Dia de la Virgin Guadalupe

The Virgin Guadalupe may be the most popular religious image in Mexico. Her feast day is celebrate on the 12 of December and commemorates her appearance on a hill outside of Mexico City in 1531. Her church, the Basilica of Our Virgin Guadalupe is the 2nd most visited Roman Catholic Shrine. Thousands of pilrims make the treck to the basilica in the weeks surrounding her day. Borrowed from Wikipedia..... The Mexican novelist Carlos Fuentes once said that "...one may no longer consider himself a Christian, but you cannot truly be considered a Mexican unless you believe in the Virgin of Guadalupe."

So I was in Queretaro for the 2nd year on this day and all the festivites take place directly around the Church of the Virgin Guadalupe. There are food stands, music, and eventually a large firework display with one of the firework towers that actually displays a flaming image of the virgin.

La Cruz Market....late night

All the vols from my group had to go back to Queretaro for our “Midservice” conference, which is basically a time right around the 1 year mark where you have a bunch of medical appointments, meetings, interviews, and Spanish classes. Basically a check-in to make sure everything is ok. It was a good chance to spend some more time in Queretaro and get back to one of my favorite places, the La Cruz market, that is a normal market during the day, but at night has a back section that is open just with food stalls.





This is one of the lanterns that are strung up everywhere for Christmas.

The yellow hacienda.....finally

The whole time we were in training in Queretaro, there was a poster of a bright yellow hacienda hanging by one of the women’s bathrooms. While there was never any time to actually figure out where it was and go see it while we were in Queretaro, this past weekend was finally my chance to go see it. The only problem was I didn’t know the name or exactly where it was in the municipio (county) of Pedro Escobedo. So we got to the town of Pedro Escobedo hoping that showing the picture of it would lead to an easy answer, but apparently there are a lot of old haciendas in the area and people that live there weren’t all that familiar with which one was in which town (or the most important thing, which one was yellow). We finally got it narrowed down to two choices, San Cirilo or Escolasticas, and as we can down the hill into the tiny town of San Cirilo, there was the yellow hacienda beeming in the afternoon sun light. So now that we had finally found the hacienda, there was another slight complication, apparently it is only open during the week. We were lucky though and the owners were away when we got there so the housekeep stood watch for their pick-up truck while we quickly snuck in the yard for a closer look.

There were piles and piles of ears of corn scattered around the patio drying in the sun.

There wasn’t much to see in the actual town of Pedro Escobedo, but of course there was a pretty church and even a fountain with a huge ear of corn.

Sunday we went to the Regional Museum in Queretaro and later even got to watch part of the Bear’s game.

More from the state of Guanajuato

Last Wednesday I had to return to Queretaro for a group reconnect meeting (basically to make sure things are ok alter the first 4-6 months). It was nice to be back in Queretaro and amazing to see how clean it is compared to Puebla. Plus I can never pass up a stop at my favorite food stall in the market, which might have the cheapest beer in all of Mexico (25 pesos for a liter of indio) and the best alambres (chorizo, bistek, onions, cheese, and peppers all mixed on a grill and served with tortillas and salsa).

So for this past weekend’s travel I was pretty much in the state of Guanajuato. From Queretaro I went north to San Jose Iturida and then to a small town called Mineral los Pozos. This is a tiny town that back in the 1850’s was well populated due to its prosperous mines. However, when the mining creased, so did the town’s population. In recent years there has been a small push to begin developing the town as a tourist attraction (addition of 2 upscale hotels), but for now it remains relatively small and a little isolated (last bus to anywhere leaves at 7). You walk down the main streets and they are abandoned, decaying stone buildings all over. We no problems just wandering into them. There are also some old churches that have been overtaken by cactus and dust. On the main plaza in town we wandered into what might have been the only bar in town, complete with swinging doors, walls adorned with black and white photos of the Mexican Revolution, and a bartender with a long white beard, cowboy hat, and a vest make out of snake skin and leather.

From Pozos we caught the bus to San Luis de la Paz, a cute little town with a nice colonial center, and surprise surprise a couple pretty churches. The next morning we back tracked south towards Queretaro and then headed west towards Celaya and finally Valle de Santiago. After a little too much time on a 3^rd class bus (think dirt road and no suspension for 1hr 45 min), we finally arrived in Valle, home of the 7 luminarias, or 7 volcanic craters. One of the craters is just on the edge of town and has houses built up the side of it. After a quick stop at the craters it was time to head back on the 1.45 hr bus trip to Celaya followed by an hour to Queretaro followed by 3 hours to Mexico City and then 2 hours back to Puebla.

