Going to the Fair

Last year, we saw reference to a fair in Tepic called the Feria Nacional de la Mexicanidad. But I couldn’t find any information about it online and we didn’t go.
This year, knowing more people, and more Tepicans, we found out more about the Fair. It is essentially the State Fair of Nayarit, and this year it went 3 weeks and admission was free for everyone.
Since it was free, and we knew a little of what to expect we thought why not go? We’ve been to Tepic before and enjoyed it and it’s only about a 2 hour drive from Bucerias.
Checking our busy schedules, we picked a Wednesday and Thursday for our trip. It’s funny how retired people can be so busy that an overnight trip takes as much scheduling as a moon launch.
And as usual, the trip didn’t go as planned. That doesn’t mean it wasn’t fun, but things often seem t work out differently than expected.
We left Wed. morning and first made a stop in the town of Compostela. Our friend Alex was taking his wife and kids to Guadalajara to visit her mother over Easter and his car broke down along the way in Compostela.
By the time we got there, the car was fixed but Alex wanted Harold to come visit the Civil Protection and Red Cross station in Compostela. The guys there had put Alex up overnight when he was stranded and he had been trying to get the car fixed. They have a new to them fire truck and were learning about using it. Alex figured Harold could help them some. We stayed at the station for an hour or so. We promised to see what we can do to help find them some equipment as they have very little.
Then it was off to Tepic. We had reserved a room at the Villa de las Flores Hotel. We found it with no trouble. For less than $50US per night, we got a decent room and continental breakfast. The hotel also has off street parking.
That afternoon we explored around Tepic and saw the new mall under construction, looked at areas of town we hadn’t seen before, and ate lunch at a place with the very Mexican name of “The Barbecue Factory.” We chose the ribs over the BBQ chicken and it was very good. We aren’t sure if it’s a franchise or how they got the name.
After lunch, we went back to the hotel to rest up for the fair. Although we had been told the fair opened around 4, we’ve been in Mexico long enough to know nothing much would happen until much later.
We took a cab to the fair, because the car was safely parked in the mini parking lot at the hotel. Not being sure there would be space when we got back and not sure of the parking arrangements at the fair, the cab was a good bet. For all of 25 pesos we figured we couldn’t go wrong.
It was about 6:30 when we arrived, and there were some people out. We visited the pavilion with exhibits from each municipality in Nayarit. Our municipality’s booth was not nearly as nice as many of the others. We attributed this to the week long Festival of the Bahia de Banderas which just finished up here and probably got all the planning and attention.
There was a geodesic dome with displays from the Riviera Nayarit area and a coffee shop in there. We enjoyed a frappe while looking at the displays.
Next was a tent with many products made in Nayarit. I bought some mole sauce and we got a few other little items. Next was a display of many of the state departments. Lots of things for kids to look at there. We didn’t get to see the show at the portable planetarium, maybe next year.
There was a big area with lots of booths with souvenirs, sunglasses, clothing, and other priceless stuff. The booths were much neater than the average tianguis. Of course we had to buy some little things for friends.
Not only was admission to the fair free, but there were a number of shows that were also free. The night we were there didn’t have any big name entertainers, but many other nights did. We did go to the Rex Bronson Show de Osos (bear show).
The bear show was like something you might have seen in the pre-PETA days in the US. The bears all looked like they were in good condition and they weren’t mistreated during the show. But they did have muzzles and leashes and did bear show kinds of things. And we know PETA doesn’t like that!
First, a group of good looking young women dressed in Indian costumes complete with feathers in their hair came out leading animals around the ring. A bear, a wolf and a llama paraded around, along with a number of the girls beating drums. That was the last time we saw the llama.
The show featured Rex Bronson, who looked decidedly un-Mexican. Rex wore a back leather outfit, from cowboy hat, to fringed jacket, pants and boots. I’ll bet he doesn’t do this show in the summer! Rex has long wavy grey hair which he wore in a ponytail. He smiled through the whole show and his musical selections were theme songs from old Westerns like Rawhide, Bonanza and others.
Rex’s bears did the usual tricks like walking on their back legs, playing basketball, riding bicycles and of course dancing.
There were also trained wolves. They pulled a cart, did some jumping tricks and then jumped through flaming hoops.
In between the animal acts, the Indian girls came out and beat on drums and danced around in their short Indian dresses. Harold said their purpose was to keep the fathers from wanting to leave during the show. The Indian girls also sold plush bears which came with American chocolates and assorted trinkets.
We enjoyed the show, but wanted to go backstage and ask Rex if he was on the run from American authorities. The name of the show really should be the Rex Bronson 100% Politically Incorrect Bear Show. The show was about 45 minutes long.
