Vagabond and Beyond: Day of the Dead (Dia de los Muertos)

Before we headed back to one of our favourite places in Mexico, San Cristobal de las Casas, we had a Halloween party in Puerto Escondido that took place in one of the beach bars. Everyone made a serious effort in getting dressed up and some of them even organised a piñata to get the night rolling at the hostel. The day before the party, we went costume hunting and Sarah picked up the brilliant and equally scary costume of Chucky from the ‘Child’s Play’ films that have haunted many of us in our childhood and now many more in Escondido, especially one particular Aussie lad who was terrified whenever Sarah entered a room wearing the costume (it didn’t help that Sarah (Chucky) pointed at him with a knife anytime she saw him). There must have been over 20 of us (dressed as ghouls, dead prom queens, butchers, Chucky) walking through the village that night on the way to the beach party. That must have been a strange sight to the local Niño’s. Some pictures of Sarah’s evil Chucky below. The bus to San Cristobal wasn’t too bad the next day as we had most of the day to relax at the pool before yet another night journey through the crazy mountainous roads. Highlight of the day was a dead tarantula at the pool, picture in last blog post (well someone from Oz told me it was a tarantula but who am I to argue when our largest and most dangerous arachnid at home is a “Daddy Long Legs”!).

This was going to be our second time in San Cristobal. We decided to cross the border here as it’s an easier border crossing than some of the southern towns, and because San Cristobal is one of the best places to be when celebrating Dia de los Muertos.

Dia de los Muertos occurs over a few days depending on the town but in the main it begins on the night of the 31^st and continues to the day of the 3^rd November. It’s like the blessing of the graves at home, in that families visit the graves of relatives for the day except that is where the similarities mostly end as Dia de los Muertos is a truly unique experience. On the 1^st we visited the main municipal graveyard in San Cristobal and outside you could tell there was a fiesta like atmosphere as there was food and drink stalls set up along a strip outside the graveyard (similar kind of thing that you would find at a festival!) along with fireworks. Once you enter the graveyard you can see the scale of the differences between here and home. Half the graves are crypts, a couple as big as a small church and a lot of them like a large room where there is a shrine to the deceased. On Dia de los Muertos relatives leave offerings that the deceased enjoyed when alive, like their favourite foods and drink (many favourite beers), music etc. At some of the graves there were a large number of relatives partying away and drinking the deceased’s favourite beer and eating their favourite foods while they request local Mariachis to play their favourite music. They stay there all day or in some cases all night and tell stories about the deceased. It’s a new take on the blessing of the graves for us and it seems to be a much better way to celebrate the life of someone. Understandably not all of the relatives appear to be in a celebratory mood and we believe this was probably down to the fact that it was a recent or a young death. Later that night we met a couple who had been travelling up from South America and they had worked on farms in Colombia and Costa Rica, sounded amazing so we got the farm names and are now giving some serious thought into working on them when we reach these countries.

Next day we went with a few people from our hostel to San Juan Chamula. I mentioned this town in an earlier blog, it was the town that worshipped Coca Cola and sacrificed chickens inside their local church. Again, like before this town was unique in how they practice their religious ceremonies. We arrived about 10 am and already there were plenty of people falling over drunk (celebrating their grandfather’s favourite Mezcal too much maybe). The graveyard was different from San Cristobal’s in that all the graves were very simple, as each grave had only a cross, what appeared to be a fresh mound of soil, and were recently decorated with flowers and offerings. The dress of the locals and many other things were just mad, it’s hard to explain…. There are some pictures below that might be able to portray in a small way what the day was like in this village. Back in San Cristobal there were a lot of people dressed with painted faces or full costume and back at the hostel roof terrace it was the same with everyone face panting for the antics ahead that night. This was to be our last night in Mexico and the next day we were catching a shuttle bus to Xela (pronounced Shay La), Guatemala. Our leaving day caught up on us so quick we really didn’t get to appreciate our final few days in Mexico but it’s like taking off a bandage or saying a long goodbye, best to do it quick. We both loved Mexico, the place and the people, and we can both honestly say that we will be back and that we would recommend it to anyone (probably not Cancun or the bus ride from Oaxaca to Puerto Escondido but the rest was muy bien). Next on the itinerary, five weeks of one to one Spanish classes while staying with a familia for a homestay in the beautiful town of San Pedro La Laguna, a small village on Lake Atitlan which is surrounded by picturesque volcanoes that we hope to climb on the weekends : )

Adios MEXICO!!! Hasta Luego!