Where But In Mexico??

Where but in Mexico...do you see a coffee ground Virgin?

Where but in Mexico...do you see a man dancing around with a big bull on his head with fireworks coming out of the bull's ass?

Where but in Mexico...within 30 yards of each other in the zocalo do you see a 50 piece brass band playing danzon music, a children's Pastorella and a men's chorus singing Christmas carols... and if you stand in just the right place, hear them all equally?

Where but in Mexico...do you see, coming down the main boulevard, over 100 taxis, honking their horn and all dressed up for the Virgin of Guadalupe?

Where but in Mexico...do you see a giant metal structure, called a Castillo, which explodes with gigantic fireworks, the sparks raining down on the crowd and nobody gives a damn or tries to run away?

Where but in Mexico...do you see an impromptu turkey market, right in the regular weekly market, with all sorts of indigenous folks bring one or two turkeys to sell, all holding their turkeys by their ankles and the turkeys not even complaining one gobble?

Where but in Mexico...do you see a nativity scene that includes not only the holy family, but baseball players, Mark Twain, an elephant and pink flamingos?

Where but in Mexico...do you see pickup trucks driven around town, with oranges, pineapples or big bottles of water in the back and the driver is loudly proclaiming through a loudspeaker just what a good deal he has...at 8 o'clock in the morning???

Where but in Mexico...do you see more off key oom-pah bands roaming the streets along with fireworks...at 4 o'clock in the morning?

Where but in Mexico...are grasshoppers eaten as a staple in the everyday diet?

Where but in Mexico...do you see the cutest little kids all dressed up as Joseph, Mary and the three kings, riding around in the back of a pickup truck followed by an off-key, very loud 5 piece brass band along, for just extra noise, a few snare drums?

Where but in Mexico...so much noise, so much color, so many different cuisines, so many kinds of music, so many different landscapes, so many different people and so many different cultures...total sensory overload?

God, I LOVE THIS COUNTRY!!!

Our Lady of the Coffee Gounds

So you travel around the world, meeting people and seeing new things all the time. Just when you think you´ve seen it all, something happens that is, in the words of Monty Python, completely different.

We are in Oaxaca, land of great food, music and crafts. Virgin of Guadalupe had her day last week. Now it´s the Virgin of Soledad. She´s Oaxaca´s own virgin and has a church near our hotel. Her big night is tomorrow, Thursday night, but there are processions happening today. So we went there this evening for a look-see and there were all sorts of beautiful ladies in native costumes. we were taking picture of a lot of them and there was one woman who was standing off by herself. All the women carry this big basket full of flowers and maybe a flower crown on their head when they go into the church. But this lady had a big glass and wooden box with a bowl in it. WTF??? Amy went up and started talking to her and learned from her that this was a very, very special bowl. Take a look at it she tells us. Do you see? Do you see the Virgin of Soledad on the bowl? So I look and indeed, there is a black and white version of the Virgin of Soledad right there on the upper part of the bowl. Well, the lady tells us, five years ago when I was drinking coffee out of this bowl and I drink all the coffee and all that is left is the coffee grounds, there is the Blessed Virgin herself, right as you see her, made out of my coffee grounds. So she says she cleans up the bowl, except of course for the part where the Virgin is, and she stays there, a perfect representation of our Blessed Lady of Soledad, Oaxaca´s own virgin. Not only that, but get this. Soledad is a protector of fishermen and as this lady was having her coffee and the Virgin was appearing, they were having crab for dinner!!!!! What the heck do you make of that!?!?!? There are soooooo many mysteries in this world and just chalk one more up.

our lady of crema de chile poblano

just read craigs blog about our lady of the coffee grounds
we have great pix of this
he did not mention that then, we went to the main square, and, typical oaxaca style, there was a noise fest. a wonderful noise fest. A 40 piece band playing danzon, a stage with 7th graders doing a pastorela, a boys choir doing joy to the world a la rock and role, and, a bunch of comparza bands accompanied by 2,000 young folks drinking free Sol beer.
then to celebrate this, we went ate. Delicious five star food at La Catedral. cesar salad made at the table elegantly with lime and egg and anchovies, and cream of chile poblano soup with baby corn, and very young pig roasted with chile sauce, and crepes with huitlacoche, and pecan pie and a very fine soft cabernet from Chile. both, with fine waiters and starlight and gentle music, for, $56 US total.

oh, and, the people dancing danzon, all had pink satin scarves around their necks, and a mode of total elegance. in spite of the fireworks going off, and all the other things going on.

