Day of the Dead 2022

At last, things are almost back to normal in San Miguel de Allende, and we were able to celebrated El Día de los Muertos in great style.  The origins of the holiday are ancient.  From the History Channel website: "The roots of the Day of the Dead, celebrated in contemporary Mexico and among those of Mexican heritage in the United States and around the world, go back some 3,000 years, to the rituals honoring the dead in pre-Columbian Mesoamerica.  The Aztecs and other Nahua people living in what is now central Mexico held a cyclical view of the universe, and saw death as an integral, ever-present part of life."

The Aztecs honored the dead for an entire month in August, but when the Spanish came to Mexico, the Catholic Church moved the celebrations to November 1st and 2nd to coincide with All Saints Day and All Souls Day.  On the 1st, the spirits of children are allowed to visit their families for 24 hours and the same happens for adults on the 2nd.  

In addition to the skulls and other symbols and rituals used over the years, the Catrinas and Catrins were added to the celebrations.  Catrinas, modeled after cartoons drawn in 1910 by Mexican illustrator Jose Guadalupe Posada and later incorporated into a huge mural by Diego Rivera, were satirical jabs at upper-crust Mexicans and their obsession with European high society.  Tom Wolfe's skeletal "social x-ray" bears a striking resemblance to a Catrina.

This year we were able to take a tour with a guide who explained the rituals to us and took us to special places around town.  Our first stop was the crypt under the local parish church, the beautiful and famous Parroquia de San Miguel Arcángel.  The crypt is open only one day each year on November 1, so we were delighted to go inside.  It is a fairly large chamber with many tombs where several heroes of the revolution and members of prominent families are buried. There are large tombs under the floor and small ones in the walls.

Click on photos for larger versions. Crypt: Table is directly under the altar above

Many tombs line the walls

Several priests who died during the revolution are behind this wall

 We were treated to bells at the Parroquia. Play the video to listen.

There were lots of decorations around town in addition to the many doorways surrounded by garlands.

Bright flags flew over the streets

Workers placing marigolds, the symbol of Day of the Dead, around a monument   Garlands around doors. This shop is advertising makeup for Catrinas

One of the most important rituals for this holiday is the building of ofrendas.  These are shrines to 
the departed and must include photos as well as the favorite foods of the deceased.  They can be inside people's homes or like this one, on the steps of the home.

A large ofrenda outside the home

Favorite food of the departed

The very old cemetery, Antiguo Cementerio de San Juan de Dios, is sometimes opened for Day of the Dead, but for some reason, it wasn't open when our tour went there.  The cemetery is no longer in use, but if you have an ancestor buried there, you can get permission to enter.  I took one photo through the gate.

Lots of marigolds decorating the graves

On both November 1st and 2nd, the area around the Jardin, the central garden, was filled with makeup artists painting people's faces for the evening Catrina Parades.  Some of the designs were quite lovely.

I did my own makeup, but my husband, Erich, had his done at one of the booths.

A Quick Visit to Mexico City

My husband, Erich, had to travel to Mexico City (Ciudad de México-CDMX) in order to receive his Certificate of Citizenship and finish applying for his Austrian passport.  As a descendent of Holocaust victims and survivors, he recently became eligible for Austrian citizenship.  Maybe he will write a guest post to tell the whole amazing story.

Travel - We decided to go a couple of days early before his appointment to enjoy the city and the wonderful food, so on Tuesday, October 4th, we caught the 10am Primera Plus luxury bus from San Miguel de Allende, where we live, to the CDMX Norte bus station arriving on schedule, a trip of 3 hours and 35 minutes.  The sanitarios (bathrooms) at the station cost 6 pesos and you must go through a turnstile to get in, making it impossible to go through with luggage.  We took turns while one watched our bags in the busy station, then called for an Uber which arrived about 6 or 7 minutes later.  Uber works very well in Mexico City, often taking only 5 to 10 minutes to arrive, and is safer than hailing a pink and white taxi from the street.  Although most of the time the ubiquitous and inexpensive taxis are OK, there have been incidents of cab drivers taking passengers out of their way to be robbed by their accomplices.  Rather than hailing cabs on the street, it is better to take one from a taxi stand or have your hotel order one.  This article contains lots of good information about using taxis throughout Mexico and in CDMX: About taxis

