Goodbye to Metztitlan

We had a nice long weekend thanks to Día de la Revolución (which actually falls on 20 of Nov, but a gov’t rules moves all holidays to the Monday of the same week) and so with Janet’s upcoming change, we decided to head out to Metztitlan for one last weekend. While some other people that decided to come were stranded on the highway for up to 2 hours or stuck on second class buses that stopped so the drive could eat, I had my fastest, least interesting trip ever. Saturday we “toured” the normal sites of Metztitlan in the morning: convent, cemetery (still filled with flowers from day of the dead), and the cactus sanctuary.

The cactus with the white hair are called viejitos (which means little old men). Some of the ones in the cactus sanctuary in Metztitlan are more than 300 years old.

This is me with a biznaga.

courtsey of Jen (thank you)

At 3, we got invited by Janet’s host family for esquite. Esquite is a corn dish cooked in a big pot (sometimes with chicken too) and then lime and mayo (and sometimes cheese) are added to it. It was the perfect food to be eating as the cold started setting in.

Somewhere between esquite and several tequilas and squirt, the carnival masks were brought out. In Metztitlan, for carnival, there is a day-long dance that is preformed that winds through the town with all the dancers wearing masks (and yes it is hot) and dancing to Huapango music. Janet’s host dad is one of the dancers that endures this hot, 12+ hour long tradition and before long he (as well as a few of us later) were running around in some very very frightening masks.

Sunday, after a breakfast of barbacoa (sheep cooked in banana leaves in a pit in the ground), tamales, and quesadillas in the market, Janet’s host family was nice enough to load us up in their truck and take us to the laguna of Metztitlan, at the far end of the canyon. Before getting there we stopped at a high point on the road with incredible views of the canyon.

another incredible view....
Once we got to the lake, we were pleased to find that the migratory while pelicans that call the lake home from about November to May, had in fact returned. Just as the cold was starting to set in with the setting sun (and yes for those of you at home its probably a lot colder right now, but its still getting down to about freezing here at night without heat and with concrete and tile houses, so cut me some slack), we headed to the small town of San Cristóbal to see some ancient paintings on the rock walls of the canyon. By that point, the paintings didn’t really get their full deserved attention because we were so cold and already thinking about hot tea and blankets back at Janet’s place.

Metztitlan and Mexican Wrestling

Originally I was planning on taking a couple vacation days and heading back up to Ciudad Valles in San Luis Potosí for my 1st Mexican wedding, however on Wednesday when I was supposed to leave, Valles and all the highways leading into the city were underwater and impassable. So, changing plans, I ended up in Metztitlan, Hidalgo again to visit Janet. This was the last weekend of the Metztitlan fair, so there were a bunch of festivities taking place and the main plaza was filled with the normal fair booths, bread stands, and bands. I arrived on Friday night just in time for the fireworks in front of the church. As with most of the fireworks displays, it’s more like a flaming tower where the fireworks make designs or images (see earlier Queretaro entry in September for a video of this). The finale on the Friday night display was a rotating crown on top of the tower that read: Viva Metztitlan 2008.

The main event the next day was a lucha libre (free fight), which is Mexican wrestling featuring a lot of spandex, dancing girls, clowns, and the well-known luchador masks (anyone who saw Nacho Libre can fully understand this spectacle). So Janet and I went to our first lucha libre. This is pretty common in lager cities, for example Puebla has one every Monday night in the lucha libre arena, but it is rare in Metztitlan and took place outside in the bull fighting/rodeo ring. The pictures kinda speak for themselves on this one. And yes, that is a baby being fed Modelo….aka cheap Mexican beer.

Sunday we went for a little hike/walk, but unfortunately I had to leave before the final event of the fair, another rodeo. So here are some more images from Metztitlan.

Metztitlan, Hidalgo

Friday, for the first time, I got to actually leave the city of Puebla for work. Unfortunately it wasn’t for field work, but I did get to go to a ceremony to commemorate the start of a reforestation project sponsored by Volkswagon in the national park for Izta-Popo (two volcanoes, one dormant and one still active). So we got to spend the morning eating breakfast, listing to speeches, and some ceremonial tree planting with the 2 volcanoes as back drops.

Friday night I went to a small town (5,000 people) called Metztitlán which is in the state of Hidalgo to visit Janet, another person in my group. She has the most rural site of anyone in our group. Not really a whole lot going on in Metztitlán, but it is in the Barranca de Metztitlán which is a biosphere reserve (basically a natural protected area) and is gorgeous. The town is set in a valley so it is surrounded by mountains dotted with cactus. There is also a pretty convent and church (as there are in most Mexican towns). The weekend was fairly low-key, with a lot of catching up, some walks around town and up into the roads that lead out of the valley, sampling of some handmade tortillas, and catching a Metztitlán sunset from the roof of Janet’s apartment.

I live in the city, which most people would assume is pretty noisy, and while we do have the gas trucks and traffic in the mornings, it does not even begin to compare to the racket from the roosters (for cock fighting) next door to Janet’s apartment that begins at 3am every morning and never quiets down. Guess that is about it for now, Thursday marked the 6 month mark for the Mexican vacation.