14 hours of travel by bus and boat, thankfully I broke it up over a few days getting there, but it was a rough one full day of travel back home.  In the end it was all very worth it! One Love!