Hotel - It took exactly half an hour to get to our hotel, the Sheraton Four Points, ( Four Points ) in the Roma neighborhood (Roma) and the Uber ride cost only 119 pesos, about $6 USD.  The hotel is plain but more than adequate and is in a fabulous location within an easy walk to many of the best restaurants in Roma.  We don't like to spend money on hotels because, usually, we don't spend much time in them, so for only $122 USD per night, this place was a great deal.  The room and beds were very comfortable, the shower was exquisite, and the LED mirror in the bathroom was so flattering that I was tempted to stay longer to admire myself. (Addresses for places mentioned can be found at the end of the post.) 

CDMX - With a population of over 22 million, CDMX is the largest city in North America followed by New York and Los Angeles. (Mexico City) It is large in area as well, and with the awful traffic, it takes a lot of time to get from place to place.  But it is also beautiful, at least in the parts of the city we have visited, Condesa, Roma and Lomas de Chapultepec. It is the greenest city we have ever seen. Parks are everywhere, filled with giant trees and all kinds of plants.  Many of the streets are park-like with tall trees on each side and/or on a strip in the center.  In addition to the trees, planters along the sidewalks and vines growing up walls provide even more greenery. (Click on photos for larger versions)

One of many parks

A typical street in Roma

Restaurant expanded onto street

You can find almost anything you want in the puestos (market stalls) along some streets including hardware items:

Fresh produce

Preparing cactus-removing spines

Hardware

Chilangos (Mexico City residents) find various ways to cope with traffic and parking.  We saw a lot of bike lanes on the streets.

Bikes

Double-decker parking

The rainy weather and thunderstorms caused us to forego planned trips to the seafood market, the second largest in the world after Tokyo and to the Floating Gardens of Xochimilco. We'll see those next time. Instead we went to the National Museum of History, Chapultepec Castle.  (Castle Museum) Situated in a spectacular location high on a hill overlooking the city, the grounds and museum are well worth a visit.  None of the informational labels are in English and since this was a spur-of-the-moment visit, we didn't know how to find an English-speaking guide or one of the recorded guides.  As we were leaving, we found the gift shop and bought a book with translations of all the wall and object labels. We will take it next time. (The gift shop is in the Castle, to the left of the main entrance, but is not well marked.)

Seniors are admitted for free but you must go to the ticket office first, then take the long walk up the hill, or as we discovered as we were leaving, you can take an elevator to the top.  Who knew???

Very pretty but long uphill walk to castle

Food - Mexico City is paradise for food lovers and virtually any cuisine is available. For our first meal after arriving, we went to Rosetta for a late lunch and sat outside on a platform built on the street, something we saw many times in Roma and also in Condesa during an earlier trip. (Restaurante Rosetta)The menu is sort of Italian, famous for their fresh pasta, but the dishes were delightfully creative. We started with cocktails, a Lush 2 for Erich (Aqua vit, honey, suero de noche-sweet milk whey), and a Vita Sociale (gin, guayaba, Campari, sweet vermouth) for me. Both were excellent.

For a starter we shared a flavorful and different salad of green tomatoes, molasses, eggplant and Ocosingo cheese (a cheese specialty of Chiapas).  

Salad

I had the tortelloni, hoja santa (herb in the pepper family) and smoked quesillo (cheese from Oaxaca) while Erich had the tagliatelle with Italian sausage and chile de árbol. For dessert, I had pears with elderflowers and tarragon ice cream while Erich enjoyed fresh herbs with olive oil and rosemary ice cream . Everything was delicious.

Tortelloni

Tagliatelle and Erich

Pears

Herbs and rosemary ice cream

After that amazing lunch we didn't need any dinner, so later in the evening we went to El Moro Churreria, a little place offering churros (fried dough with sugar coating), hot chocolate and coffee.  It was mobbed with a line outside on the sidewalk but was definitely worth the short wait. (El Moro) has  numerous locations but we went to the one in Roma Norte at Frontera 122, just a few steps from our hotel, and sat outside enjoying our churros and hot chocolate.

Interior seating

Dipping the churros in sugar

Man cranking out the churros

The Rosetta restaurant has a very popular annex bakery, Panadería Rosetta, on the other side of the street so we went there for breakfast the next day. We sat out in the open area on the street and feasted on delicious pastries and coffee. 

