Thursday, December 23, 2010

Cemote, posada and bikes

Last night we were walking past the library when two women invited us to a posada, a traditional Christmas performance. We paid our 10 pesos (about a dollar) and spent a half hour or so sitting in a large auditorium while people trickled in. The sound guy was playing recordings of loud hip-hop. At one point Kate turned to me and laughed, "That´s a Lady Ga-Ga song!¨We were very amused but veryone else took it in stride as whey waited for the posada. We decided to take a break and return a little later. People were very insistant that we come back!

We came back about forty minutes later. The posada was going strong. Two women in devil constumes stomped around the stage talking loudly about some complaint while three women
in formal dress watched them. Finally an angel appeared and scolded the devils, while a rather sweet and jangling version of the old Beatles´song ¨Nothing´s gonna change my world¨played.
The devils ran off screaming. Neither of us was sure of what had happened, our Spanish isn´t strongbut it really was well performed.Really!

Other performances included dancing reindeer, men and women dressed as Santa and the crowning of a woman as queen of the event. The audience seemed to understand it all, again, we didn´t but it was warm hearted and fun. As we left, people thanked us for coming.

Today we biked to a cenote outside of town. It was an enclosed one, with one large hole in the ceiling with sunlight streaming in and shining on the water. The water was turqoise and rock walls were deep brown. Roots of trees came through the ceiling, reaching for water. Stalactites surrounded them - one large group resembled a Portugese Man of War jellyfish. Black fish swam everywhere, and bats darted along the roof, squeaking. The water was warm and very comfortable, I don´t know how any future swim will compare to this!

After that, we biked back to Valledolid the long way, passing through Mayan villages. One of them was about 6 kilometers off the main road. Houses here were concrete, like you see in many parts of Mexico. Others were made of sticks, with thatched rooves. People are very clever at surviving and dealing with the resources they have. We saw kids in one village flying kites made from plastic bags. Now that is clever!

It´s almost dinner time, more posts will be coming your way.

1 comment:

rhonda said...

Hello again, the picture is worth more than a thousand words, and the descriptions in your blog are great! I have walked a posada - at John Muir adobe, but it was very different. Your experience sounds good for a change of the usual and authentic. Very enjoyable - I love what you notice and appreciate! This makes it so much fun to read and it feels like something I would also take note of. I love your experiences with the people and how you really see the nature around you! Your interactions with the people are heart-warming and I sense that they are very happy to share their world with you two/too! To me that is what travel is really about! I can't wait to read more! Thank you for sharing!

Feliz Navidad...enjoy and please share about that too! R