Barry and the Guelaguetza

We interrupt this recounting of the Plotniks' adventures in Oaxaca, to bring you fireworks of congratulations, having erupted last night at Braindead Stadium where Barry Bonds hit a gargantuan home run, cool, then left the game to applause, with his team winning, ok, and then the Braindeads lost the game with Barry sitting on the bench. And there you have the 2007 season, in a nutshell.



And now, back to the Guelaguetza, the dance festival held annually in the city of Oaxaca, in which all the major indigenous tribes throughout the state of Oaxaca assemble, in full local costume, in order to dance, sing and have a ball, according to the traditions of their village.



This is the open air stage. It is surrounded on three sides by screaming people on benches and on the fourth side by the valley of Oaxaca below.



First, a small delegation from the village comes to the front of the stage and makes an announcement, first in their own language (Mixtec, Zapotec, Olmec) and then in Spanish.



Sometimes they bring dinner.



And then they dance.



Sometimes it's only two people, acting out a village custom, and the music is slow and stately.



Sometimes the whole village is dancing and the music is crazy and brassy.



Sometimes, the audience knows the words to the songs and sings along, but most of the time, if there are words they're in an indigenous language, or, if they're in Spanish, everyone laughs hysterically except for Plot and Duck who can't hear over the tinny microphones, but probably wouldn't understand the double and triple entendres anyway.



At the end, all the groups crowd the stage and heave gifts to the crowd, such as packages of tortillas, plastic bags full of spices, fruit (Plotnik caught a mango, a bag of chocolate and two limes) and straw hats.



Four hours after it started, the Guelaguetza is over. 10,000 people file out of the stadium in Mexican-style, which means there are no set exits, only thousands of people trying to walk down while thousands more are trying to walk up, seeking seats for the next show. It's chaos, but it all works out, eventually. As Plot and Duck plodded down the stone stairs, women sat on the side of the stairs selling everything from tropical fruit to Bob Marley T-shirts to fried grasshoppers.

What a great day.