Corozal Plantain Festival 2010

.. And a civilized cock fight too!

Ever since I discovered they still ran cock fights in Puerto Rico, I’ve been wanting to go see one. It’s legal here. In fact, its evidently the 10th largest industry on the island. It is regulated by Puerto Rico and there is an established set of rules participants must abide by. Betting at games is also legal. That’s not to say there or no private games, but I’ve not been invited to any yet. The ones staged in Corozal were like ‘prelims’ with trophies handed out to the top winners. A classic looking bird was on display with is lower breast and leg feathers removed. This is typical of most fighting cocks. The birds in this fight were devoid of the rear leg spurs. They had soft covers instead, issued by the authorities so as to minimize the birds hurting each other. The fights run for 3 minutes each. The 2 gray haired gentlemen in the foreground were doing the timing and keeping track of which bird was doing what damage.

The cock fights seemed to be the main attraction of the day.
We had come to check out the ‘plantain scene’. I had no clue there would be any cock fighting.

The weather was broken overcast.. very muggy and somewhat hot.

We were there on a Saturday and for a celebration billed as a ‘Plantain Festival’, platanos were pretty scarce. I had expected local displays of plants and produce and dishes made from platano, but there were none to be seen. Maybe that was to follow on Sunday or had been done earlier… The festival did start on Thursday. There was a small booth setup to register runners for the local marathon, so there was more going on than I had read about. So ya know, Platanos are similar to bananas, but not sweet per se. They are high in starch and cooked in a variety of ways… most often fried.

I only recently added the ‘Calendar of Events’ to my site and had warned folks to call ahead before heading out. Seems I did not follow my own advice and was here last weekend only to discover an empty plaza. That first time, we drove up through the mountains from Coamo and came back via the highway through San Juan. I still got a few nice shots… kind of a before and after set (then we went on into San Juan for the Car Show). For the second trip to Corozal, we took the highway in both directions to save time.

It was 166 miles round trip.

Corozal’s Plaza sits beside the main Catholic Church (as most do). The church has been beautifully restored and is a clean example of Mission Style architecture. The day of the event, it was open so I scored a nice interior shot as well. Gorgeous without being too pretentious. The main features of the plaza included a formal stage area, lots of concrete benches with large shade trees. There was also a memorial to Puerto Ricans who have served in the US military including a full figure statute. The names of local soldiers who died in Korea and Viet Nam were honored. The little park was jam-packed with folks taking in the day’s activities.

Traffic was very near impossible. We asked a local cop about parking and he directed us up to the nearly hidden Municipal Parking Garage that spilled out into an outside parking lot to the back. Parking was a fair $2 for the day. It was right off the Plaza.

Food and drink kiosks were everywhere.

Beer and mixed drinks could be had from several vendors. All the typical Puerto Rico dishes were available and made fresh, right there. Bacalaito is delicious if you can score it right from the deep-fryer like they were serving here. By far, the most popular food vendor was “El Platanal del Chef David”. A very large kiosk selling a specialty dish made from a shredded bed of fried platano topped with meat or seafood and salsa served in a large bowl. It looked fantastic and everyone was eating it. Evidently Chef David has been serving Puerto Rico for over 20 years. We got in a long line to try some, but gave up. I was really not into waiting. If I run across it in the future, I’ll let you know what it’s like.

Artesanos were setup in the street next to the Plaza and back around the church as well. The level of craftsmanship was equal to what I saw in Barranquitas. In fact, I recognized several of the vendors from other shows. A few Artesanos were turning out new pieces on the spot. The homemade candy was fantastic and the prices seemed fair.

It was a very festive atmosphere.

The only display of Plantains to be seen was by the Agricultural Research Center in Mayaguez (nothing locally produced). There were examples of Plantains, Yucca root and Citrus on display. I was surprised to see no literature about the place being handed out and no mention of it being open to the public. Another missed marketing opportunity. The Ag Center in Mayaguez IS on my hit list of places to visit.