Day of the Dead 2022
Well, we’re back again (maybe), with a Video-Blog instead of long text articles for now.
With the pandemic “over” (if you can call it that!), we returned to the Day of the Dead Capital of the World – Lake Pátzcuaro in the state of Michoacán.
Of course, in Mexico, everyone attends to their ancestors’ graves on November 1, Dia De Los Muertos. What makes Pátzcuaro the Day of the Dead Capital is a small village on the northeast side of the lake, called Tzintzuntzan.
Here, they have a strong tradition of holding an all-night, candle-lit vigil by the graves. It attracts huge crowds of spectators (including us) as well as relatives. Of course, all those people attract hundreds of street vendors that set up everywhere. As a result, the locals close the main streets and set up entertainment in the town square.
Please enjoy our view of the event (complete with our costumes and painted faces) in the video below – click to play!
Pandemic Pandemonium
By the time we left Mexico in February of 2020, we already had news of the novel coronavirus in China. We mused aloud whether this might be the pandemic for which the world was statistically overdue. Still, we were not prepared for the pandemonium that followed.
We spent our 2020 hiding in housesits, hardly daring to venture from the safety of isolation.
First, we were in a small village north of Saint Louis, Missouri. While St Louis has so many fantastic sights and activities, we can only report our occasional shopping trip to the fantastic Asian store that had everything we could want. The one huge plus for where we were? The Amish stores 20 minutes away that had cheeses, honey and so many other goodies that were very reasonably priced.
Our second housesit was in a small suburb north of Phoenix, Arizona. The area’s claim to fame was a 1974 Gordon Lightfoot song: “Carefree Highway”. Carefree is an adorable little town that we couldn’t enjoy because nothing was open.
In between, we managed a visit to (mostly) Navajo lands that were safely empty.
After our last housesit, rather than risk an RV park crowded with conspiracy-believing, non-mask-wearing A-mur-i-cuns, we headed back to Mexico. We’re in a very uncrowded, RV park on top of mountain overlooking the Guadalajara valley. Our plan is to stay in Mexico until international travel is safe again.
Food! Food! Food!
We attended the 3rd annual Encuentro Oaxaca, a food festival that introduces everyone to the variety of indigenous dishes in the state of Oaxaca, Mexico. Play the video for a “taste”.
Independence Day Mexico Style
September 15 is Independence Day in Mexico. It’s celebrated with lots of fireworks and parties. Our RV park in Oaxaca had drinks, dinner and a mariachi band!