Rosetta Panadería

Dinner that night was at Umai, a lovely and highly-rated but expensive Japanese restaurant.  Because CDMX has so much fresh fish available at the huge market, we felt safe sampling sushi. The Zen garden was terrific until the rain came down forcing folks to retreat inside.  I was so busy talking and eating that I forgot to take photos of the food.

Zen Garden at Umai

Breakfast the next morning was at Lalo, a recommended breakfast spot. ( Lalo) Erich had the acai bowl - granola with fruit to start. He followed it with huevos revueltos con escamoles y salsa verde (scrambled eggs with escamoles and green sauce).  Escamoles are the larvae and pupae of ants, something consumed in the area since the Aztecs were in residence.  He liked it! I played it safe with chilaquiles, done differently than other versions I have had.  Excellent, as were the capuccinos and orange juice.

Huevos and Escamoles

Chilaquiles

Still trying to get our fix of Japanese cuisine, we had dinner at Mog Bistro. (Mog) We liked the food there better than Umai and it was MUCH less expensive. (Menu) The menu is huge with every kind of wonderful Japanese dish that you can imagine.  We will definitely go back again.

Chashu Men Picante

Dragon Roll and Sumibi Moriawase

Spicy Maguro Roll

Finally, the meeting with the Austrian Ambassador took place on the morning of October 7 in the ultra- exclusive area called Lomas de Chapultepec, an area of embassies and huge homes, lovely tree-lined streets, and high-end shops and restaurants.  The Ambassador, Dr. Elizabeth Kehrer, was delightful and spent quite a bit of time with us as she presented Erich with his Certificate of Citizenship.  She welcomed Erich to citizenship, said the Embassy would be his home if he ever needed it, and  apologized for Austria's role in the war. She hoped the new citizenship program would be a start to making amends.

What a wonderful few days!!!

Problems - We had only two problems.  In the middle of one day, hailed what we thought was a regular taxi on the street.  The driver spoke rapidly in Spanish as we got in but we couldn't understand him so we kept saying, "No entiendo" (I don't understand) and "no hablo español" (I don't speak Spanish).  He proceeded to drive off, and only then did we notice there was no meter in the car. We expected to be charged more than the typical rate, however, when he demanded over 550 pesos for a 17-minute drive, about $27 USD, we rebelled and refused to pay him.  (The half hour ride from the bus station cost only 119 pesos.) After yelling back and forth, we insisted on calling the police.  It's doubtful they would have come and probably wouldn't have done anything, but it worked.  When he saw that we weren't going to give in, he accepted the 200 pesos that Erich flung at him. It was still an overcharge, but he unlocked the doors and let us out.  Moral of the story: if you hail a cab on the street, make sure it is pink and white.  This car was all white.  We should have found a place where we could wait for an Uber.

The other problem involved Uber.  Cars had appeared so quickly during our visit that we thought calling at 3pm would be plenty early to make a 5:15pm bus.  Wrong.  There were no cars available at any price until much too late.  Fortunately, our hotel called for a private car and we got to the station in plenty of time and paid only 200 pesos during rush hour.  The moral of this story: make arrangements far in advance for rush hour trips, especially on Fridays.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Contact information.  All restaurants were short walks to our hotel:

Sheraton Four Points hotel, Av. Álvaro Obregón 38, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700

Churrería El Moro, Frontera 122, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 

Panadería Rosetta. Colima 179, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 

Restaurante Rosetta Colima 166, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 

Umai Japanese Restaurant, Colima 159, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 

Lalo cafe, Zacatecas 173, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700 

Mog Japanese Restaurant, Frontera 168, Roma Nte., Cuauhtémoc, 06700

Los Vagabundos trip to Oaxaca

We used to scoff at bus trips, but after traveling to Oaxaca on David (pronounced Da-veed) Rico's Los Vagabundos trip, we are converts.  The long trip to Oaxaca was broken up into two parts with an overnight in Puebla along the way.  On the second day we passed through some rugged, mountainous scenery on Highway 135D.  (Click for larger photos-best viewed on laptop or desktop computer)

Just a couple of hours outside Oaxaca, David was notified that the garbage collectors and other municipal employees were on strike because they had not received their aguinaldo, the bonus of two weeks pay that all employees in Mexico are entitled to receive by December 20th.  Because they didn't get theirs, they struck on the 21st, and the garbage workers used their trucks to block all entrances to the city.  There was no way for our bus to get through, so David organized a fleet of taxis to meet us inside the barricades.  We hiked a few blocks, and then the taxis whisked us to our hotel taking a very bizarre route to avoid more roadblocks.  We are very glad we were not doing this trip on our own because we would have had no idea what was going on or what to do about it.  Our luggage miraculously appeared in our hotel room later that evening after being hand-carried through the blockade and loaded onto a truck.

