Vacation Time a la Playa (the beach)

       We were lucky that we got to take a week vacation from our vacation. We headed to Cancun and then straight out of there. So I can’t comment on Cancun, except to say that we saw, at the airport, American junk food that we haven’t seen in 5 months (drooled but didn’t buy any!).  We followed in the footsteps of our friends Karen, Scott, and Fiona and went by ferry to Isla Mujeres.
         The vibe of Isla Mujeres reminded us a lot of Santa Cruz with a bit of Hawaii. There was a shack-y look to a lot of the buildings, and everyone was wandering around in beach clothes and flip-flops. Even Mexicans were wearing shorts, which we’d never seen before.  But, unlike in Santa Cruz, the ocean was warm!  It reminded me of Hawaii, beautiful white baby-powder sand, shallow turquoise water, palm trees – the whole thing. Except that the average Mexican beaches have lots of commerce going on. You can rent lounge chairs and umbrellas, have fancy froo froo drinks, get a massage, buy junk food, pick up a new piece of jewelry, hat or whatever your heart desires – all without leaving the beach. I both liked it, and found it obtrusive, being  hawked to on the beach.

         We enjoyed the restaurant scene a lot. Back home in San Miguel it’s generally not warm enough to eat outside anymore, but here the weather was fabulous (except for the mosquitoes, poor Nataly).  Michael and I gorged on lots of seafood – fish tacos, shrimp tacos, fish and squid ceviche and Nataly tried hard to find the one thing on menus she would eat – often chicken fingers and quesadillas. Now I really don’t need to eat any seafood for the foreseeable future, which is lucky because it’s very rare here in landlocked SMA.

         Besides being a beach bum, one of the fun things to do here was to rent a golf cart and zoom around the island.

We found that the windward side of the island beaches look exactly like the area north of Santa Cruz, with high cliffs, rough surf, and strong winds. Completely different from the other side of the island, which is only ½ mile away (the isla is ½ mile wide by about 12 miles long).

         We went to a turtle sanctuary that was interesting, and very Mexican. There was very little signage, but asking around a bit we gathered that they mobilize volunteers to collect the eggs laid on the beach during the summer and early fall months. They rebury them in mounds on their beach, surrounded by a chicken wire fence for protection, with the due dates on a sign. When they hatch 2 months later, the hatchlings are kept in various tanks of sea water inside the sanctuary, until they grow big enough to have a better chance of survival (in the wild less than 5% make it to adulthood). So we got to see tanks of 4-day-old turtles, as well as juveniles. 

The man there told me some were albinos, but I don’t know for sure if that’s just the name they use for the white turtles, or if all white turtles are actually albinos.  
     There was a touch tank of other sea creatures, including this strange animal whose Spanish name I can’t remember, and whose English name I never have known. The toothless guy in charge was worlds away from the eager college students who man the touch tanks in the aquariums in Monterey and SC.  He was in it for the shock value, trying to scare the tourists by lunging forward with some crab, anemone, or mystery animal, and trying to make you put it on your face. 

         Favorite hangouts - Nataly’s favorite place to hang out in the isla was the roof of our place, where there was a palapa roof, and lots of hammocks. We discovered that hanging out with the fish, which was my and Michael’s favorite place to be, was just the opposite of Nataly, unfortunately. So we did a lot of alternating. One day at a sandy beach, with no snorkeling, and then next time at a beach with coral. I grew to wish the water wasn’t quite so clear. By the end of our trip Nataly had grown to enjoy seeing fish, as long as it was only a couple at a time, and they were small. Best beach for Nataly on I.M. was Playa Norte and best beach for me was Garafon Castillo.

         Puerto Morelos was probably my favorite pueblo. It still felt much like the fishing village that it was. The village was set right next to the beach, similar to Capitola village. The beach there was wide and long and much less commercial than Isla Mujeres. You could just throw your towel down and get in the water.  We had a great beach morning and then in the afternoon made our way inland, through the jungle to a cenote called 7 Bocas.

         I was so glad to finally get to see a cenote, after reading about them for years. A cenote is a fresh body of water (agua dulce – so poetic in Spanish) that forms when rain slowly erodes away the limestone crust that the Yucatan peninsula is made of.  Over time the water can make caves, and stalactites and stalagmites can form, and fish can somehow make their way there, as well.