Our Lady of the Taxi Drivers Union

Orizaba on this holiday weekend had a lot more to offer!
turns out every year on this sunday, the church of La Union arranges for different groups to continue doing pilgrimages to the virgin

how did we find this: totally by accident

we decided to see a part of town we had never located, the Parque de la Alameda. Wow. what a great kids park. Enormous walled french style park, many acres, and, perhaps because its sunday and perhaps a holiday sunday, so much free stuff for kids to do. there were: bicycle pedaled carts for you to take your family in, a small choochoo train powered by a VW bug cleverly hidden by a wooden box to look like the engine of the 3 car train, FREE electric powered cars each big enough for one to two children, able to be manipulated by them, their parents holding a cord, or both, huge jumpies with trampolines, even huger jumpies one was with a space shuttle and one an enormous inflated tiger with a huge climbing gym... a free painting class to make christmas decorations.... wow. And clowns. and ice cream. there were kids everywhere, and like all mexican kids, totally well behaved, cooperative, and fun loving. so nice. we could have spent hours just watching the adorable girls in their electric barbie jeeps, the little guys in their tiny red convertibles. it was awesome. And of course, free loud mexican baile music blaring, to make watching everything even more fun.

so then, we went off to look for the flower market. sounds boring you would think. Not at all! because today, the flower market was sponsoring their entry in the parade we had not yet heard of! first we saw people making many small floral displays, which everyone seems to need right now, and, then, we saw the most awesome, 3 tired floral concoction, like a giant wedding cake 8 feet high, with of course, a flower cave where the virgin and Juan diego were gettigng acquainted. with awesome colors and each a perfect flower. the best part was that they had dipped some of the roses in glitter on the edges ... it was lovely. sounds tacky. it was not. Then outside, was the float they had created, even bigger, truck mounted, with a huge virgin and enough room for little kids to have been in front of her in the cave if they had been meant to. they were not. around us on this normal looking street were the most lovely kids, a young girl about 9 dressed to the nines in shiny red and green costume, a young boy about 6 dressed in a fancy white charro costume, and a tiny girl in the india costume. so lovely.


they explained to us there was about to be a parade, any minute now, well maybe in 5 minutes, maybe an hour from now, depends on when the TAXI union gets their act together.... meanwhile they were just going to sit here, keep doing finishing touches, and lets light off a few bottle rockets to not get bored... oh by the way did we tell you about the dancers who are coming? Aztec dancers...

so anyway we went on down to the church which was their destination, and saw OTHER floats coming in, each with marching bands, rata tat tattat tat tatta, of cute high school girls and boys, phenomenal rhythm, and some form of the virgin on some kind of float, and lots and lots of folks singing the same song, about the virgin coming down one handsome morning to bless us, her hands folded in prayer and everything about her from her hands to her face to her skin, were MEXICAN! and isn´t that an honor for each mexican. it´s a great song... but can get a little raspy when sung live on a crummy loudspeaker. it´s great when the crowd is singing and they always look annoyed that we are there photographing, until they see we are singing along, and then, well ok then, go gringos! as long as you are worshipping the virgin too, that´s ok!

and as usual there is an OTHER contingent in this town... the fundamentalists, also holding church today. but they don´t get the fun parade action.

finally we found our group again as they were getting ready.the dancers were here! they were from somewhere in puebla. they wore phenomnally scary devil masks, had huge prongs sticking out of their heads, and there were some with pirate hats and swords labeled not Pirata which means pirate, but Pilato which is pontius pilate. swooshing around. everything got going, the floats were moving, preceded by bottle rockets set off right in the middle of the highway, then the marching band, then the marching DEVIL band, then the floats, then the lovely little kids holding hands in a line in their costumes, then large groups of devotees singing, you guessed it.

and all the flower market men, straining, because the float they were carrying on their shoulders, was HEAVY! and they had relief but it looked like pain....