We had a fabulous dinner, including an insect course, that night to celebrate my birthday.  See previous post for details.

Our first side trip was to Mitla, a pre-Columbian archaeological site which was an important religious site for the Zapotec people.  It is about 44 kilometers from Oaxaca City and is located in the town of San Pablo Villa de Mitla.  Mitla was still occupied and active when the Spanish arrived.

The geometric designs covering the buildings are intricate and found at no other site in Mexico.  They are made of small stone pieces put together without mortar.  Missing areas cannot be restored because, according to our guide, no one has been able to figure out how it was done.  Originally, the buildings were red in color providing a bright background for the decorations.

After Mitla, we went to Teotitlan del Valle, famous for its excellent wool weaving.  As seems to be typical in Mexico, the entire town is devoted to this craft and weaving workshops abound.  We enjoyed the visit to The Bug in the Rug workshop and gallery, home of J. Isaac Vasquez and Family, the oldest weaving family in town.  The founder of this business has been featured in several books.  This workshop does everything by hand from carding the wool to weaving and uses all pre-Hispanic natural dyes. We were given a demonstration of how the dyes are created from various plants and minerals.  Of course we did some shopping afterwards purchasing two small rugs and a wall hanging.

Dye materials

Work in progress

Next it was on to the town of Santa Maria del Tule to see the famous tree, a Montezuma cypress that is the stoutest tree in the world with a diameter of more than 30 feet.  It is over 116 feet high and towers over the church next to it. Tourists flock to this town with its well-manicured park to see it.The next morning we headed for Monte Albán, a massive pre-Columbian archaeological site on a high, artificially leveled ridge looking down on the city of Oaxaca.  It was one of the earliest cities in Mesoamerica and for about one thousand years was the social, political and economic center of the Zapotec civilization.  It is truly magnificent, but we were sad that the museum was closed due to Covid restrictions.

Overlooking Oaxaca

Unexcavated building

The Sunken Plaza

Our guide Antonio explaining

The Main Plaza

In the afternoon we headed for San Bartolo Coyotepec, a town famous for its black pottery.  A demonstration at the Doña Rosa workshop showed how the clay is transformed by hand into pots and objects of all kinds. A bit more shopping was required, naturally.

The pot we bought

As an extra side trip, some of us went to San Martin Tilcajete, another craft town famous for alebrijes, beautifully, intricately painted fantastical wooden animals.  We watched a demonstration about the wood used and the natural dyes at the workshop of Jocobo and María Ángeles, and then walked through the building seeing how the objects are made.  

In a brilliant marketing ploy, we were each told, based on our birth date, what our spirit protector animal is, so of course, we had to buy them.  Mine is a coyote and Erich's is a turtle.

At another workshop owned by David Hernandez and family, we bought a wonderful praying mantis.  All of the legs, wings and antennae come off making it easy to pack.

While we enjoyed our trip to Oaxaca and nearby communities, we did not see Oaxaca at its best.  Because of the strike, there was garbage all over the city and a lot of places we wanted to visit, including the cultural museum, were closed because of Covid.  The Radish Festival, which was supposed to be one of the highlights of the trip, was cancelled because participants couldn't get past the barricades.  My husband was very disappointed that our all-day tour of artisanal mescal producers was cancelled because our guide didn't know how to get into the city.  Erich had to console himself with buying some special mescal at a store called In Situ Mescaleria.

On our way back to Puebla we were treated to views of Pico de Orizaba, an inactive volcano and the highest peak in Mexico and close to Puebla, Popocatépetl, an active volcano, was smoking.  The iPhone photos from the moving bus leave something to be desired.

All in all, a good trip.