Sunday, October 29, 2006

Month two (and a half):Cuetzalan

Ok, so I’m getting way behind on these updates and time keeps on going here and more things keep happening. In the next few posts, I’m going to try to do a quick summary of fun things since the trip to Veracruz:

1) We visited Cuetzalan, a small, almost entirely indigenous, town in the mountains here in the state of Puebla. It was beautiful and I think ranks as my favorite excursion yet! Guides of about our age who work in ecotourism in Cuetzalan guided us around all weekend. We visited an indigenous women’s cooperative where they make clothes, table clothes, sheets, and other cloth goods with traditional embroidery patterns, and weave beautiful fabric, clothes and scarves with the traditional waist looms. They also have a restaurant where they serve only indigenous dishes. We had some fabulous handmade tortillas and salsa there and some tasty maracuya water (a fruit, perhaps passion fruit, juice).

The guides also took us on a hike to a lovely waterfall. On the way there they taught us about some medicinal plants that grow there and about the crops, corn, beans, and squash, that the people grow.

We visited a small town nearby for their festival for their patron saint. The most exciting part of that was the “burning of the castle” which was basically an unregulated fireworks show. They built this huge structure out of thick wire, or thin wood, or something that was supposed to look like a castle tower. It was all covered in these wheels. They lit a fuse and these firecracker things lit up the wheels one by one and made them spin around and around, being propelled by the burning fire. The exciting part came when they spun too fast and the wheel detached from the structure and fell to the ground, where it continued to spin rather out of control, or when one of the burning firecrackers got loose and shot through the crowd of bystanders. There’s nothing like a little bit of danger for you life to spice up a fireworks show.

The next day we got to see the voladores (the flyers). The voladores are the people that spin upside down around a tall, tall pole in an old indigenous religious ritual. It was amazing. First they dance around the bottom of the pole. Then five men climb up the pole, the one I saw was almost as tall as the church steeple, to a square platform. One of them stands on top of the pole and dances while another plays the flute and a drum. The one dancing asks the gods for their blessing and protection of the voladores. When they all feel like it’s time, the dancer sits down on top of the pole and the other four, who are sitting on the platform and who have tied ropes around their waists, start the platform spinning. They lower themselves off the platform and they begin to “fly” upside down around the pole as their ropes unwind from the top of the pole to the ground. The one with the flute and drums continues playing upside down, flying. The one who was dancing on top of the pole climbs down one of the ropes of the voladores, pausing every once in a while to hang upside down or do other tricks. The go around 13 times, which represents the 13 months of their old calendar, before they arrive on the ground. It was really cool!!


1.) A woman at the cooperative demonstrating the weaving process.


2.) The waterfall and one of our guides taking a picture of it.


3.) The ascent, returning from the waterfall.


4.) The voladores asking the gods for their blessing on top of the pole.


5.) The pole is almost as high as the church steeple!

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