Saturday, February 20, 2003 marked the 60th anniversary of the explosion of the volcano Paricutín. It seemed every town within 30 miles was celebrating the day with either outdoor fairs or weddings. We actually saw 3 weddings in three different towns.

Around 2:00 in the afternoon we where riding a very isolated road from Paricutín to Paracho, where the traffic was mostly cowboys, cows, pigs, roosters and dogs. We climbed into the town of San Felipe, a very poor looking town. Most of the house had walls made out of rough milled trees. The fences to keep in the livestock was falling down. Not a single structure had paint.

As we rode past a fence we heard the most wonderful music and thought it might be from a CD. We stopped to listen. It was live. We followed our ears to the origin and found ourselves in the mist of the most festive wedding. Everywhere we saw colored crepe papered bouquets of flowers. All the women had silk ribbons in their hair. Food flowed in abundance, and beer was everywhere. White balloons adorned the blue tarped canopy and the 15-piece Mexican brass band played the most wonderful music.

It was a joy to stop in and have a beer, experience this event and ride on. It left both of us in awe that such a seemingly poor village created one of the most spectacular celebrations of love and community.

We saw to more weddings that day before the sun set and we setup our tent behind a barn. What a great day!