We took our lawn chairs and sat up on the cement border that separates the malecón from the rocks at the water of the bay. Perfect seats. It was hot sitting in the sun though as it was 35 C. (about 95 F.). They did have shade areas set up but we wanted ring side seats so took the sun. As we sat down a policeman came over to talk to us, I thought he was going to tell us that we couldn't sit there; but he just wanted to chat. We chatted back and forth with him for quite awhile as we waited for the action to begin. There were quite a few people there to watch and of course lots of places set up to get food and drinks from.
As starting time got closer more people crowded in and we were glad that we had gone early and gotten a good place to sit. There was a little boy of maybe 2 or 3 yrs. old, he could talk already anyway, he was standing up on the cement border right behind our chairs and talking a blue streak to us. He was so cute, he had some candies and offered to share with us. We were afraid that he was going to tumble off the cement so asked his mom if he could come forward and sit between our feet. She didn't mind and he was quite happy. The tourist pirate boat motored into a good viewing place in the bay so I showed him and then he had to go back to his mother to show her the pirate boat. When I asked him if he liked the pirates he looked very solemn so I asked if he was afraid of them and he very seriously said, "yes". He was so funny jabbering to us and looking/waving at the boats when we pointed things out to him. He made the waiting time go quickly and enjoyably for us.
The races started and we enjoyed being able to see so well. Last year we had gone on the first day and the heats had been run a bit differently than they were this year; but maybe the final day things are different. Anyway some of the races had 10 boats in them. Fun to watch; but I was never sure who was the winner, as some were so fast that they lapped the slower ones. Interesting to watch. We stayed for about 3 hrs. and then decided that we had had enough both of the sun and the races so headed home.
More pictures and videos here .