         7 Bocas was a very magical cave type cenote, especially as we had it all to ourselves.

Its set deep in the jungle, with lush plantings, and little palapa seating areas scattered around. We climbed down maybe 20 ft via some helpful steps into boca uno (the first opening). Once we got in the water (and by we I mean M and I) we could swim away from the opening and into the covered cave area. The water was a gorgeous, shifting, green blue, lit up by the sun streaming in via the bocas.  When we used our masks to look down we could see lily pad type plants and stalactites through the ultra clear water.  
     It was an adventure finding the source of other bocas. One around the corner to had trees seemingly growing right through the rock roof and the roots hanging down just to skim the water’s surface. To reach the most dramatic boca you had to swim along through a narrow tunnel opening with just enough room for your head to bob along under the roof. This boca was lushly ringed with ferns growing up the sides. For Michael and I this was truly a magical place.

         To Nataly it was creepy, cold, and there might be fish around (to say nothing of the “birds” (bats) that started gathering at dusk.  She did her best several times to conquer her fears, but to no avail. Luckily, we eventually realized that those things in the corners were floating surfboards, and we were able to get her aboard to go for rides to the different bocas. An awesome experience!

Only in Mexico would there be a chain of pharmacies named after St. Francis of Asisi

         One night it started raining and wouldn’t stop till late the next day. What the heck, we’re swimming and getting wet all day anyways. So I got up at the crack of dawn to take a boat out to the reef very close offshore for some snorkeling. My driver was named “Charlie Brown”. He couldn’t explain were he got this name or I couldn’t understand his explanation, but it cas fun, especially as he was mr. sunshine.  Nobody else seemed to share my attitude about snorkeling in the rain, so I got Charlie’s personal tour. The reef out here was amazing and solidly packed with beautiful tropical fish. I saw a too big barracuda, several lobsters, and especially enjoyed the many shapes, types, and colors of the coral itself.

       Nataly met a girl to play with, and Michael a mom to chat with while I was gone.  The mom is American, but now lives in the jungle married to a man, who is Mayan.  She lives in a village that is very traditional and the people sleep in hammocks. She commented that it took her over 4 years to be conversationally fluent in Spanish, even as immersed as this. This news was both disheartening (don’t think I’ll be married to a Spanish speaking person any time soon) and reassuring (its not just me that’s making slow slow progress).

         Next we traveled to Tulum, an hour south of P Morelos. We loved our hotel room with fancy bed with mosquito netting. 

I was relegated to the single bed without the netting, as I am not a tasty treat to mosquitos. We explored the beach here, which was smaller, but equally beautiful and also quiet. I walked, Michael swam and body surfed as there was some wave action, and Nataly ran in the surf.

We were hoping to visit maybe 3 or so pyramids, but only ended up going to one – the one at Tulum. Its got a gorgeous setting right on cliffs above the beach. Makes sense, as these people were fishermen who also managed the trade routes via the ocean. When the Spanish came Tulum was still a functioning city (unlike most other pyramid cultures which were abandoned well before the Spanish), until the Spanish prohibited any use of boats by the Mayans. Its not very well preserved due to the salty ocean air, so they don’t let you climb anything, which was disappointing. We still enjoyed strolling around, taking in the general beauty, but the structures themselves aren’t nearly as impressive as other places we’ve been. And the guidebook warns you not to take the tour unless you simply want to be entertained, rather than informed.

         We also visited another cenote, strangely named Car Wash, this time a simple lagoon type to see if we could convince Nataly to give it a try. She gave it her best try, but no go. I found this one far less interesting than 7 Bocas, so after a bit, we vamanoosed it out of there and went to Akamal. Ah, finally, the last day we found the perfect combination of beach for kids and adults. Its shallow, but not too shallow, with no fish close in, but a reef right out there we could swim to. The highlight for me was seeing a couple of sea turtles and Michael got to see a lionfish. Our last night we also found the perfect restaurant called Puro Corazon. If we ever go back, we’ll have it all figured out.

         For Michael and Nataly our beach trip was a time for good bonding over their love of water.  For me it was a place of beauty, but not a place I’d want to live.  It felt a lot less Mexican than San Miguel (which many people say isn’t that Mexican either). There everyone immediately spoke to us in English. Definitely not a place to come practice your Spanish. I’m sure it’s different off the tourist track, but there didn’t seem to be much native culture co-existing with the vacationers. So, I was happy to visit and happy to get back to San Miguel.

