We walk to the festival via the deserted dirt road that is no longer deserted. It is teeming with booths of food and cars and noise. People told us to arrive between 6 and 8 am, but there was no way we were going there in the dark when the first kites aren't to fly at noon.
We get there a little after 8
There are already people here and a few kites are standing. We walk around in an atmosphere charged with excitement as more and more people pour in and more and more kites are finished and stood up and lashed to bamboo poles.
They are all amazing and still on the ground
There is one team of all women....dressed in the traditional clothes of their region.
We are learning as we go......children are flying kites starting at noon....then at 2 they start with the smaller of the large kites. ( maybe 12 to 20 ft in diameter) The MC describes each kite and all the symbolism of each kite as it prepares to fly. ( I don't understand any of it. )
The children are still flying kites, people are everywhere, and teams of people are running with these huge kites, the crowds barely part as the ropes run by their feet or are just over their heads. Some kites soar and some crash into the crowds. One missed us by 20 ft, but it felt scary because as it comes down you don't know if it will crash on you or not.
If the kite stays up, then another goes up, and then another. Aparently this was a record as 7 were up at the same time. We've been here for 9 hours and the sun is getting low and none of the really big ones have flown.....Will they fly them tomorrow or in the dark?....and we don't know how they could possibly get off the ground anyway. Well, a woman finally explains to us that the really giant ones don't fly. They are there to look at only.
We have a pork dinner.
Fuego is smoking in the distance and the sun is setting as we end this incredible day!!!
WOW!!!!!
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