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.
