Day 4 continued - evening cemetery visits

[vampyresheep]

Wednesday Evening
We had booked a cemetery tour for that evening, so after our bus returned us to the Zocalo, we had a bit of a mad dash back to our hotel, on a very hot humid day, to freshen up and dress into appropriate clothing for walking round a cemetery at night.  On the way back we bumped into some of the American tour group from our hotel, all with faces painted for Dia de Los Muertos, telling us that the hairdressers next door did it. Maybe not appropriate for us that night but I had it in mind for the next evening!

Our evening tour was booked with the Oaxaca Lending Library, taking around 100 of us, in two coaches to Xococotlan and Aztompa cemeteries.  We got to Xococotlan quite early, so the full party atmosphere that this cemetery is known for wasn’t quite underway, but it was still bizarre to see all the festive lighting and market stalls outside - it reminded me of heading towards the Agra at WGT!

We were given a couple of hours to wander around and it was a fantastic sight. So many gravestones decorated, covered in flowers and ornamentation, with a lot of halloween imagery creeping in. As it was early, many families were still decorating their graves but some had set up camp for the evening, with picnics, cooking facilities, drinks and in some cases musical performers hired to sing to the graves. Some people on our tour apparently were invited for a drink with one or two graveside revellers, but I felt a bit awkward and my Spanish too limited, to initiate conversation with any of the locals other than greeting them and politely smiling.















although Dia de los Muertos is NOT Halloween, we were told that Mexicans have always been adept at integrating other cultures into their traditions and halloween motifs cropped up all over the place.



graves were decorated with ornaments, flowers (traditionally the cempasuchil, Mexican Marigold which was seen everywhere at this time of year) and some ornately decorated with sand-art

We made our way back to the buses and on to Aztompa, the next stop,  This was a very different affair, a small overgrown and crowded cemetery on the hillside; and although there was a small funfair and stalls outside, inside it was more sombre and spiritual.  Not so many halloween decorations here but most graves instead were covered in marigolds (cempasuchil) and massive candles, creating an ethereal glow across the site. It was a magical and moving experience, although I did start to feel uncomfortable about the crowds, how it was so difficult to move around and that some people were less than respectable, so we headed out early having seen all we needed to see.  An absolutely incredible and memorable time.

we were dropped back into town and walked back to our hotel, stopping at the taco stand near our hotel - a million times better than our taco experience of the day before, no wonder there was always a crowd milling around it!  Back at out hotel we saw that they'd set up a beautiful altar in the lobby.





the full gallery for Xoxocotlan Cemetery is here
the full gallery for Aztompa is here
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