Christmas Season in Arocutin

Papaya Christmas Star

A toast to Christmas - with my first taste of Mezcal at the beer festival the other day.  Strong - and not bad.  I definitely prefer it to Tequila.    (Some info on tequila, mezcal and pulque  can be found here) And another toast: with the rum balls my landlady & friend Georgia baked and gave to me.  Delicious!

I continue to see new birds all the time.  Here's a cutie, perched at the edge of my terrace:

Spotted Wren

I'm planning to explore more of the pueblos in the area.  To get a start, on Christmas eve day I walked to Tocuaro, the next village south of here.  On the way I stopped in at the church in my own village of Arocutin, where there's a lovely carved altar panel appropriate to the season:

(As I'm writing this, I'm enjoying glimpses of the hooded oriole that hangs out in the bushes in front of the house

and I can see a calf running up to it's mother to nurse in the pastures below, and pelicans swimming in the wetlands.)

As I walked along the old dirt road that parallels the new paved one,  gates in the hedges and stone walls opened up vistas to the mountains in the distance, with ever-changing foregrounds:

In Tocuaro I stopped in at the local church,

which was decorated nicely for Christmas:

As I wandered through the village I came upon a nice grassy lane that led me back toward Arocutin:

 Continuing home , I caught up with a walking stack of corn stalks,

carried by this hard-working guy:

Saw this handsome burro.  There are lots of them around here - and their braying makes me laugh!

 

 And as I walked back up into Arocutin, I was greeted with this  primitive image of the Virgin, carved into the clay embankment:

For dinner that afternoon I had been invited to Georgia's house. Along with her boyfriend Fernando and a young local family, we enjoyed a delicious turkey dinner with all the fixings.  What a treat on a Christmas day away from home!

That night there was a bit of fiesta in the pueblo, complete with marching band.  I was especially intrigued by these guys in sequined costumes with devil motifs. They led the band through the streets and danced a bit; perhaps they had a larger role after I left the festivities.

(I just took a break and had some little crispy corn tortillas with my own home-made salsa and guacamole and a little bottle of Dos Equis beer.  Getting into the Mexican groove!)

In keeping with my own tradition, I took a nice long walk on Christmas morning.  I went farther into Mal Pais than I had ever gone on my own.  I followed a trail quite a way in, until it petered out on a hilltop and I had to retrace my steps - which I did without getting lost!

It was nice to see flowers blooming on Christmas day:

Cactus

Madrona Tree - with honey bee

Orchid  (I had seen many plants, but this was the 1st one I saw in bloom)

Bromeliad

Saw a nice big lizard as I headed in

and from a hilltop, my favorite volcano:

For Christmas dinner I treated myself at Campestre Aleman, the German restaurant just down the road.  Sitting out on the back porch I enjoyed  a tasty rabbit dinner with a glass of Malbec as I watched ducks & geese swimming in the trout ponds and a white egret and a great blue heron prowling the shores.

 Music and dancing continued that afternoon; as I was listening to the band a friendly stranger gave me a beer - and then wanted me to have another one -but one in addition to my dinner wine was enough for me. (A LOT of drinking goes on during these festivities!)

Scary Dancer

and another one...

Band members seemed to find this one amusing

The band - from the neighboring pueblo of Uricho.  Trumpets, trombones, clarinets and a tuba seem to be the standard here.

The Men's Gallery

Yesterday the festivities continued in Arocutin when thousands of people came to watch the big bull-riding event at the stone arena behind the pueblo, where 2 hillsides provided clear views down to the action.  As the afternoon went on, more and more people streamed in as hawkers wove among them selling snacks and drinks, rockets shot into the air and the band played on:


The band was pretty good - but from my experience it seems that in Latin America you don't have  to be able to sing on key in order to be the lead singer.

There were some good-looking men in the crowd (I happened to notice):

Handsome cowboy

And another...

Eye - I mean Cotton - Candy.

I had sat on the hillside a long time waiting for things to get started - with the band playing, speeches being made, officials being introduced and the riders making their entries and being anointed with confetti by traditionally-dressed ladies.   There were 8 riders in the line-up.  Here are some of them:

My butt was sore and I was getting  a bit hungry, so I only stayed for three of the riders.  It was pretty exciting, with the bulls bucking wildly and the riders being jerked around without holding on except with their legs!  This guy never did get thrown off:

Ride 'em, Cowboy! 

... staying on - with NO HANDS - to the very end

This guy took a wild ride - but ended up scrambling off onto the fence

 I left and had supper at home, then went back into town that evening because I had heard that there might be dancing at the roofed, open-air basketball court  - but when I got there they were playing basketball, of all things!  The dancing may have started later, but I wasn't up for waiting around to see.

This morning I took a combi to Erongaricuaro and met up with my friend Charles Dews.  We took an easy walk down to Eronga's "tourist area" on a canal that leads to Lake Patzcuaro.  Booths selling handicrafts and food stood empty - we were the only ones there late on  a Saturday morning.  At least I finally got a photo of Charles:

We walked up to the plaza to do some shopping - and there was a line of people stretching half-way around the plaza.  The government was distributing free flat-screen TVs to people who were poor enough to qualify - and there are a lot of poor people in this area.  Charles and I had a bit of discussion about how the people might have been better helped by something other than TVs.

Back at my casita this afternoon I was treated to a procession of colorfully-dressed youths and a marching band passing by on the road right below me:

The band was a bit squawky - but enthusiastic - and it was fun to watch them from the driveway.

There will probably be more festivities in the village - if so, I'll let you know.  Meanwhile, hope you all have a very happy new year!

