Andrew's obsession with fireworks caused us to spend many a morning or afternoon scouring through market stalls looking for fireworks (another obvious tip for travelers : try looking first at local markets for items before you go to the artisans, tourist or well-known markets for your purchases - it will save you money).

The Mexican fireworks that we came across were all manufactured by Dodgy Brothers & Co. All fireworks in Mexico appeared to be basically similar - their spark and flame is nonexistent but they make a loud noise and guaranteed to be dangerous.

One piece of advice for prospective Mexican tourists is to beware of flying fireworks. They can come from anywhere even if it appears that no-one is around. We soon learnt the policy reasons behind the Australian stance on the ban against fireworks

The moral of our story is basically if you can hear fireworks being let off stay away because there are probably crazy Mexicans letting them off (on Christmas eve we found some crazy Mexicans letting off fireworks in the street without any regard for the safety of passers by) , or even worse there could be Australians and Americans endangering the lives of those around them.

Another piece of advice : if you launch your fireworks from a wine bottle which is then placed on top of a log stump, check to ensure that sparks have not fallen onto the stump. This will eliminate the possibility of your hotel burning down.