After going about 10 years without setting off fireworks, this last Friday I decided to buy some fireworks to celebrate the 4th of July. Every month or so we hear a few fired so I figured they were relatively easy to find.
As always I started asking where I could find the fireworks by talking to a few taxi drivers. Finally one told me to ask the fat man who drives the red taxi in Puerto, that he knew where to get them. I found him and he took me to a nearby town, stopped and pointed to house and told me they were in there. I knocked on the door and an old lady answered and mumbled something about her son now working in Supe (not Puerto Supe) and that there were no fireworks in the house. The taxi proceeded to take me to another house and after knocking a few times and no answering, a boy was yelling at me that the guy was down the street and then ran to get him for me.
When the guy finally showed up, he started asking me what kind of fireworks I wanted. I had no idea what to call them in english much less in spanish so I asked him if he could show them to me. He then began to describe the different ones and the prices for them. Still being a bit confused, I asked him if I could just see what he had. He said ok and took into his house into a room full of cardboard boxes, bags of gun powder and cardboard tubes. I then realized why he seemed a bit concerned when I told him I wanted the fireworks the same day. He had to make them all by hand. The photo above is of his shop which is open to his bedroom.
He showed me a few different parts of the fireworks to try to help me understand what I would be getting and then showed me a few piles of different gun powder and asked which I wanted (it turns out they had to do with color and I think type of explosion). I finally just ordered based on price thinking the cheaper would be puny and the more expensive would be larger. So I got a few dozen of the cheapest and medium priced fireworks.
When I went to pick them up a few hours later, once again I was surpised. I'm used to fireworks being 18"-24" tall and shooting them out of glass bottles. These were huge! Each one was at least 4 ft tall and had a bamboo shoot for a pole.
That night we went over to the Cubas's house and shot them off of their roof. It was pretty exciting and although there a few that exploded pretty close to the ground, no one got hurt. The next day the fireworks seemed to be the talk of the town and almost everyone I ran into were asking me if I'd shot them off (this include mini-market owners and random people I didn't know). I think I may have shot off a lot more than was normal for people around here.
I'm already scheming of another show on Christmas eve (that's the time of year they shoot off fireworks down here) and hoping to get people to donate to it so we can buy a few hundred of the big rockets and do a show off the end of the pier and everyone can come down to the beach to see it. We'll see.
As always I started asking where I could find the fireworks by talking to a few taxi drivers. Finally one told me to ask the fat man who drives the red taxi in Puerto, that he knew where to get them. I found him and he took me to a nearby town, stopped and pointed to house and told me they were in there. I knocked on the door and an old lady answered and mumbled something about her son now working in Supe (not Puerto Supe) and that there were no fireworks in the house. The taxi proceeded to take me to another house and after knocking a few times and no answering, a boy was yelling at me that the guy was down the street and then ran to get him for me.
When the guy finally showed up, he started asking me what kind of fireworks I wanted. I had no idea what to call them in english much less in spanish so I asked him if he could show them to me. He then began to describe the different ones and the prices for them. Still being a bit confused, I asked him if I could just see what he had. He said ok and took into his house into a room full of cardboard boxes, bags of gun powder and cardboard tubes. I then realized why he seemed a bit concerned when I told him I wanted the fireworks the same day. He had to make them all by hand. The photo above is of his shop which is open to his bedroom.
He showed me a few different parts of the fireworks to try to help me understand what I would be getting and then showed me a few piles of different gun powder and asked which I wanted (it turns out they had to do with color and I think type of explosion). I finally just ordered based on price thinking the cheaper would be puny and the more expensive would be larger. So I got a few dozen of the cheapest and medium priced fireworks.
When I went to pick them up a few hours later, once again I was surpised. I'm used to fireworks being 18"-24" tall and shooting them out of glass bottles. These were huge! Each one was at least 4 ft tall and had a bamboo shoot for a pole.
That night we went over to the Cubas's house and shot them off of their roof. It was pretty exciting and although there a few that exploded pretty close to the ground, no one got hurt. The next day the fireworks seemed to be the talk of the town and almost everyone I ran into were asking me if I'd shot them off (this include mini-market owners and random people I didn't know). I think I may have shot off a lot more than was normal for people around here.
I'm already scheming of another show on Christmas eve (that's the time of year they shoot off fireworks down here) and hoping to get people to donate to it so we can buy a few hundred of the big rockets and do a show off the end of the pier and everyone can come down to the beach to see it. We'll see.
as one who has had many, many adventures and wounds w/fireworks, in several countries, over the last 3 decades, i salute you. uncle sam is proud.