Mardi Gras

Yesterday was the first annual Mardi Gras festival here in Esterillos Oeste.  Some really amazing people came up with the idea, and executed perfectly.  We had a parade and everything.  Many people worked very hard, but I especially give a lot of thanks to Mike and Martha for their effort in bringing such a cool spirit to this small town.  

I'm tired.  We were open until 1:00 AM on Friday night (which is late here), and then Saturday was a really big day for the bar with the Mardi Gras festivities going on.  Pulled 17 hours of work yesterday, not closing until almost 2:00.  But I had a blast.  We had music pumping, and I got to DJ for a few hours, playing CCR, Allman Brothers, ZZ Top, Doobie Brothers, George Thorogood, among other classic favorites.  I did my best to duplicate the original Hurricane Cocktail from Pat O'Brien's in the French Quarter as our special yesterday, and then had Bloody Sunday today with cajun-style Bloody Marys.  

Some great people have been in town the last few days.  The Kellogg family from Boston, a super-cool group of guys and girls from Carolina, and people from Maine and Canada have made the place a lot of fun lately.  This girl from the Boston group not only shares my birthday (July 9th), but was born on 7-9-97, which is cool as shit because I was born on 7-9-79.  The Kellogg family kept us open late late night last night, as they all worked to get their name on the Pirate board.  (The Pirate game consists of trying to hang a washer tied to a string on a screw attached to a broken surfboard.  Winners get a free drink and their name on the board.)  The Kelloggs stayed late enough and had the dedication to get a good portion of the family on the board, including a sweet nine year old girl, who definitely wins the prize as the youngest on the board since I have started.  While Colleen's late husband, Paul, couldn't be here in person, he was certainly here in spirit.  Absolutely wonderful family. 

I'm also including here a picture of one of our two new bartenders, Shilka.  Shilka lives in Jaco, is a sweet surfer, and an even sweeter girl.  And she brings with her a huge smile to our little bar here in Oeste.  It's wonderful to have her.