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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.