Snowballs and Turkeys.....in Mexico??

We are currently working on designing a watershed management plan for a watershed in the southwesten corner of the state of Queretaro. So this Sunday we had a trip out to the watershed, but encountered a bit of unusual weather. We got hit with a decent sized hail storm, possibly the biggest one I’ve even been in, and within 20 min the ground was covered enough to actually look like snow. We even had a snowball (or ice ball depending on how you look at it) fight. Later we ended up in a small town to try and conduct some interviews and ran into a large flock of turkeys. Who knew that the days leading up to Thanksgiving in Mexico would be so similar to those in the US…..

San Miguel de Allende

On Saturday I went to San Miguel de Allende, a town in the state of Guanajuato that has become a major destination for North Americans. A lot of Americans are currently building homes there along with some other oddities like a retirement ranch for old burros. It’s another town with a picturesque city center, lots of churches, and a large botanic garden with many native cactus species. Not too much more to say about it but here’s some picts…..

Guanajuato

This weekend Janet and I took a weekend trip to the cities of Leon (leather and shoe capital of Mexico) and Guanajuato. We went to Leon Saturday morning en-route to Guanajuato to see the shoe markets and a little bit about the shoe industry. That’s about it for Leon, but Guanajuato is an amazing city. It is an old silver mining town that is nestled in a valley. This basically gives the town three layers: (1) the old mining tunnels under the city are now used for most of the car and bus traffic, (2) the main/center part of town, and (3) the rest of the houses that are build ascending the valley walls on two sides of the city.

The city is also the birthplace of Diego Rivera and his boyhood home is now a museum that contains sketches for his murals and of Frida, as well as water colors and other paintings. There is also a unique tradition that was imported from Spain. During the weekend nights, there is a group of students from the university, called the Estudiantinos, walk through the streets dress in medieval Spanish dress playing traditional musical instruments, telling jokes, singing, and passing out wine to the crowd that gathers to follow them through the streets. There is also a “Romeo and Juliet” story that takes place in the callejon de beso (alley of the kiss) where the street is so narrow and the balconies of the houses are so close, that two forbidden lovers were able to kiss from their respective houses.

Guanajuato also has unique soil that creates natural mummies. In Mexico, it is very common to only bury someone for 6 years, after this 6 years the body is removed, cremated, and the site in the cemetery is rented to someone else. When this occurred in Guanajuato though, it was discovered that with the combination of minerals in the soil and a very dry climate, the bodies being removed were fully mummified and many are now on display in the museum of the mummies. They even go so far as to sell mummy shaped candies. All in all a good weekend away from Queretaro and first experience with the Mexican bus system. This week things are pretty much back to normal with Spanish classes, training, and working on our technical project that is an assessment of a nearby watershed……

Dia de los Muertos

Día de los Muertos was celebrated on November 1^st and 2^nd. The 1^st is the day to recognize children that have died and the 2^nd is for all the others who have died. The main day is the 2^nd and this is when families travel to the cemetery to clean and place flowers on the grave. Many times families will spend the entire day at the grave site eating and playing music (mariachi bands are at the cemeteries).

Another part of this tradition is the creation of an altar in the home, to help the soul find its way back, complete with the deceased’s favorite foods, drinks, sweets, and even clothing or memento of a favorite futbol team. We constructed on of these in school, but an incident with papel picado (tissue paper cut into various designs with skeletons) and a candle led to a burnt wall and a torched picture of the deceased. The city constructed a huge altar in Plaza de Armas which was dedicated to two brothers important in the revolution (the bicentennial is in 2008).

All things sugar are also an important aspect of the holiday (they are placed on some altars, especially those honoring children and additionally are consumed in mass quantities by children). Sugar skulls (calaveras) are the most widely constructed, but there are also fruit, animals, and coffins made entirely from sugar. Pan de muertos (bread of the dead) is also widely eaten.

Race Day

Last Sunday I got to run my first Mexican race. It’s pretty much the same as a race in the US except (1) they play the Mexican national anthem (2) there are virtually no women (3) you have to run on cobblestones for quite a while and (4) all the markers are in km. This one was a 12.5 km race. The other interesting thing that occurred is that at one point in the race you’re running down a fairly large road which is closed to traffic, except they decided to let buses and trucks continue driving on it. So all the runners are on the far left side of the road with some traffic coming down the middle and the right. This would be fine except for the fact that they placed the water station on the far right side so anyone who wanted water had to dash between traffic to get water and return to the other side. As you might imagine this made for some close calls on the road. There were 5 in our group that decided to run.