Exploring the Area

White Pelican in the wetlands in front of the casita

I had trouble finishing that last post, so I published it and will continue here:

I was delighted on Friday to figure out a way to walk to Eronga via back roads, so I don't have to walk very far along the busy paved road that goes around the lake.  It was a nice breezy day and a kite was flying over the village of Uricho:

Saturday I went in to Patzcuaro.  I did some shopping at Don Chucho's great little family-run store that my neighbor Frances told me about.  I was able to buy roasted peanuts, raisins, pecans and little chocolate chips in bulk.  I then took a combi up to the center of town and wandered through the International Beer Festival - but all I sampled was a little Mezcal - my first - tasty and strong!

Around the corner from the festival I had a great vegetarian pizza with a cerveza Negra at Pizza Mandala, then hung around enjoying the ambiance of one of the courtyards of the House of 11 Patios to pass the time before heading to a free concert at the former Jesuit College.  Turns out I needn't have waited.  The Rock Sinfonia - an intriguing idea of playing rock songs on classical instruments - was pretty amateurish and painful to sit through, so I left after only 2 songs.  Ah, well - you can't win them all!

Anyway, I was rather anxious to get going because I had heard varying reports about when the last combi left Patzcuaro for Arocutin;  most people seemed to think the last one left at about 8:00 but they weren't at all sure.  I caught one about 7:30 and was glad to hear from the driver that the last one leaves La Estacion at a little after 9:00 - which makes it easier for me to attend some evening events in Patzcuaro without having to take a taxi home.

When I did get home, I was very happy to execute a successful experiment.  I had been unable to find natural peanut butter (just ground peanuts) in the area.  But I was able to turn the unsalted roasted peanuts I bought this afternoon into peanut butter - in the blender!  Yahoo!  I celebrated by having a slice of bread with peanut butter and chocolate chips - one of my favorite combinations.

Yesterday (Yup - I'm finally getting to the end of this post) I went for a great hike with my neighbor Frances to some petroglyphs in the area.  We met up with her friends Erica and Kiko (Francisco) and walked out the same trails I had hiked last Thursday - I had walked within a couple hundred feet of the petroglyphs but had had no idea that they were there.  There were quite a few; here's a sampling:

Winged Figure

Face - with hair on end!

Tall Figure

Spirals.  There were lots of spirals.

No one seems to be sure just when they date from or what they mean - but they were impressive.

It was fun to hike and chat with Fraances,  Erica and Kiko.  Conversation was mostly in Spanish, much of which I didn't understand, but it was good to practice and listen - I need to get better at it!  At times, though, I did feel the need to tune out and give my brain a rest.

Happy Hikers - Erica, Kiko and Frances

 I hadn't seen any wild mammals here besides squirrels, though I did hear coyotes one afternoon.  So I was surprised and pleased to see a long-tailed weasel run across the trail as we were walking back from the petroglyphs.  It was too fast to get a pic, but here's what they look like (thank you, whoever posted this on the internet):

And finally, here are a few more pics of  lovely birds I've been seeing here. many of them taken right from my terrace:

Black-Headed Grosbeak

Hummingbird

Hoded Oriole

Leading up to the Winter Solstice 2014

First full day of winter from my balcony,  Arocutin, Mexico, December 22, 2014

I'm finally going to get this blog up to date, on this first full day of winter.  As you can see from the above photo, I don't believe I'll be having a white Christmas.

 A constant visitor ever  since I moved into the casita has been this handsome MacGillivray's warbler, which has been repeatedly fluttering up against my bathroom window.  (Actually, he's there right now!)  I think he sees his reflection and is chasing away the "intruder".
























One thing I'm enjoying here is the length of daylight compared to Vermont's.  The sun rose this morning at 7:16 and will set this evening at 6:14.  And now with arrival of the winter solstice yesterday the days will start getting longer.

The morning of 12/17 I took a
leisurely stroll through my village -
and was surprised to come across
Mary riding on a donkey, looking
for a place to spend the night
I heard that the inn was full.  Hope she found a place -  her baby is due any day now.








That afternoon I got to take a walk in Mal Pais with my next door neighbor Frances, who knows the area well.  She had promised to take a young couple on a hike and invited me to join them.  Frances & I met Sofia & Julian at the foot of the driveway and walked up to the wilderness area, taking a trail I hadn't yet explored.  We made our way in to a natural rock tower on a hill, which Julian proceeded to climb:

Julian above, Sofia below.

The rest of us chose to stay below - the view was quite good enough from there, thank you very much!  

We continued on a loop that brought us back to the trail I had gone in on my first time.  Now if only I can remember my way next time..............

I've already posted pics of the inside of my casita and the views from the balcony.  Finally, here are a  couple pics of the outside:

Side view of the casita, with stairs that go up to the workshop under the upper terrace.

My outdoor dining area

 The other day as I was eating lunch here, this big ol' bug (about 2 inches long) was trying to get under the door and into the house:

It's a Jerusalem Cricket and pretty harmless - unless you try to pick it up, in which case it can give you a painful bite.

And here's the main house - the casita is down below on the right:

The afternoon of the 18th I took a 4-hour walk up the valley southwest of the nearby village of San Francisco Uricho - along a dirt road that became a cow path. When that petered out I bushwhacked to the railroad tracks I knew passed in front of the mountain to the west.  I followed them to a another dirt road that looped back around to the 1st one. I didn't get lost!

A nice example of the many live oaks around this area

Reakirt's Blue Butterfly

Mexican Sister butterfly

The trail wound past fields and pastures

Couple heading home with their burro.

View of one of the 1460 volcanoes - from the railroad tracks

Manzanilla Tree - a hawthorn, with little edible apple-like  fruits

    

Couple bringing home their Christmas tree