Dia de los Muertos y Halloween

Fortunately for Nataly there are enough Americans here that Halloween is celebrated by some. On the 31st we were told to go down to the Jardin and there will be people handing out candy. Nataly wore her spanish flamenco costume and down we went. Sure enough, there were American's handing out candy to hundreds of kids, both Mexican and expats. Nataly ran into several of her classmates from school and from circus, which was fun. 

Nataly and some classmates

Nataly and kids from circus

We had bought and brought candy to hand out as well. It was hard to avoid being completely mobbed by kids, so we resorted to stealth methods of having Nataly had out the candy, instead of the gringa wearing the fuchsia tutu on her head (me!).  The kids were dressed in a mixture of Halloweeny costumes and skeletony Dia costumes. Nataly had a blast, phew! We had fun later looking at all the strange candy. Lots of sweet and spicy lollipops and chews. A beer flavored lollipop. Little candy pills flavored like perfume!

Then the next morning began The Dia.

It’s hard to think of how to summarize Dia de los Muertos here in Mexico. The public spectacle that San Miguel put on was incredible, but at the same time it felt somewhat at odds with the ceremonies in people’s houses and in the cemeteries.

I read up on Dia beforehand because I didn’t know much about it. In many of the pre-Columbian groups of this area there were, and probably still are, many times of year dedicated to honoring and appeasing the dead. These traditions were combined with the Spanish celebration of all souls day. But they are very different at root. While the Spanish catholics pray for the souls to get to heaven or out of purgatory, the Mexicans traditionally believe that the souls of the dead are returning for a visit on these days. In some of the communities this is a joyous time to visit with and celebrate the lives of the ancestors, but for others the dead are fearsome and have exacting demands that must be appeased. Also in some communities there are rituals that must be done to encourage the dead to leave the living after these days are over. There are also huge differences between the way rural and urban communities celebrate.

In urban communities like San Miguel, Dia de los Muertos seemed like a time to thumb-ones-nose and make fun of the specter of death. Walking around we saw many kids and adults with faces painted as Calaveras (skulls) or Catrinas (fancy society skeleton women). Every gallery and tourist shop was full of art depicting skeletons having a great time, doing everything the living do – barber skeletons, skeletons at the bar, skeletons giving birth etc. 

VW Bug skull

The original image of the Catrina, is credited to a cartoonist and illustrator named José Posada who published his art in newspapers in the 1910s. He satirized the dictatorship and high society with his drawings. His drawings of the Catrinas are reproduced everywhere during Dia de los Muertos, even though they are a fairly new aspect to this pre-Columbian event.

Taking their inspiration from the Cow art sculptures that were so popular in Chicago, San Miguel gave giant skull forms to prominent local artist to work their magic on. Our favorite skull was made by Anado, who designed much of the art in our first house this summer.

Anado's skull

Nearly every organization like the Biblioteca, the major art galleries, the schools, the restaurants, and the bigger stores had altars (ofrendas) dedicated either to founders, muses or other important people in the organization. 

"Reader" at the Biblioteca

The altars were very beautiful, generally decorated with the marigold flowers associated with the dead. There are offerings of favorite foods and drinks, candles, pictures of the dead, pan de muerto (bread with bone shapes on top, and alfeniques (sugar animals and other shapes, that represent the sweetness and fragility of life).

girl at the playground

Traditional Day of the Dead dance from Jalisco

            Every night the main square was crowded to the brim with people. The shows went late into the night. My favorite performance was the “earth harp”. It consisted of giant harp strings attached to the upper levels of the Parroquia church. The other end was tied to a metal contraption. The musician wore large gloves and pulled on the strings with all her might. She was accompanied by a wonderful singer. The music was ethereal and beautiful, especially in this setting with hundreds of papel picados decorating the night sky and fluttering wildly in the windy evening.