Then, the taxis!

the entire main highway came to a halt... going the pace of foot marchers.... bands tootling, drums drumming, explosive fireworks banging... what a treat! and, each danged taxi setting off every alarm they had. all in honor of the virgin of guadalupe! our lady of OUR taxi drivers union.

Friendly Folks in Orizaba

We have a little time to kill before the bus takes us from Orizaba to Oaxaca, so we are in a little internet place near the bus stop. Gives Amy and me enough time to write a little more about the wonderful town of Orizaba.

One of my best impressions here is the friendliness of the city. Most of the Mexican cities we go to cater to tourists and when someone approaches you it is almost always to get something out of you, take you on a tour, give them money for whatever, or sell you something. Not that that is all that bad, that is just the way it is. Here in Orizaba, we have had all sorts of people talk to us on the street...just to talk. They are curious what we two gringos are doing here. In two days we have not seen ONE other gringo. So naturally, we are a curiosity. Yesterday we were at the flower market, where they were preparing for a big procession down to the Guadalupe church. Several people saw us and started up a conversation. One man, who had some darling kids dressed up in folkloric costume, was more then happy to have us take pictures of his kids. Just try that in Chiapas, where they are deathly afraid of cameras.

The procession of the flower market folks was great. They went down the main boulevard of town, holding back traffic behind them. They were proceeded by a guy shooting off bottle rockets. The flower folks hired some folkloric dancers from Puebla all dressed up in the wildest Aztec style costumes and masked. And then came their two floats, Ol´ Guadalupe on top of the most elaborate flowered mound you´ve ever seen. It was amazing and we´ll post pics when we get home. The flower folks were followed by the taxi association...about 100 taxis or more all dressed up in balloons, flowers and a picture of Guadalupe. All honking their horns at the same town. Sensory overload again!

This morning, another great market food experience. Street food tip: in a Mexican market, always look for the stall that is the most crowded. We found that stall this morning, cooking up what looked like very tasty things. They take a tortilla, dip it in some boiling oil and then place it on a comal, a big concave metal dish over a fire. Then you went from there...a garnacha, a flat crispy, fried tortilla topped with crispy shredded pork, cheese and red sauce; an enfrijolada, a crispy fried tortilla topped with beans, cheese and chicken, a taco, here it was a very big crispy fried tortilla filled with flor de cabasa (zucchini flower) and cheese and sauce. We had four garanchas, one enfrijolada, one big taco, and two champurados, a chocolate drink made with rice. Napkins on the table were like thin paper bag paper. All this for about $5. And the food here was better then in the restaurants we went to in Orizaba.

Good Virgin Town - Bad Virgin Town

We are now in the town of Orizaba, situated below the volcano of the same name, also known as Citlaltépetl. This is the third highest mountain in North America but unfortunately you really can´t see it from the town, except for the very top of the peak. The picture above is how it would look if we could see it.

The other nice thing about this town is that, compared to the town of Jalapa, they really respect their festival here for the Virgin of Guadalupe. We were really looking forward to the festivities on Friday night for Guadalupe but it turned out to be just a big fair with kiddy rides, booths for dart throwing, candy, gambling, t shirts and other assorted boring stuff. It was all commercial and not really aimed at the spiritual aspect of the day. There was a street that the pilgrims came down that went to the big church and they were all into it, but most of the crowd was just there for the party. Kind of disrespectful to Guadalupe, if you ask me. Along with the perpetual traffic jams, not so good food (except for some amazing street food we had), and not too many interesting old buildings, Jalapa is to be missed EXCEPT for its saving grace, the Archeological Museum.

So we left yesterday for Orizaba, which is a very nice town. We hiked about a mile from the bus station into downtown, where there is a nice square, beautiful buildings and a great market. There is also a church that is dedicated to Guadalupe where there were some nice festivities going on and this was much, much better then the day before in Jalapa. The best part were all these little kids. The boys, ages from newborn to maybe 5 or so, dressed up as Juan Diego, the Aztec prince who Guadalupe appeared to. They are so cute in their little straw hats, sandles, white linen shirt and pants, and sarape. The girls, who we call Juanita Diego, but they just call an Indian around here, are dressed up as indian girls and are just amazingly darling. There are booths that they get their picture taken in that have live rabbits and goats.

