November Bank Holiday Weekend

This last weekend was a bank holiday and, unlike Independence Day this time we all had Monday off. This meant that after a quick class in the South of the city on Saturday morning, I was picked up and taken (by friends, not kidnappers) to Cuernavaca, just south of Mexico City and known as the 'land of eternal spring'. Although not 'land of eternal British spring' as each day the sun was strong and the nights were warm.

We stayed in a campsite by the River (shown in photos above) which we actually swam across a few times. The campsite itself had warm springs, which it used for water and to supply the pools we spent many hours sunbathing around (and rope-swinging into).

In the evenings we had BBQs and made bonfires to sit around. Unfortunately Pat and I had to sleep in the "palace" which we had bought for 200 pesos from the supermarket ealier that day:

In spite of all his enthusiasm for such a 'classic' tent it turned out Pat had no idea how to put it up (happily I have no issue with being bossy and so she was up in no time) and seemed surprised that the hard ground can be so "unforgiving". .
Either way, it was great to have a break from the city and enjoy the sunshine on my first trip outside of Mexico City and it has given me a new found appreciation of my matress in Mineria.

Last Week (of the 3rd November)

I don't know if anyone heard about this over in the UK but on the 4th November there was a jet plane crash in Polanco which killed 13 people including Maurino (an important government minister and potential Mexican president) amongst other ministers. What is most suspicious is that those on the jet were most invloved in the action against the drug cartels who are unforunately powerful in Mexico.
It was a very strange experience as I was teaching a class about Guy Fawkes Day at the time and as my students were asking me why we celebrate treason which never actually happened they started recieving calls about the crash (many people work in Polanco, including myself and my students).
The crash is still under investigation (by British experts none the less) so no one knows for sure how or why it happened.
If you are interested this is the info the bbc had; http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7709877.stm

You may have noticed that the accident occured on 4th November and so in Mexico Obama only made the 2nd page of all the broadsheet newspapers. I went to the "English" (ahem) pub to watch the results. The place was full of excited Americans all supporting Obama and taking another shot of tequilla for each state that went blue. It was clearly the Gringo place to be as it was even reported in the expat newspaper here (http://www.thenews.com.mx/home/imprime_home.asp?cve_edicion_cont=296&cve_home=590) and one of my good friends (American wife of my Mexican friend Luis) was interviewed for the national news.

Finally, after such an eventful week, it was nice to have a reasonably relaxed weekend. On the Saturday I went to Zoe's new flat for dinner and an Ugly Betty binge (she has been downloading the new series with her fancy high speed internet... grr...) and then for drinks al depa de Luis y Jenne.
On Sunday we walked to the Museo Tamayo, a modern art gallery here. I really enjoyed the well chosen exhibitions which focused on the Mexican/North American history and politics.

Halloween & Dia de los Muertos

Having never had much interest in Halloween nor having really heard of Dia de los Muertos, the weekend of the 31st was certainly different for me.

Working at a school with a lot of American teachers (or gringos, as the Mexicans unkindly call them - based on the American Forces green uniform ... "green go") there was obviously a halloween party organised on the Friday. It was a lot of fun and, as you might imagine there was a lot of 'in school' gossiping and drama - it seems that teaching in a school is not much different to going to school (obviously I am happy to share the gory details via msn ;) )

Sunday 2nd November is the main celebration of the lives of the dead, a trdditional Mexican Festival where it is believed the souls of the dead are able to visit most easily. Families usually make offerings to their dead in their homes. These usually incude food and drink which that person particularly liked during their lifetime. There are different days to celebrate the lives of those who died young and the disabled and I imagine these are quite sad, yet Dia de los Muertos was very cheerful.
The festival was begun by the Aztecs and later influenced by the Catholics who moved the date from August to All Souls Day when their attempts to ban such a sacilegious festival failed.

While the festival is most keenly celebrated in the more indigenous parts of Mexico, there was still no lack of enthusiasm in D.F. We went to the historical centre (the Zocalo, above) to watch tradditonal dances (see below) and view the many public offerings made in the plaza.Below is a photo of one of the many offerings. The orange flowers are tradditional for this festival as are the chocolate skulls.