R. Doug Wicker — Author

One Ritual, Two Names — Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the Flyers) or Palo Volador (Pole Flying)

There is a ritual originating from the deep, central regions of Mexico known as Pole Flying (Palo Volador) or the Dance of the Flyers (Danza de los Voladores).  Today it’s more associated with the Totonac people along the eastern coastal Veracruz region of Mexico.

One Ritual, Two Names — Danza de los Voladores (Dance of the Flyers) or Palo Volador (Pole Flying)

But you won’t catch me doing it.  Pole Flying entails climbing up an unbraced, 100-foot/30-meter pole along with four other individuals.  You and three of your fellow climbers then bind your feet together with the ends of segments of rope tightly wrapped around the top of the pole.  The four of you then fall backwards while the fifth person rides atop the now spinning platform atop the pole while you slowly (hopefully) descend while rotating toward Earth.

So, what has a ritual from Veracruz have to do with a peninsula off the west coast of Mexico?  It turns out that the Totonac like to show off in many places in Mexico, and on this day we were fortunate enough to see a troupe perform upon our arrival into Cabo San Lucas.

One last shot for today’s Fun Photo Friday.  This one is of the Buccaneer Queen.  We didn’t go on her, but she looks to be a lot of fun.  Check out the video (not taken by me) at the end to see what I mean.  And while you’re at it, note how fast she goes even with the sails furled!  (just kidding; I know she’s motorized)

Buccaneer Queen

Buccaneer Queen Video:

By the way, if you’re reading this and other material authored by me on The Destinary website, this post was not “Posted on (fill in the date) | By destinary” as they’ve been erroneously claiming; this material was in fact reposted.  The Destinary have also been claiming the right to do so, without links back to the original and without full attribution (“by RDoug” and a nonworking link is not proper attribution) with a rather bizarre interpretation of U.S. copyright law in which they claim I’m responsible for changing my RSS feed settings so that they cannot skim my material for commercial purposes.  That would make reading my blog less convenient for you, which I’m not willing to do.  As such, I’ll be running this little diatribe on all travel related posts until they cease and desist, along with this:

© 2015 R. Doug Wicker (RDougWicker.com)
All right reserved — that includes you, Destinary

Final note:  Considering The Destinary is a site listed as owned by Sonia Bosquez-Platt of Indianapolis Tour & Travel, you may want to rethink doing business with her or her company.