I promise I will write a post about my time in California, but next week is Mexican Independence Day, starting the night of September 15th, so I will write a short post about returning to Cofradía, then tackle Sacramento and San Francisco before the holiday begins.
On September 5th, I boarded an AeroMexico flight from Sacramento Airport at 11:15pm and arrived in Guadalajara at 5:15am on the 6th. One bus ride and two taxi rides later, I was back in Cofradía de Suchitlan before 10am.
It was nice to be back, and there were things I had forgotten while I was gone that jumped back into my consciousness – the roosters crowing and the local bus blowing its horn before arriving at each bus stop, to let the potential passengers know that it was approaching. However the chicken who was sleeping on top of her babies in the street in front of my house was gone. The chicks must have grown quite a bit in the two months that I was away and they have probably all moved to a spot that was safer and more spacious for all concerned.
Everything was fresh, green and beautiful; previously dry stream beds now have flowing water, and at least one of my bat friends is back. Tons of butterflies are visiting our blooming hibiscus flowers, and it is not quite the end of the rainy season, as evidenced by a tremendous thunderstorm yesterday – but fortunately for me, I was taking care of business in Colima, where it only started to rain around7:30pm. When I got back here around 8pm, there was no electricity anywhere in the village, but it returned in a half hour. Come to find out, they had been without electricity for 4 hours, and had monstrous thunderstorms, also for many hours.
Our volcano of fire continues to be active, with two streams of lava flowing down its sides two days ago. I am including a photo of that, but since it was daylight, it just appears as two white lines on the sides.
Went back to Colima this afternoon to conclude some banking business, and had lunch at Starbuck’s. It would appear that either some of our odd behavior is rubbing off on the people of Mexico, or else companies which have stores in other countries are bringing their marketing to those countries. It isn’t even the first day of Autumn, and Starbuck’s is pushing pumpkin spice!!! I also saw a box labeled “pan de muerte” and bought it, expecting to see bread shaped like a skull, but it was only a soft square bread with two strips of chocolate bread crossing each other across the top of the it. Think I’ll save it for Sunday breakfast to have with my coffee. Yummmmm!
Also during my travels today, I noted more Mexican flags flying than usual. In front of the Soriana shopping center, someone had set up a display with flags, dresses, dolls and necklaces like you see for 4th of July, but red, white and green, instead of red, white and blue. Finally, I remembered Independence Day – beginning the night of the 15th.
Most people in the United States think that May 5th (Cinco de Mayo) is Mexican Independence Day, but it isn’t. Cinco de Mayo is the day the greatly outnumbered Mexicans won a battle against Napoleon’s troops.
On my walk this morning, I mentioned to my neighbor how everyone in the U.S. thinks it is Independence Day, but that it is only celebrated in Puebla, where the battle took place, and she gave me a bit more information, from the view of the Mexican people, and this is what she told me:
Mexico is and was a Catholic country, but Benito Juarez – the hero of this battle – created a separation of church and state. The pope was not happy about this, and created pressure to deter the entire population of Mexico from celebrating, and so it has been localized to Puebla.
I am sure that different people see the events differently, so all my dear readers, you can research and decide for yourselves which stories are most accurate, and I will merely report what I hear and state my sources.
So for now I will say “good night” and update my California adventures over the weekend….. ¡Hasta luego!
mex-pat.org 