One wretched afternoon, many moons ago, two Italian tourists were swept away by the broiling seas off Puerto Escondido, México. The locals fought valiantly to save them, but the pair were lost to the pitiless waves. Their memories shall live on, however, through this immense pair of hands.
Las Manos was created by the pair’s loved ones, to represent the helping hands that tried to pluck them from the ocean blue. Located at the northern end of Playa Zicatela, where the boys disappeared, the statue serves as a grim reminder of how dangerous this beach is.
So, as a rule of thumb, you should always swim between the flags.
With their offbeat, gnarled charm, Las Manos demand a moment of quiet reflection from anyone who visits this beautiful, yet deadly, beach. A more haunting Big you’re unlikely to find.
When I paid my respects to Las Manos in 2022 it was, lamentably, looking a little the worse for wear. The base was cracked, the hands were covered in some really quite repulsive graffiti, and it appeared someone had wiped the remains of their taco dinner all over the sculpture.
Forget drugs and corruption, the real problem facing Méxicans is their lack of respect towards oversized novelty structures.
And then, one day, the unthinkable happened…
All Hands on Deck
On July 6, 2023, the Hands of Zicatela finally succumbed to a lack of maintenance and the relentless wash of the salty brine. Las Manos crumbled away and was washed into the ocean, another part of México’s history lost forever.
Even worse, it seemed like those who were commemorated by the piece would be forgotten.
But our story doesn’t end there. Members of the local community banded together to create a new set of hands, unveiled in November of that year. Hard work, no doubt, but I’m sure they celebrated with an icy-cold can of Tecate at the nearby Dorada Bar ‘n’ Gill.
The new set’s larger, more ornate and – dare I say it – provides a better photo opportunity for the tourist hordes. They even have an outrageously-proportion octopus wrapped around their wrists. I have to give the good people of Zicatela a round of applause for their attention to detail!
The new Las Manos certainly holds up to other huge hands around the world, such as La Mano Verde in Guatemala, La Mano in Uruguay, The Wishing Hand in Ireland and Bird in Hand in Australia.
Sadly, I think the new version of Las Manos lacks the visceral energy of the original one – although I can’t quite put my finger on why!