More about street food, or in this case market food. Wandering around the market yesterday I was a bit peckish. So I just looked at the different food booths to see what the locals were eating. One guy was chowing down on a bowl with a very red liquid and meat. Turned out to be pork in a spicey red sauce. With a Mexican Coke (much, much MUCH better then American Coke), it came to about 40 pesos, or $3. And it was really, really good. After we blog here we are heading back to the market for lunch today. For dinner last night we went to a ´fancy´restaurant here in Orizaba, one that has been around since 1948. Let me just say this...NEVER ORDER STEAK IN MEXICO. They just don´t know steak here, maybe its an American thing. We felt like a nice steak, Amy had filet mignon and I had a rib eye. Very thin little things and very touch. But we had a nice Portuguese wine to go with it. I´ve been fairly disappointed with restaurant meals since we left Oaxaca. Luckily, tomorrow we are back in one of the world´s great food towns.

Virgin of the Aquarium

ok, we lied. we hated jalapa. we LOVE Orizaba.

Orizaba is a small city with great character in a valley in the mountains, with a distant glimpse of the huge volcano that was originally Orizaba and is now known by its traditional Nahuatl name. which is C..... teatl something. Great place. Although we are in a pretty large city, with semi sophistication, still, as I sit now in the internet, looking out the window across the street above the stores, I can see a huge volcanic hill covered in soft green jungly vegetation. and although I can´t see it from here, I know the volcano itself is up there... somewhere.

Yesterday, day 1 in Orizaba, was a really nice day. The night before, the eve of Virgin of Guadalupe Day, we had been in Jalapa, and we had hoped to see some of the same romantic spiritual quality of singing to the virgin that we experienced last year in Merida.

NOT! the same. In Jalapa, everything was crowded out by the huge numbers of cars and trucks, and although every now and then families came through carrying a green flower offering to the virgin, and sang a little, in order to get to the church they had to go through 3 blocks of wall to wall carnival stands with gambling, cheap clothing, fuzzy animals and country fair food. NOT appetizing. then they went up to the modern church and out the other side. no large place for people to gather and socialize. and these are all citified people -- the town is too large for people to know each other, and so they mostly showed up, went to the church, came out the exit, and left.

however... a part of this, maybe the main affair was kind of cute. Each family that could afford it, dresses their kids (up to about age 5, boys and age 12, girls) up as little indians, as Juan Diego in a little white costume with hat, and the girls as little¨índias´, with colorful woven skirts, braids in matching red, green, pink, or combined, ribbons, and lots of shiny little necklace. The kids, wearing this, are all taken to the churhc. and THEN, after, the photo. In Xalapa, families could choose from about 17 different booths re-creating a scene of the virgin, out on a hillside somewhere. And, the plan is to pose your child as if they were really there. course, it doesn´t work out that way, so, to make it easier on the kids, they get posed on the back of a mechanical horse. Many of the kids were so cute. It was fun, to pat the live bunnies, chicks and goats that were also part of the Virgin in a cave sets. they were there to make the babies laugh.

but the whole experience of it, combined with all the fair stalls, made it feel like to these families, day of the virgin had stopped being a meaningful ceremony, just mostly a photo op.

So... we were disappointed...

but, the next day, we took the bus to Orizaba, we were in a whole nother world.

Orizaba

Orizaba is in the mountains, near where the states of Puebla, Oaxaca and Veracruz all come together. The people are a really nice mix of citified folks, and several different groups of huastec indians who come in from neighboring villages, that still enjoy dressing up in traditional costumes, specially on such a big day. We met a really nice older man who told us that nearly everyone around, speaks Nahuatl as well as spanish, and he taught us a few words. we have heard a lot of converstaitons, people seem to like hanging on to both languages. even here, in this internet cafe, I hear both.

Although most people are in city clothes, the women that do come in their village dress, look beautiful. One type of costume for the ladies is absolutely beautiful. Over a lacy petticoat that hangs down in many icicles nearly to the feet, is a dress that has two tiers of pleats so it´s really wide, and comes up to spaghetti straps over the blouse. the dress and skirt is usually satiny, a turquoise or rose or some other nice color. then, under it, is a lace blouse with puffy sleeves, and woven into the blouse are stripes of quarter inch satin ribbon, and here and there where the ribbons cross, are fabric rosettes, usually pink. really a nice costume. never saw it before. it´s some variant on the famous ´china poblana´costume.

when we arrived in town, we realized that celebrating the Virgin was definitely still going on, and we headed right down to the church called La Concordia. This cathedral is definitely the virgin of guadalupes church with enormous murals of the whole story of Juan Diego meeting the virgin and trying to prove to the bishop that she had come. it´s a really nice tall orange, brown and white church, very gingerbready. All in front, are great paper decorations.

