Day 5 - Dia de Los Muertos!

[vampyresheep]

Thursday

We had another tour booked, this time with Fundacion En Via, a charity who provide loans and training to help indigenous women set up businesses.  We meet with our small tour group at the beautiful Oaxaca Cultural Institute and set off back down the route towards Hierve El Agua to a small hillside village called San Miguel del Valle.

The Oaxaca Cultural Institute and another beautiful altar



En route, the EnVia representative gave us an introduction to the village, EnVia's business model, what we were to experience on the tour and etiquette. She was a tad bossy however, I imagined she used to be a school teacher if the way she shouted at Rob to "speak up" when we all had to introduce ourselves was anything to go by! She was accompanied by a Mexican translator, a lovely lady originally from Mexico City who would translate the presentations given by the ladies we were to meet that day and help us to ask any questions.






San Miguel del Valle was a Zapotec community, specialising in weaving and all the women dressed in their traditional clothing, which consisted of beautifully embroidered aprons over brightly colored dresses.

Our first stop was to the village cemetery where people were doing final preparations for Dia de Los Muertos. Unlike the cemeteries the night before, here it started at noon on November 1st and all graveside vigils took place in the day time. We were introduced to our host for the day who took us around the cemetery, explaining how they celebrated here and what they used to decorate the graves. It was a beautiful place and lovely to see all the colours in daylight.

We were then taken to her house to see her family altar, where we left donations, as is traditional for guests to do, then waited for lunch to be prepared. At noon fireworks started to go off around the village to welcome their loved ones back from their other world and we were invited to go onto their roof to witness this. Such an incredible moving experience and we felt honoured to be invited to share such a special time with this family.

I have a video on YouTube too, which I can't seem to embed here so you can get to it via this link

Lunch was simple but wonderful. Chicken cooked in a rich flavour-full broth, served with raw cabbage that we'd add to the broth for texture.  We were then given a demonstration of rug weaving and a chance to buy. This was slightly awkward, as we'd been specifically told not to haggle (which was fair enough) but nothing was priced and it felt embarrassing to ask in front of everyone else without any idea of affordability. Felt bad that nobody bought anything, after her hospitality, but there was no expectation to do so (and she was getting paid to provide us with lunch!)

After lunch we were taken to visit an embroiderer, to see her studio and a demonstration of her work, which was slightly distracted by the cutest attention seeking puppy! She had a small shopfront to display her embroidered aprons and bags (and in this case, with prices!) and I bought a gorgeous colourful embroidered bag - so well made, I'll get a lot of use out of it.

Our final stop was for a chocolate making demonstration. We were warmly greeted by a charming elderly lady, who showed us how chocolate is ground and prepared into blocks for drinking chocolate. Then we're were let into her dining area for a mug of hot chocolate and pan de muerto (Bread of the Dead - a slightly sweet, orangy bread roll, with a face embedded into the surface). Our host here was quite a character and we were amused when she got out her mobile to film us all for someone she was chatting to on the phone, then insisted on a selfie with us all together, saying that she would love to visit us all in our respective cities one day. :-)




her beautiful altar, dedicated to her husband who passed away a couple of years previously.

We were taken back to town and I had a quick swim in the hotel pool to freshen up before going out for the evening.

(Pic just because I've not posted enough skull photos! Spotted on the way back to our hotel)
We popped to the hairdresser next door to get our faces painted, which wasn't cheap but they did a fantastic job, then went out in search of comparsas.


Tonight was the main night for partying and there was one parade after another, many with giant mannequins that set fireworks off into the crowd! Just a crazy, fun atmosphere. It really helped that we were dressed up for it too, as people tended to join in at the end of the parades and we were all taking photos of each other, Mexican Nationals and tourists alike. We followed one comparsa down to the Zocalo, when it unfortunately started to rain, However that didn't stop anyone and we spent some time watching the dancers in front of the cathedral.











trying to chase the parade down the street to get closer to the fireworks, this was the best I got!






































A video of one of the many Comparsa's is on my YouTube channel

The downside of being in Oaxaca at such a busy time of year is that it's impossible to get into any decent restaurants without booking. After a few failed attempts we ended up in a chain restaurant called Tito's, which was fine, but no frills; then finished our evening with a cocktail in a bar on the way back to our hotel.

The full gallery for San Miguel de Valle is here
The full gallery for the nighttime parades back in Oaxaca are here