December in Queretaro

Lots to report since the last update. I’ve been super busy trying to finish everything up before the end of training, but as of the 19th I am officially a volunteer and as of the 20th I’m officially on vacation until I have to report to Puebla on the 4th of January. So here’s the summary of the last couple weeks…. We visited two different children’s homes (orphanages more or less) and brought Christmas things and piñatas (piñatas are traditionally used in Mexico during Christmas).
December 12 is the day of the Virgin Guadalupe (this is the patron saint of Mexico) and the day is capped off by masses, fireworks, and other festivities. The church is the picture below is the church of the Virgin Guadalupe in Queretaro and the metal structure is the firework tower for later in the night. There was also day of the payasos (clowns) in December. Also, around Christmas time, many posadas are held. These are basically a type of Christmas party and have a piñata. Unfortunately for me my attempts at actually hitting the piñata were fairly unsuccessful, although as can be seen in the picture, the piñata was a little high.

I also spent a day and a night in a small town in the state of Guanajuato called Apaseo el Alto. Not a whole lot going on in this town, but it was nice to spend some time outside of Queretaro, in a small town, and without any other gringos or tourists to be seen. There was supposed to be a huge old convent somewhere on the outskirts of town (as seen on the towns website), yet someone not a single person in town had heard of it or knew where it was…..

Then finally, on the 19th, we had our official swearing ceremony. Our host families, some of the heads of the SEMARNAT offices (unfortunately no one from Puebla could make it), our Spanish teachers, and officials from the embassy were in attendance. After the ceremony, there were tacos and a mariachi band. Still awaiting the official pictures, but the one below is me with my host mom.

That is about it for now. I’m headed out of vacation for ~10 days to visit Zacatecas, Morelia, and Pazcuaro. Happy Holidays!

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…..

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.

Sierra Gorda

This past week we took a group field trip to the Sierra Gorda region located in the north eastern part of the state of Queretaro. This area is extremely mountainous and sparsely populated. There are several medium sized towns, but the rest of the people (for the most part) are dispersed in smaller communities throughout the area.

Day 1:

We set off in a caravan from the city of Queretaro with a small bus/van thing, and several other cars. We got to have our 1^st encounter with the Mexican military and a machine gun as they have check points on various roads to search cars for drugs and weapons, everything went smoothly though. From there we spent some time on an oregano cooperative and got to see where they collect oregano from (grows wild so it is not cultivated). Our next stop was a community of about 50 people on top of a mountain ~8,000 ft high. The road was a little rough, to put it lightly, and we had some issues with all the vehicles making it up to the top, but we eventually made it just in time to see the clouds, fog, and rain roll in to completely cover the view that the place is known for. Some of us did hike up to the scenic view after lunch, and between clouds were able to see why people would venture up that far. Our next stop was Jalpan, where we were based out of for the next several days, but the drive took a little longer than expected since the road pretty much disappeared for the majority of the drive down into the valley.

Day 2:

In preparation for this field trip we were told that this area was always hot. Well guess what, we hit a cold front. Tuesday was cold and rainy which left a slight glitch in the schedule since we were supposed to take a hike that involved crossing a river at several points, but with all the rain the river was a little too high to safely cross. Instead we crossed one of those long, wobbly, pedestrian bridges that you get ½ way across and really start to question the intelligence of your decision. We also went to an aquaculture site to see tilapia (which we ended up eating for lunch later), tomato fields, a tree nursery, and got to drive the vehicles through the river.

Day 3:

This morning we got to wander around a market in Jalpan and then headed farther north in the Sierra Gorda to an town called San Juan de los Duran. En route we stopped at a mission (Sierra Gorda is famous for its numerous, beautiful missions), a ceramics factory, ate lunch in a field, and stopped at a carpentry shop where we had some arts and crafts time. Wednesday night we stayed in cabins (with bunk beds) in the reserve and even had a campfire complete with marshmallows (although warning if anyone is planning on buying Mexican marshmallows….it is impossible to find a bag that is not mixed with pink and white ones and the pinks ones are definitely strawberry flavored and are not so great roasted over a fire).

Day 4:

We went on a hike this morning to see the destruction caused by the pine bark beetle and the management strategies currently in place. Then later we saw the opening of a community run ecolodge/campground which was complete with live local music and dancing. We also got to try this food that looks like the world’s largest tamale (think the size of 4 or 5 footballs), but then gets opened and served from. When we finally returned to Jalpan we had a final dinner next to a large reservoir that is there and had Mexican corn on the cob for the 1^st time (called elote), although I’ll admit I skipped the mayonnaise on mine and only had chili powder.

Day 5:

After walking around the reservoir (same as the night before) and killing some time while a tire got repaired we headed off to go for a hike to a 30 m waterfall. Then we went to the town of Pinal de Amoles where we arrived knowing the name of the place where we were supposed to have lunch, but not the location. Seeing that the town was very small we figured that we would have no problems just asking around, it seems that that strategy only works if the name of the restaurant is correct to begin with. We finally found it, ate (great mole), and then headed back to Queretaro. All in all it was a great week. I failed to mention some of the funnier stories like (1) the night at the cabins someone got up to go to the bathroom and crawled back into the wrong bed when she returned (2) dinner was pretty much in the dark the last night and some grabbed and ate an uncooked ear of corn (3) dinner was also pretty much in the dark on the 3^rd night and numerous people at the very hard shell of some type of squash that was served for desert. Guess that’s about it for now.