Inside, masses went on with nice singing and constantly, the priest would be offering nice prayers for the children. he would say, now, parents, place your hand in blessing on top of your child´s head, and let´s give these children all we can, spiritually, because they are precious. and the parents were tearing up and sometimes you would even see middle aged men putting their head on their grown son´s head while he put his hand on his tiny five year old juan diego´s head.

At the church of the virgin were many, many people, milling around in a relaxed way. The carnival booths were there of course, but right in front of the cathedral, there was a huge park with playground and bandstand and lots of shade, where vendors were off limits. . Again, there were the photo op booths. but these seemed funner somehow. the bleating goats were great. then, I realized, that about five of these, have the virgin, in her grotto, with the donkey, and, on the wall, a computer aquarium! so funny. The Virgin of the Aquarium.

Another really nice thing we experienced, last night, was a procession to a different church, where people held up candles in stars and lanterns made of celluloid in different colors. the frames are handmade of little strips of wood. the singing was heartfelt and the sight of the red, green and orange flames, was really pretty.

what else is great about Orizaba -- the down town, and the art museum.

Wow, the downtown. The main highway between mexico and veracruz, runs about four or five blocks south of the old downtown, and that is where a number of the hotels, and the first class ADO bus station, area. however, everything else is much more tranquil, while still vibrant.

the piece de resistance is this terrific metal ´municipal palace´, a french balconied iron building that was actually built in belgium around the time of the eiffel tower, and shipped and rebuilt in the late 1800s, here. It has two wings, a grand staircarse, and it has a raised veranda all the way around on 2 levels, which is a great place for an upscale coffee restaurant. with absolutely great tres leches cake topped with caramel. In the downtown area, although the old buildings are mixed in with some modern ones, and the shops are vibrant and new, still, it feels really romantic and nice. it´s surrounded by nice french style city garden, fountains, etc. The locals who sit here are fashionable, very courteous, polite manners with each other.

Within a few blocks is a really nice arcaded market building, a pretty cathedral with large churchyard, a big central parque, and a few walking alleys around the French municipal palace.

Good food is available, both traditional food in the market, and romantic candlelit dinners on white cloths with red wine down at a restaurant on the main highway drag called Romanchu.

We are paying 350 pesos or less than $30 for a king sized bed in the Hotel plaza palace or something like that, just next to the belgian building. only problem is the romantic french style city lights stay bright, all night long.

This morning we went on a hike-run with the locals, down into a deep canyon and up and out the other side, past a skinny waterfall, and a place where a waterfall would be if the waters were flowing. ok, there were a lot of concrete stairs. and people jogging up and down these stairs rapidly with their dogs. but it FELT like we were in the country. and we just went up and down this really nice park-let, that they have made out of their river... it runs on a cobblestone floor with the occasional boulder but it´s a really nice curvy river with lovely paths and steps and walls along each side.

Tomorrow, we may hike up one of the volcanic hills that rise directly out of the city, and so be able to get a clearer view of the volcano. right now we can only see the tip of it, over the closer hills.

ART Museum

this town has a fabulous museum of paintings! really nice collection of great mexican artists of the 1700s and 1800s, sensitive portraits, lots of great landscapes which are particularly nice now that we have been to a lot of the places so seeing how cool they were in the past is great. There was a paddle steamer, very luxurious, at Tlocotalpan, for example. And they have a collection of Diego Riveras... unfortunately most of these had been on loan to an exhibit in Colombia and have just arrived home and were not yet on display.

what we didn´t do, because didn´t realize in time, is go out to one of the high mountain valleys, Zongolica, nearby. but it would have taken about an hour and a half on the bus. it´s supposed to be spectacular, and a pretty big town, with lots of opportunities for waterfalls and caves nearby. next time...