The night show at Xcaret

Going in to the evening show at Xcaret reminded me a lot of going in for the Hangi in New Zealand. We passed many people in various native costumes, which were fascinating, and gave it atmosphere, and you could take pictures, and none of mine came out. These pictures here are the clearest of the night, and I know they are not great. So, I will try and use my words, and you know, someone who can actually take good pictures has probably posted more.

Many of the performances that you can see at the park during the day are incorporated into the evening show. This doesn't mean that it is not worth seeing them during the day, when you will have better lighting and be closer, but the point is that there is a lot in the evening show, and a lot at Xcaret.

When you enter the arena they give you candles, and later when everyone is seated they take a light at the end of each row, and we light each other's candles. This is a nice sentiment, and it looks good, but my candle fell out of the holder before it was even lit, and then I could not find it. Maria gave me hers, and it got lit, and I lit Julie's. Hers went out almost immediately, so I lit her neighbor's, and then my lit candle fell out of the holder and went out, fortunately not burning or injuring anything on the way down. I'm not sure why we were so incompetent with the candles, but we clearly are.

Birds flew across the arena to start, and then two groups came in from opposite sides dressed as ancient Mayans. They greeted each other in ceremonial fashion and then had a ball game. It started out with just a ball, and later lacrosse sticks were added and they lit the balls on fire.

They then showed the Conquistadors coming, and fighting between the two sides. This was followed by the coming of the friars. Previously they had set up some blocks into pillars, representing the Mayan temples. The Catholic priests knocked these down and put up crosses in their place. Their transition into a sort of peace was that a Spaniard was playing a small stringed instrument, maybe a mandolin, and a Mayan was drawn to it and started to accompany him on the flute. 

Honestly, this was better than the Spaniards deserved, but that whole history would be hard to convey, and it wouldn't be a very feel-good moment. So, bad things happened that we will gloss over and come together with music, which is overly generous, but it leads us into the rest of the show, which will be very musical. 

At this point they started bringing out dancers in different costumes, doing different traditional dancers for the different regions. They brought out horses and riders, and ropers doing rope tricks, and then they showed the Papantla. 

For this, you have a tall pole with a platform on top. Five men are on the platform. One is playing an instrument, and they spin and then the other four cast off and they descend upside down as the rope gets longer. Just before they reach the ground they flip over. (I had initially thought the rope was around their feet, but it is actually around their waist.) When they were all on the ground, they held their ropes to steady the pole, and the last man came down on one of the ropes, but by hand.

Then it went kind of Brazilian Carnivale almost, with floats and dancers with sort of an island influence. I don't know if this represented part of Mexican history or not, but it ended with everyone from all of the numbers and flags from multiple nations, and at one point they released doves. It covered a lot. 

I am not sure if they had native dresses and dances from every Mexican state, but it covered a broad ground, and then thinking about how many people were involved and the jobs it provides made me feel a little better about things, because it is preserving the culture, and Xcaret is not just about preserving nature but also culture, so that was good. (It just might have felt different if I didn't read so much.)

Regardless, Xcaret is strongly recommended, and see as much of it as you can, of which the night show is huge.