In honor of the Mother Goddess Virgin de Guadalupe, so beloved by Mexican Catholics, I'm presenting my painting Madonna (see also Paintings Gallery 2). This is an image of comfort to me. At times when I feel despair (not much of that anymore...), I imagine a great mama figure like this one cradling me in her arms. She is the internalized mama, the inner being who always (no matter what we do, say, or be) loves us. Unconditionally.
Here's Part Two of the Trip to the Yucatan:
We are now in Campeche, a small colonial seaside city surrounded by walls (the old city is) that were built to keep pirates out. We're staying at the Pirates Hostel and last night, we were the only ones here. YES! So nice to have some quiet after the big bustling city of Merida. The streets here are lovely -- made of stone and lined with stucco houses painted in bright colors -- most of them hundreds of years old. We had fresh fish for dinner and a local Yucatan specialty called panuche (fried tortillas with chicken, lettuce, tomato, avocado, pickled onions) -- both yummy.
Last night we had a fabulous time in the principal plaza. It's a beautiful square with ornate iron gates and benches, big plant pots filled with flowers, a central circular bar/restaurant, shoe shiners all around. Saturday and Sundays the parque comes alive with music and vendors. When we arrived to the plaza, a procession was just entering the huge old cathedral with a beautiful young woman in a royal blue princess dress (you know the kind that stick out with tons of taffeta -- and this dress also had a layer of beautiful locally sewn embroidery on it). The priest in gold was waving holy water on her (Chris fills me in on all the Catholic ceremonies, which is very helpful in this Catholic country!) At first i thought it was a wedding (we caught a marvelous wedding in Vallodolid last week, watched folks throwing rice on the bride and groom while a live mariachi band played), but it turned out to be a confirmation ceremony. At the same time, in front of the cathedral was a big bingo game going on played mostly by middle age and older women. Vendors were all around selling drinks of many varieties -- i tried a new one (i like to try out new stuff when i travel!) -- it had ice and coconut milk and strawberry syrup and chili powder i think -- i have to say after one sip, i had to throw it out. The Mexicans love to mix sugar and chili but i'm not used to it! And lots of vendors selling antojitos -- which are yummy Mexican "snacks" in many varieties. plus ice cream and pastries and more.
On the other side of the parque (and it's quite small) was a young heavy metal band! Who would believe it in this small town in the state of Campeche! Chris was thrilled because they were playing all covers from 80s metal bands that he listened to and played in a band himself (ie. Iron Maiden, Judas Priest, etc.). They were really good too. What a marvelous juxtaposition -- Catholic ceremony on one side, heavy metal band on the other (wailing "breaking the law!!!"). It was awesome. And everybody was enjoying these guys. Whole families sitting appreciatively on rickety plastic chairs (there's music and folklorica in the parque every Saturday and Sunday) with grandma and little kids and young couples holding hands. And Campeche's couple of punk teenagers. In the middle of the set, Chris said, oh i hope they play some Judas Priest and the very next song they played was Chris's favorite one of theirs! Chris went up to the band after the concert and shook their hands and they loved hearing that he'd actually seen Motley Crue, Iron Maiden, and Judas Priest live! They were from Mexico City and they said it was very unusual that they were invited to Campeche (generally they have more traditional romantic kind of music). Chris told them they should go international and they told him they're going to Peru soon and they're really excited about it.
We went to the Mercado (market) this morning and had a lot of fun buying fruit and seeing all the vendors outside and inside. Enormous hanging pig heads, lots of whole fish and even small shark. Chicken hung by their necks. Interesting cactus fruits of many varieties. Delicious sticky homemade candies. Cheap clothes and much more. I love markets and there are so many similarities between the markets i've seen in Guatemala, Laos, Israel, and Mexico. The smells in particular! And the hawking. Merida was a wonderful art and cultural center. We were there at a great time too. For the month of January, they had their second (annual?) art and cultural festival with music, dance, poetry, traditional events, etc. mostly free in the parks and local theaters. We saw two traditional Yucatan singers -- one an older guy who was like Tony Orlando, very romantic, flirting with all the older women. Then a wonderful woman singer and backup string band playing traditional sorta torch songs. This was in a lovely local park. We also saw a fantastic contemporary Yucatan dance company -- six young dancers (3 gals, 3 guys) doing very cutting edge pieces. The first one had all of them in white skirts (which i thought was pretty out there for the patriarchal culture here!) and had a lot of bouncing balls throughout. I loved it!
We also saw wonderful sculpture and art. There's a beautiful wide boulevard with trees and ornate old mansions called Paseo de Montejo and lining it are about 40 or 50 pretty large sculptures by Mexican and USA artists in stone, wood, plaster, paper, plastic, bronze, etc. Some fantastic pieces. And the local contemporary art museum had some fine art in it. We actually caught an opening to a new exhibit. The opening was so formal compared to US ones. All the important people associated with the museum made little speeches as well as all the artists, lots of clapping and a red ribbon held across the stairwell by two young women (during all the speeches). Then we all got to follow the dignitaries and artists up to the gallery spaces. And we weren't allowed to go ahead of them into a new space! Saw a neat artist who is painting on wood. We also had fun going into furniture stores that have handcarved furniture -- and got some new ideas and inspiration for our work.
We spent another day going to more Mayan ruins including the well-known Uxmal (pronounced oosh-mal). Got to climb pyramids and see a neat double-headed jaguar sculpture, beautiful glyphs and carved decorations. And a lot of depictions of the rain god Chak who had a long nose. He was important to the people because these cities were in very dry regions. They also had complex sophisticated cisterns and gullies to save and store all the water they could get (reminded me a little of Masada in Israel). At Uxmal, we saw some beautiful birds too -- two green parrots, two largish black and white birds with crests, yellow bellied ones and more. Plus lots of small and big iguanas -- they are so fun to watch -- often they are very still and look like miniature dinosaurs. And when they move, they do so in an 'S' motion -- very quickly and into holes. We also saw bats hanging from the inside of dark rooms in the ancient palaces and buildings. We've been learning quite a bit about the Maya and seeing their beautiful painted ceramics, jewel inlaid (mostly jadeite and onyx) masks, and sculptures at the sites and in museums.
Tomorrow we'll go to another Mayan site called Edzna and then on to Palenque!
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