Dia de Los Muertos in SMA
—Blogpost written by Bob
In this blogpost, we continue our 6-month winter excursion in San Miguel de Allende (SMA). We arrived by car on October 15, traveling from near Annapolis, Maryland where we live on our sailboat. This has been quite a change in our life style! This weekend was the Dia de Los Muertos celebration.
Sunday, October 31
The outside temperature was expected to be as low as 43 degrees tonight (actually early tomorrow morning). The afternoon high temperature was consistently 76 to 78 degrees over the past week and was expected to be the same for next week.
Today, we decided to go the the Bazaar of Alternative Design, featuring creative and artistic items. From shoes to backpacks and from illustrations to paintings, everything was made in Mexico.
Whenever I attend artistic events like this I get inspired to take better photographs. So, I carried my favorite lens on my camera--my 85mm f1.4D. This required that I see in 85mm, rather than 50mm which represents close to normal vision.
----------
Since the event was over a mile away, we decided to take a taxi there and back and save our energy for walking around the exhibits.
----------
During our travels today we realized that they already moved their clocks back by 1 hour here in San Miguel. (This doesn't occur until next Saturday night in the U.S.)
There was between two and three dozen exhibitors in the long white tent. Maggie looked at some beautiful hand-made (silver) jewelry and I found very neat hand-made pair of shoes (but they didn't have my size)--the exhibitor will be back in 2 weeks though. We purchased a creative face mask which has a painted cat's face on it. Maggie bought a pair of hand-made slippers. For the most part, things were inexpensive by our standards.
The Alternative Design Bazaar was held under a long white tent. |
One of the most colorful exhibits had hand-woven rugs and runners- -they were beautiful! |
Beautiful hand-made shoes- -I want a pair! They cost about $40 USD. (Sorry for this image being out of focus.) |
El Centro was very busy today due the upcoming holiday weekend. (We met a couple from Mexico City spending the long weekend in San Miguel de Allende.) We spent a lot of time walking around El Centro before returning to our apartment.
It seems like almost everyone was taking cell phone pictures. |
A beggar on the sidewalk in San Miguel de Allende. (This scene was not typical of San Miguel de Allende.) |
A man sits in a large doorway in San Miguel de Allende. |
When we arrived back on our street many of the murals were being re-made. |
Monday, November 1 (Dia de Los Muertos)
Today was Maggie's first day of Conversational Spanish class. She left our apartment early, all dressed up in her teacher clothes. We had arranged to meet each other for lunch at the Santa Ana Cafe within the Biblioteca (Public Library).
----------
Yesterday, a lot of face painting was ongoing in preparation for Dia de Los Muertos.
A young girl get her face painted along a long line of others in the street. |
It seems like everyone was into getting their faces painted. |
Marigolds (which symbolize death) and incense are used to lure the souls of the dead back for a visit. They are used in headbands and crowns, on doorsteps, and in decorations around restaurants and businesses.
----------
An empty seat in the sunshine at Santa Ana Cafe. |
A flutist entertains diners at Santa Ana Cafe. |
Tuesday, November 2
When we returned from the City Market our neighborhood makeover was still underway. |
One of the most unusual things we bought at the market was yellow watermelon. It tasted slightly sweeter than red watermelon. |
No comments:
Post a Comment