We got out of the bear show just in time to catch the Robert’s Circus. There were acts in the circus, but there didn’t seem to be any rhyme or reason to the acts. Some were pretty good, some were odd, and others were really strange. There were the standard acrobatic acts and a few clown acts. Then there were 2 acts featuring motorcycles. And the strangest of all was the Kids Dressed as Butterflies. These kids were maybe 5 years old. Three kids came out and flitted around the circus ring to some nice music. Then the ubiquituous smoke machine was turned on. Every self-respecting Mexican entertainment includes a smoke machine. And randomly flashing lights. The smoke machine put out a big puff of smoke and all the kids fell over on the stage like they were dead. A man came out from the back and grabbed two of the kids by their ankles. Those 2 kids grabbed the third kid. The man dragged the kids off stage. The third kid got left behind, so the guy came back out, picked the kid up by the ankle and carried him off stage. End of act.
The exciting conclusion of what we called “Robert’s Circus for the Easily Amused” was Mickey Mouse directing the dancing fountain. After the circus was over, all the performers came out for a bow. Then came Snow While, who hadn’t been in the show before, and Beauty and the Beat, also for the first time. You could have your picture taken with Beauty and the Beast, but neither the photographer or the Beauty and Beast were very enthusiastic about recruiting customers.
It was pretty chilly out that evening and Harold had forgotten to bring a jacket. After the circus, we walked around the fair a little more, but it was too cold to check out the midway or the rides. We did look at the food booths and they had the usual tacos, salchipulpos (see photo), ice cream, churros, beer and coffee. The prices were very reasonable.
Because it was so cold, we didn’t stay to watch the entertainment. Possibly it was karaoke, or some other type of audience participation thing. We did say hi to the Civil Protection guys who were there with the ambulance.
On the way back to the hotel, our cab driver told us he used to live in our area. Turns out he lived about 2 blocks from Alex in San Jose. We got back to the hotel around midnight. Next year we think we’ll have to plan 2 nights for the fair.
In the morning, we went for our continental breakfast. The desk clerk told us it was normally one free per room, but she gave us each a ticket. For that, you got coffee or tea, orange juice and toast. Harold also had some hot cakes.
We planned on going on the Tepic tour bus. It’s a free bus tour around the city. We had tried another time to go, but the bus wasn’t running that day because of Christmas decorations.
I went to the office to sign up about 10 a.m. Tours are supposed to be at 11, 1, 3 and 5 each day. I was told the only available tour was at 3. Since that would put us back on the road pretty late and possibly not off the highway before dark, that wouldn’t work. I tried pleading with them, but it appears special events were planned that day and only one tour was taking place. They did give me a phone number to call in the future to possibly make reservations ahead. Or not, who knows? We plan on having our friend Hector from the local tourism office cal on our behalf next time.
Instead of the tour, we decided to continue our driving tour of Tepic. Despite my complaints that it would be boring, Harold wanted to check out the airport. The Tepic airport is out in the middle of nowhere. When we pulled up to the entrance, there were several cops there. We stopped and were asked for ID. One of the cops had a mirror on a stick to look under cars. We went into the airport and saw probably 50 or more cops standing around. We also saw a Civil Protection ambulance, so we went over to ask them what was going on. They told us that President Calderon was coming in about an hour. We wanted to hang around, but knowing how things always happen late, we left.
We went back near our hotel, noting along the way that there was a soldier or a transit cop at every intersection, and there are a lot of intersections. In the park across the street, soldiers were in many places. It appeared the President would be in the area. While crossing the street, we talked to one of the transit cops. He told us the President would be coming through very soon. We decided to stay there and wait. We bought the cop a bottle of water since he was stuck out in the sun. Turns out that he used to work in Bucerias not far from our house. His family is in Tepic. While Harold was talking to him, a woman walked up and handed the cop another bottle of water. It was his mom, and he introduced Harold to her.
A police car with lights and siren came by and announced that the President would be coming in 2 minutes. All the intersections were closed then. Thenext police car through announced the motorcade was just behind him. Then came the motorcade of several motorcycles, followed by some vans and Suburbans, all with deeply tinted windows. Then more vans, more motorcycles and one last police car. They all went down this city street at about 50 miles per hour. You could have missed them if you blinked.
After all the excitement of not seeing the President, it was time for lunch. We ate at a place Harold had seen an ad for called the Golden Restaurant. By the name, I would have guessed Chinese but it was more of a bar/grill kind of place. The hamburgers were good as were the fries.
After lunch, we headed home. We did make a stop in La Penita to go to a nursery we like there. We bought some plants for our yard. Then we stopped to visit our friends Jeannie and Dennis in La Penita. We hadn’t been out their way recently so stayed for a short visit, ten back home to Bucerias.
Sorry we don’t have any original pictures to go with this, our camera doesn’t work well at night and is half broken as well. We’ll be getting a new one soon.