Maunabo Land Crab Festival, Sept 4th 2011

This report is a little bit late, but I wanted to get it in before the end of the month. ‘Been very busy with other posts and work on the home front. Also had issues with electricity and our DSL service during the last 2 storms.

We are getting hit with an early afternoon downpour as I peck this out..

Maunabo’s Land Crab Festival was a fantastic local celebration and if you ever get the opportunity to check it out, it’s a ‘Must See’. We were there on a Sunday and the weather was pretty good, right up until we left, around 4:30 PM. In fact, it was down right hot, if you were not in the shade. We hit the Plaza about 11:30PM… they were still setting up the main stage.

Steel Drum Band Working Their Way Through the Crowds at the Maunabo Land Crab Festival in PR

By Noon, all of the shady spots had been taken.

About 1PM, I went back to the car and got our folding chairs so we would have a place to sit and get off our feet. As local celebrations go, Sunday is always more crowded than Saturday. A couple of friends who live near Maunabo, said Saturday was much less crowded.

The Plaza of Maunabo is very nice, but not near big enough to accommodate the ‘thousands’ of folks who converged on it.

Security at key locations was turning locals back with coolers of beer, but a few still got in.

By 2:30PM, the Plaza was ‘standing room only’, with the exception of a small area set aside for dancing.

The main event was the ‘Releasing of the Crabs’ which was scheduled for 5PM, but it was simply too crowded for me to ever get a shot. Hence the reason for leaving a little early. This event was to symbolize the ‘releasing of the bulls’ in Pamplona, Spain, so the locals tell me. If you catch a crab, then they will prepare it so you can eat it. I did not stick around to confirm that.

As usual, the Artesano and food vendors were out in force.

I always check out the vendors for ‘photo-opps’. Handmade cigars from Mayagüez and dishes made from crab were particularly interesting subjects. Vendors were mostly set up outside the Plaza or along its edges.

My only real complaint is that there was nobody keeping up with the garbage cans.

It got out of hand real quick. Empty beer cans, plastic cups and styrofoam lunch boxes were pilling up everywhere. It was quite a mess by the time we left.

As soon as the live music kicked in,
folks were up and dancing.

It was an awesome site. The band was great too. I’ll be happy to post their name if someone can pass it along. There was also a steel band working their way through the crowd when the main group was on break. The music was hot.. you had to be there!

I also took the opportunity to check out the Catholic church on the Plaza.

It was done in a classic Mission style with large exposed beams on the inside. Beautiful. Did you know that Puerto Rico has it’s own Catholic Saint in the making? Carlos Manuel Rodríguez Santiago (nicknamed- Saint Charlie) was ‘beatified’ in 2001. It is assumed he will eventually be ordained a saint by the Catholic church. These things take time.

His picture can be found in almost every Catholic church on the island.

More details about his life can be found on Wikipedia. A truly inspiring individual.

Crabs, Crabs and More Crabs.

Land crabs are something new to me. Growing up in Alaska, I’m used to Dungeness and King Crab, but I had never heard of Land crabs. Evidently, there are a few species of tropical climate crabs that live most of their life on land, except to reproduce.

They can literally breathe air out of water.

Off to one side of the Plaza was a stack of cages for the ‘running of the crabs’ later on. These little guys would never know what hit ’em. There was no way any crab would get away today.

Since this was about crabs, I had to try something made with crab and settled on something simple. I scored 2 Alcapurrias stuffed with cooked crab meat. They were delicious. I chased them down with a cold Medalla cerveza. There was all kinds of crab dishes to try if you were adventurous. Having had King crab in the past, I’m kind of spoiled.

The Parade-

Just as I thought the day’s events were winding down some, a parade started up on the street behind us. I did not know there was going to be a parade so I was not prepared for it. I did manage to get a few shots by holding the camera over my head.

Leaving my monopod at the car will not happen again. It’s great for shooting over the tops of crowds.

Some of the floats and costumes were very flamboyant..

kind of like during Carnival Week in Ponce. There was one open wagon tossing bags of fresh bananas and other fruit to the crowds below. An assortment of farm equipment rolled by as well.

One last note- Motor bikes are as popular as jeeps here in PR. Thousands of bikers head out all over the island on the weekends. This event was no different. They can navigate around obstacles and through the traffic without much concern. They love their big bikes and hitting the open road.