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Monday, December 29, 2014

A Traditional American Passtime in Mexico and a VERY Mexican Tradition



So there's a new baseball team in Guadalajara!  The Charros started playing here in the fall in and old stadium that was used for the Pan-Am games a few years ago.  We rented a van and went to one of the games a few weeks ago!  What fun!

The Charro team is comprised of players who can't make it in the MLB, would like to make it in the MLB and a few MLB players who are honing their skills in the winter.  The stadium is small and feels very intimate.  The refreshment choices are crazy:  beer, micheladas or margaritas to drink.  To eat you can choose from hot dogs, tacos, corn dogs, pizza or tortas.  There's also ice cream and pop corn.  In many ways, it was very much like a baseball game NOB, but with some crazy mascots.  I especially loved the gorilla who salsa danced in the field. And every time the Charros got one of the players on the opposing team out, the crowd yelled "Si Senor".











Matt and his Tecate girl!



Matt watching the game!

So, for our very Mexican experience.  On Christmas Eve we went with Kathleen and Vern to the nearby village of San Antonio to participate in a posada.  I'm sure I don't completely understand this tradition, but I know it plays out in the streets of nearly every village each night for the week before Christmas.  Groups of children are led by a priest and other adults through the village singing songs and seeking a place at an inn, just as Mary and Joseph did.  The priest and few others are dressed as angels, with large feathered wings.  While many in the procession were dressed in traditional biblical costumes, we also noticed several devils in the group.  Since we didn't recall devils being part of the original Christmas, we asked one of the participants.  He said, no, they weren't part of the story depicted in the bible but they were very traditional for Mexican posadas.  They respresent the struggle between good and evil.  Different families in the village participate by setting up a diorama in the front of their home depicting a Christmas scene, mostly manager scenes.  By at each home, the children are turned away.....until the very last home they visit on Christmas eve where they are welcomed.  In many of the manger scenes the families use a live baby.  This was a very sweet experience and a great way to spend Christmas eve.  Each night, at the end of the posada the children are lead to the church where they line up in front of the closed doors of the church.  There they sing another song and then the doors to the church are opened, where the pews are already filled with the adults from the village.  They stay for mass, and then most go to a family or friends home afterwards for a traditional Mexican meal.  

The processing starts to line up, the priest is the one with the wings

Devils, angels and a wise man get organized

A wise man on horseback

The girl with the staff helps keep the children together

The scene at the first house where we stopped

The children participating in the dioramas were frozen and didn't acknowledge the crowd, even these little ones


Three wise men

Finally, the children were welcomed 

Ready to enter the church
For Christmas dinner we went to a friend's home and had a wonderful meal.  It was a beautiful day, and here's the proof.  A picture of the Christmas day sunset over Lake Chapala.


And better late than never...here's some photos from our Thanksgiving dinner at Vickie's and JC's.  I felt very blessed that my sister Sue was here for Thanksgiving, and this year she didn't have to cook dinner for me! The holidays were wonderful here, but ready to get back to normal.



Girl talk
Sue and I with JC
more girl alk
Matt with the guys.  Look, he actually had to wear jeans that day!

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Both Sides of Mexico


We love it here.  I think that's obvious from all our post.  So first I'm starting with all the wonderful adventures we've had this past month.

Halloween in Mexico - I guess it really wasn't much of a holiday here until the gringos came.  But these little Mexican kids are smart, so they decided to capitalize on an opportunity to get more candy.  The kids, with their parents, hit the street about 6:00.  Seems that most were dressed as vampires but we had a few little Elsa's in there as well.  I was walking the dogs when they first started their trick or treating.  Every group that saw me would holler out "Happy Halloween!"  Evidently they were well coached in that little bit of English.

For the last few years, the gringos in Ajijic have participated in the world-wide Thriller dance.  From different locations throughout the world, people dress in their best zombie attire and the groups perform at the exact same time.  Seems to be very popular here in Ajijic.  The dancers work for about a month ahead of time practicing their best MJ moves.  But for us non-zombies, it's a great excuse to gather in the Ajijic plaza, have a couple of margaritas and try to pick out which zombies you know.  Weather was beautiful, as usual, and it was a great time.  Here's a aYoutube I found - Matt made a little video but this one is from a better vantage point.


Dia de Muertos (Day of the Dead) is becoming one of our favorite celebrations.  It's celebrated on November 2nd so right after Halloween.  With the skeletons hanging from every home and business, I always thought it was Mexico's version of Halloween.  But that isn't the case.  To me, it's more like our memorial day except with a bigger connection to honoring and remembering the loved ones who have passed on.  Families create beautiful alters at their homes honoring their departed family members.  The alters always include a photo and the favorite things of the deceased (think tequila, their favorite smokes and sweets).  Marigolds are the flower for this celebration and the alters are decorated thousands of marigold petals.The parking lot of the cemetery just down the street from us began filling up before 8:00 a.m.  I saw families walking toward the cemetery all day caring huge wreaths.  And it's not just a drop off the flowers and go have some barbecue kind of day.  The families spend the entire day together at the cemetery celebrating and remembering.