            One week before the Dia I went to the cemetery (el Panteon) just to see where it was. When I arrived I was amazed at the bustling atmosphere. People had wheelbarrows full of paint, shovels, cleaning supplies etc. The graves generally have a small metal fence around them and a raised gravestone. People were cleaning the stones, throwing away old flowers and repainting the fence. I walked over to the separate area for the graves of foreigners. It looked totally different. Uniform small gravestones with uniform green plantings. Much more lush, but boring looking. For me, it symbolized in a nutshell the whole difference between the American aesthetic and the Mexican one. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera that day. 

            On Nov 2^nd we planned to go to the Panteon in the early evening. I guess we hadn’t researched it enough, because it turned out that the cemetery closed at 7pm. In many other parts of Mexico people stay at the graves overnight with their relatives. We only had time to look around for 15 minutes before being shooed out. It was absolutely overflowing with flowers. 

There was one Mariachi band playing what sounded like bar songs, with the family singing along. We had bought a bunch of marigolds and quickly found a grave that hadn’t been tended to to place our bouquet. I was disappointed to not be able to spend anymore time there. Outside the cemetery a whole mercado had sprung up with food for the living, flowers, and a party atmosphere.

            We were so busy with all the public spectacle that we ended up celebrating a day later than traditional, but I don’t think our dead minded.  This was the first time we’d made an altar. Nataly loved this! We enjoyed thinking about favorite food and activities of our ancestors and figuring out how to embody those in an altar.

            We made papel picado and our own alfeniques, as well as buying some things from the market.  I found it very personally powerful and enriching for our family.  Being part of this gave us permission to stop and remember. It felt good to know that all around you the whole community was focused on remembering the importance of the people who made us who we are, who inspired us, and who we will always love.  It’s definitely a tradition we plan to continue.

            One last beautiful thought to end this posting. One of the traditional beliefs surrounding Day of the Dead is that the souls, particularly of children, are embodied in the returning Monarch butterflies. For our family this has additional significance as we live in a community with a Monarch sanctuary and Nataly goes to Monarch school.  Now whenever I see a Monarch, I see it as both spirit and butterfly.

Morelia and villages around Lago de Patzcauro

Last week we visited our 4^th state in Mexico – Michoacán. It has a reputation as a lush and beautiful state, though on the bus ride I gotta say it looked about the same – cacti, small scrubby trees. It is the dry season here now, so maybe that's why.

Morelia is a much bigger city than San Miguel but it is colonial as well, and seemed similar.  The architecture in el centro where we stayed is more muted in color than SM, with many buildings of stone, rather than painted stucco. The central buildings are very elegant, with elaborate baroque facades that made me think I was in Paris or Prague. We appreciated that this city was much easier to walk around in. The sidewalks are wide enough for us to all walk together, the city is flat, and there are no scenic, but troublesome cobblestones to trip you up. 

Maybe 1 mile away from the central Jardin y Catedral was a quiet area with lots of trees, and a small modern art museum. First we walked down a beautiful pedestrian esplanade lined with big trees on both sides. Michael was thrilled to find a place serving coffee, and there was a hotel or two, but the rest seemed to be part of a university, which was closed for the weekend. Parallel to this alameda was the city’s old aqueduct, a grand procession of arches that extends something like 7 miles to a fresh water source in the countryside. 

The aqueduct ends in a large fountain, with 3 huge statues of Tarascan (the native people of this area) women holding a giant fruit bowl. It’s strikingly similar to the aqueduct and fountain in Queretero. Maybe designed by the same person / people? We looked and hunted and looked some more and finally found the church La Virgen de la Soledad, recommended by the guide book. In contrast to most churches around here it is very plain on the outside. But, oh my god, the inside looks sculpted in golden frosting. It was way over the top and yet impressive how the excess was carried to excess. 

On to the art museum which had an great display of surrealist photos by a Mexican artist, Pedro ?.

  

Later we went to two houses of Morelos, the revolutionary war hero for which Morelia is named. Like Hidalgo, Morelos was a priest turned warrior. His reputation is that of a much superior tactician than Hidalgo. He lead the war for about 5 years before being captured and killed.

            Unfortunately on this trip we had bad food karma. Sometimes as a traveler you are starving and just can’t make it to the places on the guidebook’s list. That’s what happened to us. I know there is good food in Morelia, but we were just winging it. We happened upon a sushi place that was quite popular among the youth, but wow, was it funky. They only served rolls so that’s what we got. Half the rolls on the list were served breaded and fried, ugh, but we didn’t try them.  Ours were served warm, with plain white rice without any of the sour and sweet seasonings that make it sushi rice. Each roll featured a generous serving of warm cream cheese, bleech.

