Andrea's Adventure: San Blas 09

This weekend we went to a festival in Coamo, which is a city less than thirty minutes from Guayama. Every year in February Coamo celebrates San Blás de Illescas Marathon, in honor to the founder of the town. International and local runners compete in a 13.1-mile half marathon. It's Puerto Rico's biggest race, and the crowds are always large. We left my house at 9:30 in the morning to get to Coamo because we knew the traffic would be bad. It took about 2 1/2 hours to get there. We went with Mr. Zayas, the computer teacher at school. We got to meet his family who lives in Coama. Then we walked down into the town, and there were hundreds of thousands of people. I do not think that most people cared about the race. They were more interested in drinking. The town was one big party. Even the gas stations were shut down and filled with bands and lots of people. I would have to say it was something I am glad I saw. The winner of the race was a guy from Kenya. I did not see any of the race. I was among the partyers, of course. Some of the other teachers did, and said it was pretty incredible. Barbara said the finish was amazing and when the PR guy finished, the crown went crazy. He finished 8th I believe.

Mandi, Me, and some guy we met. He was so funny though. He is in the Army and is totally obsessed with it too. He kept saying how bad he wanted to go to Iraq. He kept saying, "I am a warrior," and "I want to fight for your freedom." I was like no! He was like "Yes! I am fighting for you, America, your freedom." Wow! Pretty crazy.

Our group
Notice we are all just hanging out at a gas station. They had a band playing here all day. Almost every store or gas station had a party going on. People were smoking and I kept thinking, "Hmmmm....I do not know if that is safe at a gas station."