A group of estudiantinas
terrace on our Guanajuato house
November 6th we left for our long awaited trip to Guanajuato with Vern and Kathleen.  It was a beautiful, and uneventful three-hour drive.  Our house was in the center of the city on a beautiful plaza.  Until we moved to Mexico, I felt the only spots of interest were the beautiful beach towns.  What you miss until you explore the central part of Mexico and the incredible colonial towns!  The home we stayed in was over 200 years old and thoroughly enchanting.  It was on the second level with beautiful views down into the plaza and up into the hills.  We were so fortunate as there was a full moon and we spent some time in the evenings on our plant filled terrace watching the moon rise over the mountains.  Our first full day there we hired our property manager to take us on an all day tour of the city - which was amazing.  Our last full day there we walked the city on our own (15,000 steps on my pedometer!).  The city is known for it's music and there was plenty of it.  From one of the main plazas, you can hook up with a strolling minstrel group.  These estudiantinas work throughout the day to sell tickets to their performance.  For $100 pesos, you join the group as they walk through the narrow streets of Guanajuato singing and entertaining.  The group joins along in singing, although it's all in Spanish so we didn't have much to contribute.  We were the only gringos in the group, but well accepted.  Our group of estudiantinas handed out little pottery jugs to fill with orange juice (although we along with the rest of the group had a little bottle of tequila to use instead).  Matt took a ton of pictures - and sorry but it was hard for me to judge which were the best so I'm posting almost all of them.
Looking up at our house from the plaza














View of the dining area of our house











Looking up through our open courtyard














our beautiful living room














looking down into the plaza



















another shot of the plaza




our terrace
courtyard











Kathleen and I couldn't resist taking a glass of wine down to the courtyard























one of the many churches in town

















the alter





















!
a beautiful Guanajuato street dog - Matt did not understand why I wanted this pic


















Me and my sweetie!
























watching to full moon rise from our terrace

a typical street in Guanajuato
in the cemetery all the plots were still decorated from Dia de Muertos



















A large group following the estudiantinas through our courtyard














We also have visitors from home!  My sister Susan, niece Niki and her little boy Gunner came to visit us!  It was a great time to visit as they came during the Revolution Day celebration.  We were able to take Gunner to the parade in Chapala which was lots of fun.  We spent one entire day in Guad at the zoo, which was a big hit.  Gunner loved it and Niki thought it was much better than the KC zoo.  We loved the air tram ride over the entire zoo, but our favorite attraction was the safari ride where we were able to feed the giraffes.

one of the cuties in the parade

Gunner and his new best friend, Uncle Matt






























Another highlight of their visit was Mazamitla.  Matt and I had been there last year and loved this little mountain pueblo on the south side of Lake Chapala.  It's known as the Little Switerzerland of Mexico.  This year we were there right after their Revolution Day parade and there were lots of families in the square.  We had a nice lunch and then went to the water fall.  Wow!  It was gorgeous.  The area we drove through to get toward the waterfall looked liked it was directly from a Disney movie!  There were beautiful little cottages perched on hill sides, the lawns were perfectly groomed, and the hydrangeas were in full bloom.  Gorgeous!  And so was the waterfall we hiked to.

So after all these busy days, Niki and Gunner left on Friday.  Matt, Sue and I are ready for a little relaxing, more leisurely mornings and lots of adult beverages.  But we do miss little Gunner waking up every morning yelling for Uncle Matt!  But poor little Buster doesn't miss him much - Gunner thought Buster was a bad boy!  Sue will be with us for another week!


hiking to the waterfall

lunch in Mazamitla




Niki and Gunner hiking to the waterfall

Matt and I at the bottom of the waterfall

Matt reflecting at the bottom of the waterfall

Royals Fans!

Sue and me, ready for a girls night!

So, despite all these wonderful experiences here's the tragedy.  Forty three college students are missing, and presumed dead, from the state of Guerrero.  Evidently they had been involved in protests and the corrupt mayor of the state they were living felt the protests would interfere with a social engagement his wife was involved in.  They were picked up by the police and then handed over the narcos.  Protests have been on-going throughout Mexico protesting this horrific crime.  Some of the protests were violent, but many more are peaceful. The general theme of these protests is to ask for the resignation of the President, as he appointed this Mayor.  I found this Youtube video of a protest this week in Guadalajara.  



This is a heartbreaking event and has deeply affected our Mexican friends and neighbors  Hopefully something good will come from this tragedy, but hard to see what that could possibly be.