The 42nd Indigenous Festival of Jayuya, PR

An event worth the trip, no matter where you live.

We were there on Saturday, but the festival was spread across 4 days, ending on Sunday.

Activities included a conference dedicated to La Flor de la Guasabara, lighting of the Taino Fire, a special presentation of indigenous music and dance, the presentation of a documentary dedicated to Taino Indians, crowning of the Indigenous Festival Queen, music workshops, a variety of local contests and tons and tons of live music!

I’ve now made the run to Jayuya 3 times. The first time was on Palm Sunday to check out the town and the second was for the Tomato Festival last May.

On the drive up, I stopped at a stand of magnificent Pine trees to score some seeds in hopes of getting a few to germinate. This was old growth over 40 feet tall.. not something you see all the time.

The weather on Saturday was mild… it’s always a little cooler up in the mountains so it was quite nice. In the plaza, all the best places to sit in the shade were taken. Ya snooze ya lose.

Good idea to bring your own folding chairs… most folks do.

I love this part of the island. Jayuya is nestled high in the mountains of the Central region. If there ever was a rural vibe, this is it. In some respects, it reminds me of Yabucoa. Cell phones and iPods are still very popular as is a sense of style. People dress clean and neat regardless of their economic status or class. Very much like civic pride, but on a personal level.

The locals are very friendly… I struck up conversations with several folks.

The child with the ‘Wild About Alaska’ T-shirt had visited Alaska on a cruise ship a couple years ago, according to his parents. They found it interesting, that I moved to PR, having lived in Alaska for 46 years.

It really is a small world.

Then there was the old guy who didn’t speak a drop of English, but sat down beside me and chatted away. I got part of it, but not much. Then there were the 3 old guys at the veggie/fruit stand we stopped at on the way out. We chatted with them for quite awhile. They all spoke perfect English. I was a little embarrassed by my poor Spanish, but they made me feel like ‘I was home’.

They kept repeating how ‘I had friends in Jayuya’ now.

It was not BS.. these guys were genuine.

Which has pretty much been my experience no matter where I go in Puerto Rico. People are truly friendly here.. cautious, but friendly.

The celebration was definitely a family affair, young and old alike.

A stage for live music was set up on the plaza with Artesano displays and food booths lining the surrounding streets. I’m always amazed by the quality of art and craft for sale. There was also plenty of ‘Made in China’ trinkets and stuff too. Something for every budget.

The sounds of Latin music and the aroma of cooking food filled the air. It was magical… People were starting to get up and dance about the time we headed out around 3PM.

Shooting the video of Trio Voces de la Tierra Alta was more of an after-thought.. a fluke. I did not plan it so I did not bring a tripod with me. Walking back to the car for it was not an option either. We had to park several blocks off the plaza this time. Though the little VadoHD is handheld, I think it came out pretty good. Well enough that I will be doing more of them in the future (but from a tripod). I kept the sound quality as high as I could during post-processing so the music quality is decent.

These are simple YouTube vids, not pro level stuff… remember, I’m one person doing it all. OK… I do get a little help from me First Mate. ARRG!

Before scoring the video, I walked through all the Artesano displays, shooting my favorites. Most of it is very original and well executed. Several Artesanos stopped and posed for me. How cool is that?!?

The smell of fresh cooked food was too much so I broke down and ate a couple of meat filled Empanadillas at a buck each.

Song performed by Trio Voces de la Tierra Alta at the 42nd Indiginous Festival in Jayuya

They were great! That was followed by a freshly made Pina Colada over ice. It was very refreshing and delicious. The drink was a little expensive, but what the heck.. ya gotta splurge once in a while, right?

Since I/we had been roasting in the open Sun for almost 3 hours, it was time to escape to the car and head home.

As mentioned at the beginning, we stopped at a roadside fruit and veggie stand to see what they had. This is the tail end of the growing season for a lot of things, but I was still amazed by what was available. We scored bright orange Lemons with orange flesh, A Papaya (Lechosa) with bright red flesh that weighed over 4 pounds and a bunch of the famous Jayuya tomatoes. Like I said, we chatted with the old guys there for quite a while before moving on.

They were very generous allowing me to sample a little of the local ‘specialty’.

Unfortunately, that is all I can say about that.

I also stopped at a small stand selling only local mandarin oranges at 10 for a buck.. I got 20.

I made juice from them with a grapefruit from the yard. It added just the right amount of ‘zing’ to the mild Mandarins.

The Road Trip Home

Though we came up through Ponce to get to Jayuya, we took Highways 143, 149 and then 150 to home like on our last visit. It’s part of the ‘Ruta Panoramica’ so we were quite high up. It was substantially cooler there than in Jayuya. My ears popped several times on the way to the top and again on the way down.

Early into our return home, we stopped to shoot some bright red flowers, covering the side of the road. Known as Wax Mallow or Turks Cap, these blossoms never fully open. They hang in bunches everywhere and resemble wilted Hibiscus. As pure red as you will ever see. They are somewhat hard to accurately photograph because of the bright red color.

The last stop was to check out a cluster of what looked like apple sized fruit hanging from low bushes.

On closer examination, they resembled hollow, puffy, hairy balls. I kid you not. We broke open one to discover an immature seed pod. Caterpillars were all over the plants. After a little research, me trusty First Mate found them on Wikipedia. They are literally called- the Hairy Balls Plant (Asclepias physocarpa) or Balloon Plant. I’m sure they would float. Wiki also sez they are very popular with Monarch caterpillars. I can confirm that.

We also saw an immature Mountain Guava in the same spot, but we left it to ripen and delight another day.

It was downhill from there and an easy ride home.

This is the last formal festival before the Christmas Season kicks-off here in Puerto Rico. Why? Because the season starts the day after Thanksgiving (on Black Friday) and does not get over until after 3 Kings Day on January 6th.

I’m dead serious.

After Thanksgiving, all events have a Navidad (Christmas) theme to them. I’ll do at least one post regarding this special time of the year. Puerto Ricans take Christmas most seriously.

Feliz Navidad!