Spring Break or Semana Santa?

semana santa beach from Krista on Vimeo.

This whole Semana Santa thing is quite interesting to us outsiders. We understand the importance of the Easter holiday and love the idea of spending quality family time, but we’re beginning to wonder “Is Semana Santa just an excuse for an extended Spring Break?”. For those of you who aren’t familiar with the holiday, Mexican schools give their students a 2 week break and during this time it is a tradition for families to vacation on the coast. Even though the beautiful coastline goes on for miles and miles, when everyone floods out of the cities inland, there isn’t even 1 square inch of sand that doesn’t have a tent popped up on it!

Everywhere we turn, families, friends and teens are crowding the beaches, popping up tents, cooking up delicious smelling food…..and celebrating with lots of alcohol to boot! We know Jesus had wine at his table, but did he have tequila too?


Forgive us for our bad attitudes, please. We hadn’t planned on the celebration getting this rowdy. Nowhere in Lonely Planet did they mention that we should veer inland for 2 weeks during our coastal drive through Mexico, though we quickly learned from seasoned snowbirds, that is exactly what we should do. While we did end up skimming over a few many of the small towns and out-of-the-way beaches we had hoped to boondock on, we have luckily found refuge in Zihuatenajo, but not before spending 2 miserable nights sleeping in parking lots!

keep in mind that they say these beaches are usually almost deserted!