Earlier that day we had another bizarre food when we treated ourselves to ice cream. We passed this place that looked very fancy. The cones were dipped in chocolate with sprinkles or cookie crumbs on the outside. After you picked out your scoop they put that chocolate shell stuff that hardens and then you picked another topping like sprinkle or nuts or whatever. Before you could order you paid at a little booth at the back of the shop. As we walked to the booth I noticed the rest of the store was a health food sort of place, but didn’t think much of it. Well, when we began eating our amazing looking treats we all began noticed that everything tasted off. The chocolate shell was weird, the topping was weird, the ice cream itself was weird too. It was all too sweet, and not like sugar sweet. What is this stuff?  Nataly and I threw away a good chunk of ours, and we don’t throw away dessert! Thinking it over I’m guessing we had some “healthy alternative” maybe made with alternative sweeteners or not milk ice-cream. It was awful!

The next day we got some bad advice from a super sweet taxi driver. I was chatting him up, telling him we were going to Patzcauro, which is the biggest town around Patzcauro Lake. He told me about all these other villages and how each one has its own craft artisans and that it would be easy to hop on and off the bus at each town. So we decided to follow this plan. We had a very slow bus ride, that was enlivened by bad singers coming on board to serenade us.

 Finally we arrived in Quiroga, which was crammed with tourists and stuff for sale, but the things were very junky, not fine artisan crafts. Then it took us forever to get out of this unattractive town and get to the next one, with the awesome name - Tzintzuntzan.  We walked above the little town to the pre-hispanic ruins. From there we had a view of the beautiful Lago de Patzcauro. 

The ruins are of particular interest because they are totally unique in having round sections rather than the usual square stepped pyramid. 

Nataly overcame her fear of grasshoppers here. For about the last month the grasshoppers have been plentiful wherever there are fields. Nataly’s been really spooked by them and I’ve even had to carry her past areas.  The ruins were set in grass and hopping with grasshoppers. Literally every step you took they would be popping out of the grass. Oh no! But for some reason it finally clicked with her that it could be a fun game to run along and watch them pop out.

Back down in the village of Tzintzuntzan, we found a huge former monastery with actual GRASS (there is not one speck of grass in SMA) and trees for a cool stroll.

In the church we got to see groups of people receiving an incense blessing.  This village had a large parking lot filled to the brim with crafts, which were of a much better quality than in nearby Quiroga.

The taxis around here have pictures of monarch butterflies, as there is a nearby sanctuary where they spend their winters. 

Synchronicity! Santa Cruz back home has a monarch sanctuary and Nataly's school is named Monarch. We hope to get back to see them before we leave.

Back on the bus to get to Patzcauro, then a taxi to the lake itself. The embarcadero looked a lot like the one at Xochimilco in Mexico city. I guess we’ve now got the hang of the look of Mexican embarcaderos. 

Tons of vendors were selling cups of whole little fried fish about 2 inches long. Not bad for a little snack, especially when covered in chile lime flakes, like nearly everything in this country. We took a powered lancha  to the isla Janitza. 

This lake is famous for its beauty and for its fishermen, who used to fish with big butterfly nets. Now the lake is over fished and the only use of butterfly nets is to catch money from tourists.  The people are very poor and the island is a complete tourist trap, as that is apparently the only industry. It still is very scenic as the island is a hill and there are no cars, just stairs ways winding up through souvenir shops and restaurants. 

At the top is the Mexican equivalent of the statue of liberty – a huge stone statue of the hero Morelos with his fist raised to the sky. We enjoyed climbing up the inside of the statue and viewing the murals of his life. The view from the top was spectacular and we noticed how everything looked more elegant from farther away. 

Nearby was a ratty, but ingenious kids playground that Nataly enjoyed playing in. Playgrounds are a real rarity here in Mexico.  The highlight of the day was the boat ride back to the mainland. We lucked out and timed it just perfectly for an amazing sunset cruise. 

The day did not turn out as planned as we had now run out of time to ever get to the village of Patzcauro itself, which is supposed to be the most beautiful and interesting town around. Oh well, another day, ojala!